§ 474.Plaintiff Ignorant of Name of Defendant

Section 474 is the source of California’s famous "Doe defendant" practice. When a plaintiff does not yet know a defendant’s real name at the time of filing, the plaintiff must say so in the complaint (or the affidavit, if the action was commenced by affidavit) and may designate that defendant by any name — Doe 1, Doe 2, and so on are the usual convention, though the statute itself does not require that specific label. Once the plaintiff discovers the defendant’s true name, the pleading or proceeding must be amended to substitute it in.

This mechanism exists because a plaintiff often cannot identify every responsible party before the statute of limitations would otherwise close the door on suing them. By naming a fictitious defendant within the original complaint and later substituting the true name, a plaintiff preserves a claim against that defendant as of the original filing date rather than having to file a brand-new action once the name comes to light — provided the plaintiff did not in fact know the name (or facts giving rise to a cause of action against that defendant) at the time of filing.

The statute conditions a default or default judgment against a Doe-named defendant on giving that defendant fair warning of what is happening. The summons or other process served — or, if none was used, the first pleading or notice served — must carry on its face a notice substantially stating: "To the person served: You are hereby served in the within action (or proceedings) as (or on behalf of) the person sued under the fictitious name of (designating it)." The certificate or affidavit of service must likewise state the fictitious name under which the defendant was served and confirm that the identity notice was endorsed on the document served. These default-entry safeguards apply only to defendants sued under a fictitious name designated this way — not to a defendant the plaintiff sued under the wrong real name by mistake — and they drop away entirely once a default or default judgment rests on service of an amended pleading, process, or notice using the defendant’s true name.