Fargo V. City And County Of San Francisco

TRAYNOR, J. -- On April 24, 1907, and July 15, 1908, plaintiff brought actions under section 3819 of the Political Code to recover from defendant $899 and $1,860 for taxes paid under protest, together with interest from the date of payment and costs. In each case a general demurrer was overruled and time was allowed to answer. Notices of the orders overruling the demurrers were served, but no answers were filed and there were no further proceedings until January 25, 1938, about thirty years after the filing of the complaints, when an attorney, who was not plaintiff's attorney of record, secured default judgments for $2,822.59 and $5,700.90, including interest from the time when the taxes were paid until the date of the judgments, and costs. On defendant's motion in November 1938, when the time for an appeal or for a motion under section 473 of the Code of Civil Procedure had expired, the judgments were set aside as void and the actions dismissed for want of prosecution. Defendant bases its attack on the judgments on the grounds that after expiration of the five-year period allowed in section 583 of the Code of Civil Procedure for bringing an action to trial the court lost jurisdiction except to dismiss the actions, that the court had no jurisdiction to enter the judgments upon the application of