Walker v. Porter

In Walker v. Porter (1974) 44 Cal. App. 3d 174, the court cited Campbell v. Magana (1960) for the proposition that 2 a malpractice plaintiff must prove that any judgment she could have obtained "would have been collectible." ( Id. at p. 178.) There, the trial court had not considered collectibility, having resolved the matter on other grounds. In reversing, and to justify returning the matter to the trial court for trial, the Court of Appeal noted, in passing, "that appellant alleged collectibility in her complaint. She should be given the opportunity to prove it. Implicitly it appears from the bare allegation that county is solvent; county would be assumed to do business with a solvent contractor and, even as to appellant's landlord, a complexion of some solvency is suggested." (Ibid.) Campbell v. Magana (1960) 184 Cal. App. 2d 751, involved attorney negligence in handling a lawsuit for the plaintiff. Relying on both The court indicated that 1 the plaintiff must prove that "careful management of the suit would have resulted in recovery of a favorable judgment and collection of same . . . ." ( Id. at p. 754.)