Chris v. Bruce

ARNOLD, Judge.

Defendants argue that the trial court denied them their due process and other constitutional rights by proceeding with the trial in their absence. Essentially, defendants argue that because they and their counsel live two hundred miles away from the site of the trial, “common courtesy and decency” required that plaintiff’s counsel notify them after the calendar call that the case had been moved to first on the calendar, and that the trial court abused his discretion by proceeding to trial without making any attempt to determine their whereabouts.

We agree with defendants that,…