Smith v. Smith

This is an appeal from an order denying plaintiff’s motion to change a minute order and judgment based thereon on the ground that through a clerical error the minutes of the court failed to correctly and fully reflect the order made by the court.

Plaintiff filed a suit for divorce on July 30, 1953. Thereafter her husband, who was not represented by counsel, signed a property settlement agreement which had heen prepared by plaintiff’s attorney. It provided, inter alia, that defendant pay plaintiff $150 per month alimony for a period of three years and that beginning August 1, 1956, he pay her $1.00 per month thereafter. The agreement further provided," in paragraph 13, that it could be incorporated in any decree that might be rendered in the divorce action. The case was heard as a default before Judge McCoy on September 25, 1953. During the course of the hearing the property settlement agreement was received in evidence. At the conclusion of the testimony the judge announced his decision, according to the clerk’s minutes, as follows: “The court finds the plaintiff is entitled to an interlocutory decree of divorce. The property settlement agreement is approved.”

Plaintiff’s…