Question

So here you are a thriving entrepreneur named Crafty who is doing well in her business. You have clients and you have items to sell. You have recently bought a home for $602,000 in Riverside county and you drive a BMW. Thirsty, a janitor, sees what you have and how happy you are, and wants a "piece" of the action. Thirsty drives to Crafty's house, parks around the corner to look at the layout of the development, and slips and falls in- front of Crafty's house. He breaks his ankle and suffers real pain and suffering in the accident. Crafty has an accident insurance policy on the house and Thirsty wants to sue to gain recovery against Crafty. Thirsty sues for pain and suffering in state court against Crafty. He send Crafty a summons and a complaint detailing why its Crafty's fault why he slipped and fell in front of his house. Crafty countersues Thirsty for misuse of legal process in that Crafty has done this routine before, slipping and falling in front of the homes of people who are doing well to gain some kind of recovery. Crafty responds to Thirsty's complaint within 35 days. Thirsty then makes a motion for default judgement against Crafty for not responding to the complaint in time for it to be an adequate response. Crafty then motions the court to vacate the default judgement against him because of illness that prevented him from attaining counsel and filing the response to the complaint in time. The judge denies the motion and allows the default judgement to stand against Crafty because an extension of time would be unfair to Thirsty's due process rights. Crafty then appeals the trial court's decision.

 1. Does the Appeals court have to hear the case on whether the trial court got it right on granting a default judgement against Crafty?

 2. What does the appeals court have the power to do in this situation?

 3. Assuming that Thirsty has done this before and sued for slip and fall complaints to others in the past, can Crafty use this information to strengthen his case to overturn the default judgement against him?

Answer 1

1 Answer:

In this case Crafty responds to the summons after the due date which is the major mistake in the case and reason for granting a default judgement against Crafty.

In most of the cases the trial and appeal court have few similarities in delivering a judgement but there are slight changes when a case moves from one court to another.

In trial court basically all the witness and parties are called to collect the facts and other documented proofs for delivering better judgement. But in this case Thirsty fills for motion for default judgement and favours against Crafty.

If crafty could able to provide all the necessary documents with proofs to the appeal court than there is a chance of considering. For that Crafty needs to file an appeal through an attorney for review of the case.

As it is not processed through proper trial it might consider and hear in the appeal court for delivering best judgement to the parties. Crafty needs to submit all the supported documents as a reason for not responding to the summons that are issued.

2 Answer:

The trial and appeal have few similarities in delivering a judgement but there are slight changes of processing the case. There are very less changes of considering cases in the appeal unless they found that proper judgement is not delivered and not followed laws and rule of the Federal court.

In appeal court only review process will be conducted to review the case and identify on what bases the judgement is delivered and all the Federal policies are strictly followed or applied or not in providing justification.

In this case, as the trial was not performed with both the parties as one of the party is not present and result for the default judgement. So the appeal court with all the necessary documents that are considered as valid in the review than it has all the power to review the case.

· It has the power to determine the final judgement

· Power to grant a remand

· It can frame and review the trials that are performed in delivering the judgement

· Power to additional information or more evidence if required to deliver the judgement

3 Answer:

Yes, Crafty can use such information to strengthen because if similar incidents are filled by the same person in the past. Than such cases can be reviewed for more information to identify the facts an also a possibility of identifying the truths in the case.

If same kind of complaints are registered in the past than that can be considered for extra evidence to identify the facts.

If such acts are considered or assumed as similar than Thirsty will be under bars for misuse of law and court time.