Hinshaw v. Superior Court

THE COURT.

Prohibition. Petitioners here were defendants in a certain action brought in the superior court by the Los Angeles County Flood Control District. That action was prosecuted to secure, by condemnation, certain lands for the uses of said district in the carrying out of the purposes described in the statute under which such district was organized. The complaint in the action set forth the different steps and proceedings had and taken by the board of supervisors preliminary to the commencement of the suit, and showed that the public use and necessity demanded that the property described be acquired by the there plaintiff. None of these petitioners made any denial as to the issues tendered by these preliminary allegations of the complaint; they did take issue as to the value of the land sought to be taken, and this issue was submitted to a jury, which returned a verdict thereon. Plaintiff was dissatisfied with the

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finding made by the jury and within ten days after verdict served its notice of intention to move for a new trial, which motion was not brought on for hearing until after ninety days had expired subsequent to the entry of the verdict. When the motion came on for hearing, petitioners here, defendants in that case, objected to any consideration of the motion on the ground that such a motion was required to be disposed of within ninety days after the verdict of the jury, and that no authority resided in the court to act upon the same. This contention was made agreeable to the provisions of section 660 of the Code of Civil Procedure. However, at the time the first notice was given, no findings had been made in the action by the trial judge; but findings were subsequently made and thereafter a new notice of intention to move for a new trial was served and filed by the plaiixtiff there and the motion came on for heaxdng on the first day of December, 1919. The defendants, these petitioners, then objected that the court had not jurisdiction to rule upon the motion, basing the contention upon the same provisions of the section cited. . The court, according to the petition here, heard the motion, took the same under advisement, and, as here alleged, “persists in entertaining said motion, and threatens to, and will unless restrained and prohibited from so doing, consider and grant a new trial in said cause.” Under this situation, the objecting defendants petitioned this court for a writ of prohibition. A preliminary writ was issued and hearing has been had. It is admitted by petitioners that, if it was the duty of the superior court to make further findings of fact supplementing the verdict of the jury, then the second motion for a new trial, as noticed, was in time and the court had jurisdiction to consider and determine it. [1] The contention that the verdict of the jury constituted the decision after “trial,” within the meaning of section 659 of the Code of Civil Procedure, rests upon the showing that, as petitioners did not controvert, by answer, any of the allegations of the complaint of respondent, except to raise the issue as to the amount of damages, all facts alleged, and not controverted, would be conclusively presumed to exist without proof, and hence require no finding. After a very careful consideration of the argument, we are not prepared to agree with petitioner's. that, in the action of eminent domain, the trial court has no function