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61 Cal. 360

Ede v. Hazen

California Supreme Court

Decided August 30, 1882

California Supreme Court · decided 1882-08-30

<p>Appeal from a judgment for defendants, in the Superior Court of Plumas County. Clough, J.</p>

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“the plaintiffs discovered within forty days after the entry of the judgment, and within six months after the entry of their default, all the facts upon which they now base their right to have it set aside, and if it be conceded that upon those facts they are entitled to the relief they now claim, it is clear that they had `a speedy, complete adequate, summary remedy in the same proceeding, and that the complaint shows no circumstances which entitled them to maintain a separate and distinct equitable action.' ( Ketchum v. Crippen , 37 Cal. 223 .)”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Meyer v. Lemley

“As appears upon the face of their complaint,”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Meyer v. Lemley

Relies on Borland v. Thornton · Bibend v. Kreutz · Ketchum v. Crippen

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1882-08-30

How this case has been cited

Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently December 1935

1 federal appellate · 15 state decisions

40188218901900191019201930decided

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 →

Sharpstein, J.:

¶1If the plaintiffs are entitled to any relief, they might have obtained it by malting a timely application to the Court, in which the judgment, they seek to have set aside,' was rendered. That judgment was entered on the tenth day of December, 1880, and on the eighteenth day of January, 1881, the plaintiffs were informed that the mortgage foreclosed had been fully satisfied prior to the entry of the judgment of foreclosure. If they might have successfully pleaded that satisfaction, as a defense to the action, and were prevented from doing so, by reason of the concealment of the fact from them, until after the entry of the judgment, it would consti-. tute a case of excusable neglect, for which the Court might have relieved them from the judgment within six months after its entry. (C. C. P., § 473.)

¶2“Equity will not maintain jurisdiction of a suit of this nature, merely on the ground that the demand may be unconscientious, and that injustice may have been done, provided it was competent for the party to have placed the matter before the Court in the original action, either upon issues joined or upon motion to set aside the verdict or judgment.” (Borland v. Thornton, 12 Cal. 440.) “The assistance of equity can not be invoked so long as the remedy by motion exists; *361but when the time within which a motion may be made has expired, and no laches or want of diligence is imputable to the party asking relief, there is nothing in reason or propriety preventing the interference of equity.” (Bibend v. Kreutz, 20 Cal. 109.)

¶3As appears upon the face of their complaint, the plaintiffs discovered within forty days after the entry of the judgment, and within six months after the entry of their default, all the facts upon which they now base their right to have it set aside, and if it be conceded that upon those facts they are entitled to the relief they now claim, it is clear that they had “a speedy, complete, adequate, summary remedy in the same proceeding, and that the complaint shows no circumstances which entitled them to maintain a separate and distinct equitable action.” (Ketchum v. Crippen, 37 Cal. 223.)

¶4It further appears by the record that this action was commenced within less than five months after the defaults of the plaintiffs had been entered in the action in which the judgment was rendered against them which they now seek in this action to have set aside. It is unnecessary to consider any other question in the case.

¶5The demurrer was properly sustained on the ground that the complaint did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.

¶6Judgment affirmed.

¶7Morrison, C. J., and Eoss, Myrick, McKinstry, Thornton and McKee, JJ., concurred.

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