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47 Cal. 144

Cohn v. Kember

California Supreme Court

Decided July 1, 1873

California Supreme Court · decided 1873-07-01

The action, which was to recover upon a promissory note, was commenced January 27th, 1873, and on the same day the plaintiff filed an affidavit, in which he stated that the defendant resided in Paradise Yalley, in the State of Nevada. On the 12th of February following, he moved the appointment of an attorney to represent the defendant. The motion was granted; an attorney was appointed, the case was tried the same day, and judgment was rendered for the plaintiff.

Relies on Forbes v. Hyde

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1873-07-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently January 1957

9 state decisions

30187318801890190019101920193019401950decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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By the Court:

¶1The order appointing an attorney to appear for Kember was based only upon an affidavit sworn some fifteen days before the application for the order was made.

¶2In Forbes v. Hyde, 31 Cal. 351, we said that the affidavit to obtain an order of publication of the summons against an absent defendant “should be prepared with reference to the condition of things as they exist at the time when the order of publication is applied for.” In that case it was held that the order was not well supported by an affidavit made some four months before it was applied for.

¶3We think that a delay of fifteen days between the making of the affidavit and the application for the order cannot be permitted. In proceeding against an absent defendant upon mere constructive service the conditions of the statute must be strictly pursued, or the judgment cannot be supported upon appeal taken.

¶4This view renders it unnecessary to consider whether a judgment rendered upon mere appointment by the Court of an attorney for the defendant, and without service of process actual or constructive, could be upheld under any circumstances.

¶5Judgment reversed and cause remanded.

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