We insist that the judgment must be affirmed, because there is no bill of exceptions, or statement of the case in the record; and, therefore, this appeal brings to this Court only the judgment-roll. (Wilson v. Middleton , 2 Cal. 54.)
The judgment-roll consists (in this case), only of the complaint, summons, affidavit of publication, and entry of defendant's default, and the final judgment. (Practice Act, paragraph 203.)
All these appear in the record in this case, and it is not pretendedby the appellant in his brief, that any of these are defective, or insufficient to sustain the judgment. The complaint contains a cause of action, and the record states that the " plaintiff introduced the evidence to sustain the demand mentioned in the complaint; and the Court being satisfied by proof that the allegations of the complaint herein are true," etc., proceeds to render the decree.
What that proof was, of what it consisted, and whether it was properly received in the Court below, this Court cannot determine from this record; but, no error being shown affirmatively in the case, the presumption is in favor of the correctness of the proceedings below. (Rabe v. Wells , 3 Cal. 148; White v. Abernethy, Id. 426.)
And in the case of Ford v. Holton, July Term, 1855, it is stated in effect that error will not be presumed, but all intendments are in favor of the regularity of the judgment below.
JUDGES: Murray, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Terry, J., and Burnett, J., concurring.
OPINION
MURRAY, Judge
This case comes before us on the judgment-roll alone. The judgment by default was properly entered, as the defendant did not appear and answer after service was made complete by publication.
An appearance in this Court on a former appeal, did not absolve him from the necessity of answering, or from the consequences of his neglect to do so.
Although the instrument set out in the record is not a mortgage, it is not embodied in the complaint, and we cannot say that the judgment of foreclosure was obtained on it. Every intendment is in favor of the judgment, and we are bound to suppose that the decree of foreclosure was based upon proper evidence in the Court below, of a mortgage perfect in all its parts.
Judgment affirmed.