Case Name: WAY v. OGLESBY
Court: Supreme Court of California
Jurisdiction: California
Decision Date: 1873
Citations: 45 Cal. 655
Docket Number: No. 3,724
Parties: WAY v. OGLESBY.
Judges: 
Reporter: California Reports
Volume: 45
Pages: 655–656

Head Matter:
[No. 3,724.]
WAY v. OGLESBY.
Sufficient Denial in Answer.—In an action to enforce a mechanics’ lien for seventy-six dollars, where the answer averred that the value of the labor “ was not over the sum offifteen dollars or twenty dollarsHeld, that it was a denial that the value of the labor was seventy-six dollars, and that the answer should not be stricken out.
Appeal from the District Court of the First Judicial District, County of Santa Barbara.
The Colirt sustained a motion to strike out the answer, and rendered judgment as of default, from which the defendant appealed.
A. Packard, for Appellant.
C. E. Huse, for Respondent.

Opinion:
By the Court:
The appeal is taken from the judgment, and rests upon the judgment roll, from which it appears that the judgment was rendered for the plaintiff upon the pleadings for the full amount claimed in the complaint. We are of opinion, however, that the answer presented á defense to the claim of the plaintiff sufficient, at least, to prevent the rendition of a judgment as for want of an answer; for instance, it avers "that the value of the labor of the defendant (plaintiff?) on said building was not over the sum of fifteen or twenty dol lars," and this, we think, a sufficient denial of the allegation of the complaint, that the value of the labor was as much as seventy-six dollars.
Judgment reversed, and cause remanded, with directions to proceed to try the cause.