Higley

—This is an appeal by defendant Bank of Downey (hereinafter sometimes referred to as the Bank) from a judgment in equity setting aside a default and default judgment taken by the Bank against respondent in a prior case.

Respondent Glenna M. Higley, aged 48, was married for the second time in 1960 to Lorenzo S. Higley, Jr. The couple separated in July 1964, and respondent instituted an action for divorce. In October 1964, they were briefly reconciled, but they separated finally in April 1965, and Glenna then obtained a divorce.

Meanwhile, on February 15, 1965, the Bank filed an action against Glenna Higley and other defendants in which three causes of action were set forth. The first was an action on a promissory note for $12,000 executed in favor of the Bank on September 23, 1964, by defendants G. E. Newton and R. Thomas Appleton. The second was an action on the written guarantee of said note by H. Canady and L. S. Higley, Jr., Glenna’s estranged husband. The final cause of action, and the only one in which Glenna was joined, was based upon a continuing guarantee of said note purportedly executed by Glenna and other named defendants on September 23, 1964.

When the Higleys…