Court Opinion

ID: 9567826
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:58:12.671833+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:20:45.095319
License: Public Domain

SPENCE, J.
I dissent.
The fallacy underlying the majority opinion is found in the assumption therein that the trial court was dealing with a motion to vacate an order directing the issuance of execu*6tion. No order directing the issuance of execution has ever been entered by the trial court and no attempt has been made at any time to obtain such an order for the purpose of enforcing the decree which was entered in 1931.
The essential facts presented in this controversy may be briefly stated. In 1945, plaintiff presented an affidavit which contained the following prayer: “Wherefore, affiant as plaintiff requests that this Court issue its judgment directed against the defendant Martin C. Wolfe, for the sum of $2,925.00 with interest thereon from date of Judgment at the rate of 7% per annum.” Plaintiff served no notice of any kind and the trial court entered ex parte its judgment which shows on its face that it was based solely upon the affidavit of plaintiff and which reads: “It Is Therefore Ordered, Adjudged and Decreed that said plaintiff have Judgment against defendant, Martin C. Wolfe for the sum of $2,925.00 with interest thereon from the date of Judgment at the rate of 7% per annum.” This judgment was recorded on September 11, 1945, in “Judgment Book 128 of said Court, at Page 840.” It is undisputed that defendant had no notice of the application for this second judgment and had no notice of its entry until shortly before he served his notice of motion to vacate said judgment on December 7, 1945. Defendant’s motion was based upon numerous grounds including the ground that he had been given no notice of the application for said second judgment and that the court was without jurisdiction to enter the same.
It is therefore apparent that the trial court entered a second judgment in the same action for which no justification can be found in the statutory or case law. It is further apparent from the face of the record that such second judgment was entered ex parte. Such second judgment was therefore void on its face. In our recent decision in Estate of Hultin, 29 Cal.2d 825, we said at page 830 [178 P.2d 756] that the order under consideration in that case “was granted ex' parte and was therefore void on its face” and that “The trial court . . . had authority to vacate that order on the ground that it was void on its face. (Olivera v. Grace, 19 Cal.2d 570, 574 [122 P.2d 564, 140 A.L.R. 1328].)” When a judgment is void on its face, the trial court not only has the authority but it is its duty to vacate such judgment, as such void judgment constitutes what has been termed a “dead limb upon the judicial tree.” (People v. Greene, 74 Cal. 400, *7405 [16 P. 197, 5 Am.St.Rep. 448]; see, also, People v. Davis, 143 Cal. 673, 676 [77 P. 651]; Estate of Smead, 12 Cal.2d 20, 25 [82 P.2d 182].)
The majority opinion states that this judgment “did not amount to a new judgment” and that “although it did not expressly direct that execution issue, it was in effect such an order.” It concludes that “It was therefore controlled by the Code provisions and decisions dealing with the question of when execution may issue.” The entire discussion in the majority opinion is based upon this erroneous assumption. The only authority cited in support of this assumption is Doehla v. Phillips, 151 Cal. 488, 496 [91 P. 330], There the appeals were “from an order directing the enforcement of a judgment as against appellant and from an order denying a motion to recall the execution and vacate the former order.” (Emphasis added.) The order there clearly directed “That the said judgment be revived and enforced ... in the sum of $518.35, with interest from December 30th, 1891.” While there was a further portion of the order fixing the “total amount now due,” the order in question appeared upon its face to be essentially an order for enforcement and not a new or second judgment. In fact, the court said on page 496: “As contended by appellant, the lower court had no power without notice to enter a new judgment against him, but we do not read the order made on March 10, 1905, as doing this.” In the present case, however, there was no order directing enforcement but there was a second “judgment,” which was a. judgment in both form and substance, was so designated by name, and was so entered and recorded. The cited case not only does not justify the entry of such second judgment but clearly implies that a second judgment entered without notice would be wholly void. In my opinion, the entire procedure which resulted in the second judgment in the present case was abortive. The trial court should have granted the motion to vacate said second judgment which was entered without notice, and the parties could then have proceeded with some semblance of regularity by presenting their controversy upon an appropriate application seeking an order for the issuance of execution.
For the reasons stated, I am of the opinion that the order denying the motion to vacate the second judgment should be reversed with directions to the trial court to grant said motion. *8In view of this conclusion, it appears unnecessary to discuss the case of Lohman v. Lohman, 29 Cal.2d 144 [173 P.2d 657]. Suffice it to state that the Lohman case is not in point, as it involved not an appeal from a second judgment entered' without notice hut an appeal from an order denying “a motion to enforce the decree,” which order had been made after notice and hearing.
Edmonds, J., and Schauer, J., concurred.