Legal Question in Business Law in California

You can't appeal a default judgment anyway. You can only appeal once a motion to set aside the judgment has been denied. The appeal time starts then, if it is not set aside.

Mr. McCormick's answer might be clarified a bit, as follows: The Code of Civil Procedure allows a party that has had a default judgment entered against it to apply to the court for relief. The statute (CCP section 473(b)) requires that the application for relief from default, etc. be "made within a reasonable time, in no case exceeding six months, after the judgment, dismissal, order or proceeding was taken." So, the question becomes, what runs out this March ... the time to appeal, or the time to apply for relief from default? I assume it is the latter, and if so, the application MAY be timely or untimely, since six months is the maximum time allowed and the "reasonable" time limit might be controlling. So then, the question becomes, what the heck is gonna happen in May, 2016? My guess is that's when the Court will hold its hearing on the application for relief. If so, the fact that this hearing will be in May is irrelevant to the timeliness of the defaulting defendant's application for relief, since he filed in February and the final deadline for the filing will be in March, when the six months runs out ........ unless, of course, the time lag was "unreasonable." Hope this helps. It is the date of the application, not the date of the hearing, to which the six-month outside time limit applies.

I respectfully disagree with Mr. McCormick. And it's not clear that the type of motion Mr. Whipple describes is the type now pending in your case.

Default judgments are indeed appealable, though only on very limited grounds. Those grounds include lack of jurisdiction, insufficiency of the pleadings, and -- in cases where the plaintiff had to prove his damages before judgment was entered -- whether those damages were excessive.

You mention "the six months to appeal," but that probably was not the deadline. The rules governing the time to appeal are very complex. It can be 180 days (which is not quite the same thing as six months), but if the court or a party serves proper notice that the judgment has been entered, the deadline is *either* 60 days after the notice was served *or* 180 days after entry of the judgment, whichever comes first. These rules can apply differently in different types of cases. And it is often hard to tell if a notice was properly served -- or even if the notice is valid at all.

Certain types of post-judgment motions can extend a 60-day deadline if they are brought within the time limits governing the particular type of motion. But the outside limit is 180 days from entry of the judgment. If the 180-day limit really applies in your case, then it cannot be extended. If the 60-day limit applies, then it can be extended only up to a total of 180 days.

You say the defendant filed a "motion to overturn the default judgment," but California law does not recognize a motion by that name. I realize you described it informally, but without more information I can't tell what type of motion it was or whether it could extend the due date for an appeal.

Mr. Whipple mentioned a motion for relief from default, which may or may not be what you're dealing with. Such a motion *can* extend a 60-day deadline, but how much extra time the appellant will get will depend on the specifics. There are other types of motions that could also extend the deadline, but not in the same ways.

Usually (but not always), when the deadline is extended by the filing of a motion, the new deadline is calculated based on when the motion is denied. The appellant generally does *not* have the same amount of time that remained when the motion was filed. Here again, the rules are quite complex, and can work differently in different situations.

Note also that defaults and default judgments are not the same thing. Laypeople often don't recognize the difference. Sometimes even lawyers make the same mistake. You say you have a default judgment but, if you're mistaken and you actually have only a default, then the time for your opponent to appeal has not yet begun. That's because a mere default is not appealable.

This is an area where the rules are much more complicated than they should be. Even justices of the Courts of Appeal have complained that the rules are unreasonably difficult.

Feel free to contact me directly if you'd like to discuss your case in more detail. I have over 20 years of appellate experience, and am certified as an appellate specialist by the State Bar of California's Board of Legal Specialization.