Legal Question in Appeals and Writs in California
Small Claims judgment appeal
A judgment in small claims court was awarded to me against my landlord. The landlord's lawyer sent a long waiver to me and a request for dismissal, which was dated after the trial. I called several lawyers to see if this was correct and they advised me to simply sign it, since there was nothing the lawyer could do about the judgment once made. Anyway, the paperwork I signed was a ''general waiver'' and the dismissal was ''incorporated'' into it as part of the settlement. They paid me my judgment in full. Now, I didn't file a satisfaction of judgment, because they were going to get the case dismissed. I even spoke with their lawyer to see if he knew what he was talking about, and he seemed to, but who knows. The upstart is, now they're appealing the judgment. Can they do that after they've paid? I'm going to file the satisfaction of judgment. Is this the right thing to do? Thanks.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Small Claims judgment appeal
You have the right to a lawyer on a small claims appeal, if you need one. If the judgment has been paid, the proper form is a satisfaction of a judgment, not a dismissal. A request for dismissal is the form when the case is settled, prior to trial.
If they are appealing, and have voluntarily paid the judgment, they no longer have grounds to appeal. If you need the case law on this, e-mail me.
Very truly yours,
Re: Small Claims judgment appeal
To have legal effect as a judgment, a court's decision upon trial has to be "entered" on the books (that is, in the official court records). Mere announcement by the judge as to what his/her decision is does not by itself create a judgment.
It sounds like what happened in your situation is that opposing counsel tried to "settle" the case after the trial judge had ruled but before the decision was entered (probably because he/she wanted to prevent having a publice record of judgment against the landlord). But, somehow the court's decision was entered on the books and became a "judgment" against the landlord before the settlement was achieved and the case dismissed. Having entered a judgment, the case was no longer subject to mere dismissal. So, the landlord's way of preventing a public record of judgment against him is to seek an appeal order which overturns the entry of judgment and allows the settlement-dismissal to be entered.
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