People v. One 1959 Plymouth Sedan

TOBRINER, J.

Appellant Galvin, the registered owner of the involved automobile, and appellant First Western Bank and Trust Company, the legal owner, appeal from a judgment declaring the automobile forfeited to the State of California because it “was used to unlawfully keep, deposit, and transport narcotics” in violation of section 11610 of the Health and Safety Code. Appellants’ contentions that (1) the respondent did not produce sufficient evidence of violation of section 11610 to support the judgment of forfeiture, and (2) the trial court, sitting without a jury, committed prejudicial error, cannot be sustained. Respondent produced sufficient evidence from which the trier of fact properly could infer that the registered owner, when riding in the car immediately prior to his arrest, possessed narcotics. Nor did the trial judge’s remarks, though perhaps somewhat informal, constitute prejudicial error.

The testimony discloses that on May 31, 1959, at 11 p.m., Officers Bigarani and Cuneo, while walking east along Union Street in San Francisco, were informed that an accident had just occurred at the intersection of Union Street and Grant Avenue. They proceeded toward the intersection, met two men staggering down Union Street, stopped them, and took them to the scene of the accident. About 5 or 10 minutes later appellant Galvin approached the officers and admitted

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that he owned, and had driven, the car. Although Galvin testified at the trial he so informed the officers, he denied that he had been the driver. Officer Bigarani testified that Galvin appeared to be “under the influence of some type of intoxicant or stimulant” but “ [a]t this time it was hard to determine.” He also testified that the other four occupants of the car, the two men the officers had apprehended leaving the scene, and a man and woman at the scene, also appeared to have “either been drinking or using narcotics.” The officers found pills, believed to be barbiturates, in the possession of two of the passengers.

The officers found further evidence of narcotics on the trip to, and arrival at, the station. Officer Bigarani transported appellant Galvin to the police station in his private vehicle; Officer Cuneo took the other four people in the police wagon. On the way to the station in the police wagon another passenger threw down a cigarette package containing a “crutch” (used as a holder to smoke marijuana cigarettes). At the station the officers searched Galvin and found a small butt of a marijuana cigarette, called a “roach,” in the pocket of his jacket. Galvin denied knowledge of the roach. At the trial, Galvin likewise denied smoking marijuana or knowing that any of his apprehended companions did so, but he admitted the jacket belonged to him and that he had worn it in the ear. The officers booked Galvin for driving while under the influence of an intoxicant.