Estate of Douglas

Filed 9/21/22 CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT (San Joaquin) ----

Estate of BILLY JOE DOUGLAS, Deceased. C093301

AUDREY DOUGLAS, as Administrator, etc., (Super. Ct. No. Petitioner, STKPREST20070000442)

v.

JOANNA DOUGLAS-DORSEY,

Objector and Appellant;

NEUMILLER & BEARDSLEE, A.P.C.,

Claimant and Respondent.

APPEAL from a judgment (order) of the Superior Court of San Joaquin County, Elizabeth Humphreys, Judge. Affirmed.

Charles R. Perry for Objector and Appellant.

Neumiller & Beardslee, Clifford W. Stevens, Melissa Tong, and Thomas H. Terpstra for Claimant and Respondent.

Respondent, Neumiller & Beardslee, filed a renewal request for a 2008 judgment and identified Estate Administrator Audrey Douglas as the judgment debtor without

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stating she was named in her role as the administrator of an estate as set forth in the original judgment. When it discovered this, respondent filed a motion to correct the error. The trial court granted that motion and corrected the judgment nunc pro tunc. Joanna Douglas-Dorsey, who is a beneficiary of the estate, and the appellant here, appealed asserting the trial court erred in correcting that error because it was not a clerical error. Remembering the “law respects form less than substance” (Civ. Code, § 3528), we affirm. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Audrey Douglas is the administrator of the Estate of Billy Joe Douglas (estate). On December 17, 2008, the trial court issued an “order approving waiver of account, report, and petition of administrator for its approval, for order to pay statutory attorneys’ fees and costs, for order for final distribution and request for reimbursement of graduated filing fee” (judgment). (Capitalization omitted.) The judgment identified Audrey Douglas as the petitioner in that judgment. The judgment provided that “Petitioner [was] authorized and directed to pay to [respondent] attorneys fees in the sum of $30,860.00 for ordinary services rendered and [$]66,384.00 for extraordinary services and $2,914.39 for costs.” On July 31, 2015, respondent filed an “application for and renewal of judgment” (capitalization omitted) on the Judicial Council form pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure,1 section 683.110. In the judgment debtor section, it identified the judgment debtor as “Audrey Douglas,” and did not state she was a party to the action in her representative capacity as administrator of the estate. That same day, the clerk issued the notice of renewal of the judgment as requested by respondent. On August 14, 2020, respondent filed a motion to correct a clerical error in the application for and renewal of the judgment and the renewal as entered. It sought to