Assume a case is dismissed for plaintiff's failure to serve defendants and prosecute the case. Plaintiff then appeals the dismissal order. Can defendants who were never served filed a respondent's brief as "specially appearing respondents"? An argument for such standing is that respondents have a right to defend their interests on appeal because reversal would prejudice them. But the Court of Appeal here (in fn.1) says no dice:
A “respondent” is an adverse party (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.10(2); see also Code. Civ. Proc., § 902) and a “party” is a person appearing in an action (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 1.6(15)). ... Because these defendants never appeared below, they are not “parties.” Accordingly, we will disregard defendants’ brief and oral arguments.
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