I am wondering if a court judgement is enforceable if it does not
identify the defendant other than by name.

I successfully sued to evict a tenant for non-payment of rent and got
a Judgement by Trial in CA for over $5K nine years ago. A 10% simple
interest applies so it will soon be $10K. It is in effect for one more
year(and is renewable for another ten years). The tenant was a
deadbeat for many years but now has a good job in another state. The
judgement document has the tenant's name, but no other identification
other than the name of the co-defendant, his ex-wife, and the address
they were evicted from. Will this hold up? I had one collection agency
say he could simply say he is not the individual named in the
document. How can I prove that he is?

Bill

wconniff@iousa.net (Bill) wrote in message
news:<oet3gv0nmvrsrp6f06ftov0p82fvqvg2fp@4ax.com>... I am wondering if a court judgement is enforceable if it does not identify the defendant other than by name.

Well, the judgment itself might not, but the complaint you filed
surely identified the defendant as (one of) the persons living at your
property during a certain time period. What you need to do is
establish that the guy you found is the one who was your tenant. Did
you personally collect the rent? Would you recognize him, by
appearance and/or voice? Are there other people who would? That
might suffice.

Did he ever sign anything that you still have? If so, you have an
exemplar of his signature, which can be used to identify him.

Also, if your lease sign-up papers required him to give other
identifying information (birthdate, D/L #, SSN, etc., that would
clearly pin him down as being the guy you rented to.

If you didn't do that, the identification issue will be a credibility
battle, assuming he denies he was your tenant. Heck, maybe he really
wasn't. You'd better be darn sure, or else he might sue _you_
afterwards for malicious prosecution, etc. But having some
contemporaneous documentation from this guy would surely help.

<snip> judgement document has the tenant's name, but no other identification other than the name of the co-defendant, his ex-wife, and the address they were evicted from. Will this hold up?

Is it legal? Sure. Will it win, when you try to garnish this
particular guy as your alleged judgment debtor and he denies he's the
one? That's a different question. WILL he deny it? That's a third
question. Maybe you're worrying too soon.
I had one collection agency say he could simply say he is not the individual named in the document.

Sure he could. But is it credible? The law is not a game he can
beat just by saying so. What it comes down to is, does your evidence
that he's the one outweigh his evidence (or his bare assertion) that
he's not the one? And if he makes an issue out of it, a court will
have to decide that issue.

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Mike Jacobs
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