Collins v. Corse

CURTIS, J.

Appellants have attempted to perfect an appeal to this court from an order of the Superior Court in and for the City and County of San Francisco permitting plaintiff to inspect certain documents and books belonging to defendants and directing that copies thereof be furnished by the defendants to plaintiff under section 1000 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The basis of the complaint was that defendants had entered into a contract with plaintiff whereby they gave to him the sole and exclusive agency for the sale and distribution of gasoline to distributors and dealers in the San Joaquin Valley from Manteca, California, south to Selma, California; that his compensation was to be measured by the amount of gasoline sold in said territory, that defendants had breached said contract; and that he was entitled as dam

[124]

ages to a certain percentage of the receipts upon all sales made by the defendants or by agents of the defendants in said territory. To prove the amount of damages to which he was entitled plaintiff sought and secured an order from the Superior Court in and for the City and County of San Francisco granting to plaintiff the right to inspect certain books of account of the defendants, and directing the defendants to furnish to plaintiff copies of other documents relative to the receipts derived by defendants from the sale of gasoline in the said territory.

Although the question was not raised in the brief of the respondent, nor in any manner discussed by any of the parties in their briefs, at the very threshold of a discussion of this controversy we are confronted with the question of whether or not the order granting the right of inspection pursuant to section 1000 of the Code of Civil Procedure is an appealable order. If it is not an appealable order, it is the duty of this court on its own motion to dismiss the appeal.

(Adams

v.

Christopher,

112 Cal. App. 37, 39 [296 Pac. 85];

In re Wiard,

83 Cal. 619 [24 Pac. 45].)

We are convinced both upon reason and authority that such an order is not an appealable order. Section 963 of the Code of Civil Procedure enumerates the orders and decisions of the superior court from which an appeal will lie, and an order of this character is not among those mentioned.