Hott v. Southern Pacific Pipe Lines, Inc.

Opinion

CHRISTIAN, J.

Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, a worker’s compensation insurer, intervened as a plaintiff in the case of Hott v. Southern Pacific Pipe Lines, Inc. (Super.Ct. No. 307838) which was then pending in the Superior Court of Santa Clara County. The case proceeded to trial and, after Liberty Mutual presented evidence, defendant moved for nonsuit. The court granted the motion and rendered judgment of nonsuit against Liberty Mutual on April 13, 1976. The judgment was filed with the clerk of the court on April 13, 1976. On April 16, 1976, the clerk mailed to the parties a notice that the judgment

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had been “entered” on April 13, 1976. Liberty Mutual filed a notice of appeal from the judgment on June 21, 1976.

A provision of the California Rules of Court, rule 2(a), which is applicable to this case, states that a notice of appeal shall be filed “within 60 days

after the date of mailing notice of entry ofjudgment by the clerk of the court pursuant to Section 664.5 of the Code of Civil Procedure, . .

.” Rule 2(b) provides that “[t]he date of

entry of

a judgment shall be the date of its entry in the judgment book

or, in a county following the procedure specified in Code of Civil Procedure Section 668.5 in lieu of maintaining a judgment book, the date offiling the judgment with the clerk pursuant to that section.”

1

Judgments of the Superior Court of Santa Clara County are microfilmed, prior to their placement in the case file, as contemplated in Code of Civil Procedure section 668.5. In the instant case, the judgment was filed with the clerk of the court on April 13, 1976, microfilmed on April 22, 1976, and placed in the case file on April 23, 1976. The filing of the judgment with the clerk on April 13, 1976, constituted the date of its entiy. (Code Civ. Proc., § 668.5.) The clerk’s notice of its entry on that date, mailed to the parties on April 16, 1976, therefore complied with Code of Civil Procedure section 664.5 and commenced the 60-day period prescribed in rule 2(a). The notice of appeal was filed on June 21, 1976, six days after the period had expired. The time for filing a notice of appeal is jurisdictional.