In Daley v. County of Butte (1964) 227 Cal.App.2d 380, the attorney failed to appear at necessary hearings, serve process, seek extensions of time, or adequately communicate with the client or the court. Rather than taking action in the case, the attorney was guilty of "holding the substitution of attorneys for more than five months while his client's cause ripened for disaster" (id. at p. 392); and "by his refusal to get on with the lawsuit or get out of it, the attorney inflicted severe damage on his client's case." (Ibid.) Such attorney neglect amounted to "positive misconduct" that caused the client to be "effectually and unknowingly deprived of representation." (Id. at p. 391.) Given the circumstances, the court found that plaintiff "had legal representation only in a nominal and technical sense." (Id. at p. 392.) Noting that "an attorney's authority to bind his client does not permit him to impair or destroy the client's cause of action " (id. at p. 391), the Court of Appeal concluded that since the plaintiff was deprived of effective representation by the attorney's abandonment of her case, she would not be charged with responsibility for the misconduct of her "nominal counsel of record." (Id. at p. 392.)