Broome

Plaintiff sued to condemn a portion of a tract of land to be used by the state for a highway maintenance station. The cause was tried with a jury, which fixed defendants’ damages at $4,000. The clerk entered judgment upon the verdict and thereafter the trial court made findings and entered an interlocutory judgment, which was followed in due time by a final judgment. The defendant Lantz alone has appealed from all three judgments upon typewritten transcripts.

The clerk’s entry of a judgment upon the verdict was premature and inadvertent. (Vallejo & Northern Ry. Co. v. Reed Orchard Co., 169 Cal. 545, 558 [ 147 Pac. 238 ].) The verdict related to the issue of damages alone, whereas the trial court was required to draw findings upon the other issues and to enter judgment thereon. (Idem, p. 556.) Thus the entry by the clerk was an idle act, which was cured by the findings and judgment thereafter made, and hence the appeal from the clerk’s judgment presents a moot question and, for that reason, it is dismissed.

The attack upon the second judgment, based upon the ground that the court had no power to make it because an appeal from the clerk’s judgment was pending, is without merit.…