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51 Cal. 277

Ladd v. Tully

California Supreme Court

Decided July 1, 1876

California Supreme Court · decided 1876-07-01

The facts out of which this action arose are stated in the case of Meyer v. Tully (46 Cal. 70).

Relies on Breeze v. Doyle · Polhemus v. Carpenter

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1876-07-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 15 later decisions — most recently May 1923

15 state decisions

50187618801890190019101920decided

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, Crockett, J.:

¶1The court finds, “That all the material facts set forth in the complaint are true,” and thereupon entered a judgment for the plaintiff. The finding is insufficient and will not support the judgment. While it is permissible in the findings to refer to a pleading, as for example, that a note or mortgage set forth in the complaint was executed by the party at the time therein alleged, yet in such cases “the reference should be distinct and pointed, so as to leave no doubt as to what particular facts are intended.” (Breeze v. Doyle, 19 Cal. 101.) In the same case it is said that the true test of the sufficiency of a finding is whether it would answer if presented by a jury in the form of a special verdict. Nor is a finding good which states only general conclusions, leaving it doubtful what particular facts were established. (Polhemus v. Carpenter, 42 Cal. 375.) Tested by these rules, the finding in this case is insufficient. The finding is that all the “material” facts stated in the complaint are true. But we have no means of determining what facts the court deemed “material,” and have no information from the findings on this point. So loose a method of finding the facts cannot be tolerated, and would lead to the most serious perplexities.

¶2Judgment reversed, and cause remanded for a new trial. Remittitur forthwith.

¶3Mr. Chief Justice Wallace did not express an opinion.

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