A Seal Is the Real Deal

Palm Fin. Corp. v. Parallel Media LLC, No. B288017 (D2d8 Aug. 7, 2019)
 
Another solid opinion by Justice Wiley that avoids the formulaic style that sometimes makes Court of Appeal opinions really boring. It’s less than five pages long and not boring. Even though it’s on a pretty boring topic: the authentication of official records under Evidence Code §§ 1400(b) and 1452(c). Straightforward—just the necessary facts, a rule, and result.

Plaintiff is trying to collect on an English judgment. It submitted a “Final Costs Certificate.” The certificate has a red stamp on it with a crown design, an identification of the court, and the date. Defendant says plaintiff needed to put on evidence that the doc was authentic. But an official seal merits a rebuttable presumption of authenticity. Evidence Code § 1452 says “[a] seal is presumed to be genuine and its use authorized if it purports to be the seal of . . . [a] nation recognized by the executive power of the United States or a department, agency, or officer of such nation.” As the Court explains, “[t]his procedure dispenses with the necessity for proof of authenticity when there is no real dispute as to such authenticity, and it also assures the parties the right to contest the authenticity of official writings when there is a real dispute as to such authenticity.”

England, of course, is a recognized a nation. So the seal is presumed authentic. And since Defendant offered no proof otherwise, the document the real deal of what it purported to be.

Affirmed. 

We know you are real.