Strong v. Shatto

THE COURT.

The following opinion, prepared by Mr. Justice Richards, is hereby adopted as the opinion of the court:

This appeal is by certain defendants in the case of

Strong

v.

Hancock,

wherein the decision of this court upon the main appeal has been this day filed

(ante,

p. 530 [258 Pac. 60]). The facts upon which the present appeal is predicated are fully set forth in said decision. The appellants herein were brought into this ease after it had been for the first time tried in the superior court and after the judgment of said court rendered and entered upon said first trial had been reversed by the district court of appeal (45 Cal. App. 29, 187 Pac. 159), and

[557]

after the substituted plaintiff in the action had filed a supplemental complaint amplifying the issues in the cause and making all of the lot owners in Shatto Place parties to the action prior to the second trial thereof. Said supplemental complaint having, with proper process, been served upon each and all of said added defendants, those of said defendants who are the appellants herein defaulted. After their said defaults had been duly entered the others of said new-made defendants who had not defaulted filed their respective answers to said supplemental complaint wherein they each set forth their respective claims as to their and and each of their ownership and interest in their respective lots in said Shatto Tract and generally in the properties embraced within said tract. Their said answers were not served upon those of their co-defendants whose defaults had been entered. The original defendant, Clara E. Shatto, also answered the said supplemental complaint with similar denials and averments to those of her co-defendants who had answered; and also filed and served upon said substituted plaintiff and upon her co-defendants who had not defaulted her said answer and cross-complaint, but did not serve either her answer or her said cross-complaint upon said defendants who are the appellants herein and whose defaults had prior thereto been duly entered. The appellants herein contend that they were entitled, notwithstanding their aforesaid defaults and the due entry thereof, to be served with their co-defendant’s said answers, and especially with the answer and cross-complaint of their co-defendant Clara E. Shatto; and hence urge upon this appeal that the judgment herein should be reversed. We find no merit in this contention. This action in its original inception was an action to quiet title and it retained this character throughout notwithstanding its amplification both as to parties and as to the relief sought through the filing and service of the substituted plaintiff’s supplemental complaint. This being so, these appellants upon their introduction into this action became actors therein and were called upon to set forth their own respective rights with reference not only to the lot owned by each in said tract but with reference to the lots, ownerships, and interest generally in said tract, not only as against the plaintiff but also as against each and all of their co-defendants in said action. This is true not only because of the