PRETRIAL ADJUDICATION
...Default
......Default Judgment
.........Entry By Clerk Entirely Ministerial
............Clerk Acts in Excess of Powers
4 Cards On This Topic:

Clerk’s entry of default purely ministerial and he has no authority to determine sufficiency of document or determine whether or not it constituted answer or should have been so construed.

Clerk may not determine sufficiency of pleading, or enter default judgment when in possession of responsive pleading; entry in such case is clerical error, ministerial in nature.

Court erred in ordering clerk to enter default where defendants had motion to quash service of summons on file before order given.

When clerk acts in excess of statutory power in entering default, such act is open to attack at any time, and 6-month limitation period of Code Civ. Proc. §473 not applicable.