Case ID: pr_31/html/0885-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Me. Chibe Justice Del Tobo Mb. Justice Wole", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Martinez, Petitioner, v. District Court of Aguadilla, Respondent.
    No. 359.
    Decided July 14, 1922.
    By virtue of a writ of certiorari the original record in case No. 3756 of Víctor P. Martínez v. Ricardo Serrano for damages, on appeal from the Municipal Court of San Se-bastián, was sent up. The claim is for $490 on the ground that the defendant put several head of cattle to pasture on a property of the plaintiff and cut timber and built a hut thereon. The defendant did not answer, his default was entered and the clerk was asked to enter judgment according to the prayer of the complaint. This was done and the defendant appealed to the district court, which opened the default, set aside the judgment of the municipal court and remanded the case.
    The petitioner contends that the district court acted without jurisdiction because Act No. 13 of November 14, 1917, does not allow an appeal from a default judgment entered by the clerk of a municipal court. The appellant is mistaken. When the clerk of a court in very special cases and under express authority of the law enters a judgment he does so in the name of the court. Therefore, under a general statute authorizing appeals from the judgments of the court, an appeal lies from the judgment entered by the clerk.
    Perhaps the best practice would he to ask the clerk to cancel the judgment entered by him and then appeal from his decision, but the direct course of appeal having been adopted, it can not be denied that the district court acquired jurisdiction. The judgment of the clerk was entirely void and a clear abuse of discretion on the part of the district court in opening the default not having been shown, it follows that the procedure was not contrary to law.
   Me. Chibe Justice Del Tobo

delivered the opinion of the court.

Mb. Justice Wole

wrote the following dissenting opinion: ‘‘In my opinion, inasmuch as the clerk of the municipal court, under the facts of this case, had no authority to render a judgment, there was no valid judgment and, therefore, the District Court of Aguadilla had no jurisdiction except to dismiss the appeal.”