Middlekauff

This is an ordinary action to foreclose a mortgage made by the defendants, E. D. Middlekauff and his wife Addie, to secure a promissory note made by said defendants to plaintiff for three thousand five hundred dollars. The said defendants first filed a short answer in which they merely denied generally all the allegations of the complaint. Some months afterward, when the case was called for trial, the said defendants presented and asked leave to file an amended answer and also a cross-complaint. The court denied leave to file either of said offered pleadings. The case then proceeded to trial, and judgment was rendered for plaintiffs, foreclosing the mortgage in the usual form; and said defendants appeal from the judgment.

The only question raised by the appeal is whether or not the court erred in denying the motion of the appellants to file said answer and cross-complaint. No question is made by respondent as to the time when the offer to file the said pleadings was made, or that the defendants were guilty of laches. The court denied the motion upon the ground that the proposed answer constituted no defense to, the action, and that the matters therein set forth could not be…