What constitutes an abuse of discretion in a motion to vacate a default judgment?
California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from Slack v. Murray, 175 Cal.App.2d 558, 346 P.2d 826 (Cal. App. 1959):
No hard and fast rule can be laid down as to what constitutes an abuse of discretion. Each case must be judged upon its own factual situation, and in an appeal from an order denying a motion to vacate a default judgment, an appellate court will not disturb that ruling unless a clear case of abuse of discretion is shown.
However, as was said in the early case of Bailey v. Taaffe, 29 Cal. 422, at page 424:
'The discretion intended, however, is not a capricious or arbitrary discretion, but an impartial discretion, guided and controlled in its exercise by fixed legal principles. It is not a mental discretion, to be exercised ex gratia, but a legal discretion, to be exercised in conformity with the spirit of the law
Page 829
And as stated in Lybecker v. Murray, 58 Cal. 186, at page 189:
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