In Re Ochoa

KNIGHT, J.

This is a proceeding in habeas corpus. At the time the writ was issued and served the petitioner, Violet M. Ochoa, was being imprisoned in the county jail by the sheriff of the city and county of San Francisco pursuant to a commitment issued by the superior court in and for said city and county “In the Matter of the Guardianship of the Estate of Violet Consuelo Giersch, a Minor.”

The allegations of the petition for the writ have not been controverted, and it appears therefrom that the proceedings which led up to the issuance of the commitment were these: The guardian of the minor filed an affidavit in said court averring that the minor was the beneficiary of a trust fund established in a San Francisco bank, which fund was to be turned over to the minor when she reached her

majority;

that Violet Ochoa was the trustee of said fund, and that on Oc

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tober 20, 1941, the guardian was informed by said bank that on September 30, 1941, the trust funds had been withdrawn by the trustee. The guardian asked, therefore, that the trustee and the bank be cited to appear before said court “and be examined on oath, regarding said trust account . . ; and

a citation was issued directing the petitioner and the bank to show cause “why the trust account . . . was closed” and “what became of the funds on deposit therein.” At the hearing, so the petition alleges, petitioner “averred and alleged and claimed that the money was her own and that she claimed title to said monies and that it was in truth and in fact not the property of the said minor.” The minutes of the court recite that as a result of the hearing it was “ordered [that] Violet Ochoa be adjudged guilty of contempt of Court and ordered confined in the County Jail until the money withdrawn from Bank be paid to the Guardian. ’

’

Pursuant to such adjudication and order the following commitment was issued: “The citation hitherto issued for Violette Ochoa, also called Violette Crouzziare, citing her to show what became of certain funds on deposit in the above entitled estate coming on regularly for hearing this day and it appearing to the Court that the said Violette Ochoa, alias Violette Crouzziare, had used for her own use the sum of $400.00 belonging to the above named minor, and the said Violette Ochoa, alias, having refused in open court to obey the Order of this court requiring restitution of said funds: It is therefore ordered that Daniel C. Murphy, the sheriff of the City and County of San Francisco, take said Violette Ochoa, alias, and confine her to the County Jail of the City and County of San Francisco until she pays unto the Estate of the above named minor the sum of $400.00, and this is your warrant for commitment.”