Judge: Armen Tamzarian, Case: 21STCV23041, Date: 2023-03-03 Tentative Ruling

Please notify Department 52 via email at smcdept52@lacourt.org and indicate that the parties are submitting on the tentative ruling. Please provide the attorney's name and represented party. Please notify the opposing side via email if submitting on the Court's tentative ruling.

Case Number: 21STCV23041    Hearing Date: March 3, 2023    Dept: 52

Tentative Ruling

            Plaintiffs Efren Almazan and Aileen Cabatan-Almazan’s Request for Court Judgment by Default Against Defendant Wanda Williams

Plaintiffs Efren Almazan and Aileen Cabatan-Almazan request court judgment by default against defendant Wanda Williams.

Plaintiffs seek damages beyond the amount demanded in the complaint.  They request judgment for $62,953 in damages against Williams.  “A default judgment greater than the amount specifically demanded in the complaint is void as beyond the court’s jurisdiction.”  (Airs Aromatics, LLC v. CBL Data Recovery Technologies, Inc. (2018) 23 Cal.App.5th 1013, 1018.)  “Where no amount of damages is demanded any amount awarded is by definition greater than the amount demanded.”  (Falahati v. Kondo (2005) 127 Cal.App.4th 823, 830–831.)

Plaintiffs’ complaint does not demand any amount of damages.  It instead prays for compensatory, special, and general “damages according to proof.”  (Comp., Prayer ¶¶ 1-3.)  A default judgment awarding damages against defendant Williams would therefore exceed the court’s jurisdiction.

To recover damages in a default judgment, plaintiffs must amend the complaint.  Filing an amended complaint would vacate defendant Williams’s default.  After a plaintiff “file[s] an amended complaint praying for a different amount of damages and/or other appropriate relief… she must serve her amended complaint on defendants, who will be entitled to file a new answer; all issues will then be at large, including liability.”  (Greenup v. Rodman (1986) 42 Cal.3d 822, 830; accord Airs Aromatics, LLC v. CBL Data Recovery Technologies, Inc. (2018) 23 Cal.App.5th 1013, 1025 [filing amended complaint vacates default].)  An amended complaint must be served in the manner of a summons.  (Engebretson & Co. v. Harrison (1981) 125 Cal.App.3d 436, 444.)

Disposition

Plaintiffs’ request for default judgment is denied.  Under Code of Civil Procedure section 473(a)(1), the court hereby grants plaintiffs leave to file a first amended complaint to demand a specific amount of damages.