Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

53 Cal. 69

Reidy v. Scott

California Supreme Court

Decided July 1, 1878

California Supreme Court · decided 1878-07-01

■ Appeal from the District Court of the Thirteenth Judicial District, Merced County. The action was brought to recover the value of goods sold and delivered. The defendant Samuel Scott was served with a copy of the summons and complaint within the county, April 25th, 1877, but informed his counsel that the service was on the 26th. No answer having been filed within the ten days, default was entered May 7th, 1877.

Relies on Watson v. Francisco & Humboldt Bay Railroad · People v. Rains

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1878-07-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently October 1950

8 state decisions

20187818801890190019101920193019401950decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

By the Court :

¶1If the affidavit of merits is sufficient, we are satisfied that, under the views expressed in Watson v. S. F. and H. B. R. R. Company, 41 Cal. 17, the Court should have granted the motion to open the default. The answer, which was filed on the same day the default was entered, states facts which, if proved, would constitute a meritorious defense. The statements in the affidavit of defendant, that he is advised that he has a “ good and perfect defense,” and in the affidavit of his attorney that, in his opinion, *74defendant has a good defense; although in artificial averments of the fact that he has a defense on the merits, are to be referred to the answer actually filed. In People v. Rains, 23 Cal. 129, the affidavit of the defendant’s attorney was to the effect that he had mistaken the day of service, and that he prepared a demurrer to the complaint. The Court held that when the affidavit shows that the defense rests on matters appearing on the face of the complaint, (by which, of course, is meant matters of defense which, except for the interposition of a demurrer, would be deemed to be waived) the defense is merely of a technical character, and the affidavit is insufficient. But here an answer was prepared, and the advice of the attorney, that defendant had a good and perfect defense, was based on a full and fair statement of all the facts of the case. (See defendant’s affidavit.) We think the default should have been set aside.

¶2Judgment and order reversed, and cause remanded.

/53/cal/69 · .json · Public domain