Montez v. Tonkawa Village Apartments

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Foth, C.:

The determinative issue in this case is whether the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to set aside a default judgment on the defendant’s plea of inadvertence and excusable neglect.

On December 27, 1971, the plaintiff Evelyn Montez slipped and fell on some icy steps leading to her third floor apartment. On March 28, 1972, she brought this suit for $15,000 for her injuries, tangible and intangible; her husband Manuel joined her suit with a claim for $2,000, basically for loss of consortium.

The Montez apartment was in a complex known…