People v. One 1949 Cadillac Convertible Coupe

JONES, J.

pro tern.—This action is one in which a judgment forfeiting the defendant automobile to the state has been entered under the provisions of section 11610 of the Health and Safety Code, commonly referred to as the Narcotics Law. The car was being sold under a conditional sales contract at the time it was seized by the San Francisco police. The legal owner and the registered owner defended separately. The legal owner and holder of the conditional sales contract has accepted the judgment below and has not appealed. The appeal is by the registered owner alone. Two grounds are urged for a reversal of the judgment. It is first contended that the evidence does not sustain the findings and, secondly, that the court never acquired jurisdiction in the case.

The finding which is challenged as being without sufficient evidence is that the car “was used by one Edwin Cavness, now deceased, to keep, deposit, conceal and transport narcotics, to-wit: Heroin, and said narcotics were unlawfully possessed by an occupant of the car, to-wit: one Kenneth Greenway, now deceased.”

[117]

The automobile in question, a Cadillac coupé, was found by the police early on the morning of October 22, 1950, parked near a byway on Twin Peaks in San Francisco. Two dead men were in the front seat. One was Edwin Cavness, and the other Kenneth Greenway. Each man had died as the result of a bullet wound, and one Sherman Arnold was afterward tried and convicted for killing these men.

(People

v.

Arnold,

108 Cal.App.2d 719 [239 P.2d 449].)

When the police inspector approached the car, the body of Cavness occupied the driver’s position behind the steering wheel. The body of Greenway was also on the driver’s seat to the right of Cavness. On the floor of the car and within about two inches of Greenway’s outstretched hand was a bindle of heroin. Another package of heroin was found concealed in the fold of the front seat directly behind the body of Cavness. The settled statement of ° facts on appeal recites that: “There was no evidence offered or produced bv either one of the interveners in this case showing or tending to show or indicate, directly or indirectly, that anv person other than the deceased Cavness and the deceased Greenway had placed the narcotics in the position in the automobile in which they-were found.” Appellant thp mother of Oarniess and the registered owner of the Cadillac, testified that he had her permission to use the car on the occasion of his death. The fact that her consent and permission was so given is not disputed.