Lovato

This case involves a default judgment suffered after interrogatories were served on an attorney who had been suspended.

Lovato instituted this action in June 1979. Santa Fe International Corporation (Santa Fe) retained Thomas Black to defend it because at that time he was representing Santa Fe in a similar lawsuit. Shortly after the complaint was filed Santa Fe successfully demurred to six of the seven causes of action, then filed an answer and took Lovato's deposition.

In January 1980 Black was suspended from practicing law. As one of the terms of his suspension he was ordered to comply with rule 955 of the California Rules of Court. Rule 955 required Black to notify all clients and opposing counsel in all pending litigation of his suspension and to assist in transferring his cases to another attorney. Black failed to comply with rule 955 and he was ultimately disbarred.

In March 1980 Santa Fe learned from a third party Black had been suspended and fired him. Santa Fe refused to have another lawyer in Black's firm continue representing it. Instead Santa Fe hired attorney John Torribio to represent it in both of Black's Santa Fe cases. The task of…

This case involves a default judgment suffered after interrogatories were served on an attorney who had been suspended.

Facts

Lovato instituted this action in June 1979. Santa Fe International Corporation (Santa Fe) retained Thomas Black to defend it because at that time he was representing Santa Fe in a similar lawsuit. Shortly after the complaint was filed Santa Fe successfully demurred to six of the seven- causes of action, then filed an answer and took Lovato’s deposition.

In January 1980 Black was suspended from practicing law. As one of the terms of his suspension he was ordered to comply with rule 955 of the California Rules of Court. Rule 955 required Black to notify all clients and opposing counsel in all pending litigation of his suspension and to assist in transferring his cases to another attorney. Black failed to comply with rule 955 and he was ultimately disbarred.

In March 1980 Santa Fe learned from a third party Black had been suspended and fired him. Santa Fe refused to have another lawyer in Black’s firm continue representing it. Instead Santa Fe hired attorney John Torribio to represent it in both of Black’s Santa Fe cases. The task of transferring…

I respectfully dissent. The majority holds service of interrogatories on a suspended attorney of record does not provide notice to his former client and therefore the default judgment taken against Santa Fe is void. It relies on Antonsen v. Pacific Container Co. (1941) 48 Cal.App.2d 535 [ 120 P.2d 148 ] in support of its position. However, Anton-sen is distinguishable. The petitioner, a Washington resident, gave a power of attorney to a California resident for limited purposes. The latter hired an attorney to file suit. One month after the attorney was suspended, he was served with the defendants’ answers and cross-complaints. He did not notify the client. Default judgments taken by the defendants were unknown to Antonsen until collection attempts five years later. The court determined Code of Civil Procedure section 286 1 removed the suspended attorney’s authority to act and plaintiff could not be charged with knowledge of the invalid service. However, the plaintiff had no knowledge of the action, did not direct the filing and did not know the attorney had been suspended. The court found “plaintiff was deprived, through no fault of his own, from appearing and presenting his…