Manoogian v. Superior Court

FINLAYSON, P. J.

This is an original application for a writ of review to annul two orders of the superior court of Imperial County, made in the

Matter of the Estate of M. Manoogian, Deceased,

on, respectively, July 24, 1919, and March 3, 1920, and under which petitioner assumes that the special administrator claims authority for the payment by him of six thousand dollars, commission for the picking, packing, shipping, and marketing of certain grapes, and the payment of the further sum of nine thousand dollars to a certain bank to satisfy notes that the decedent, in his lifetime, had executed to the bank, and secured by a chattel mortgage on the grapes. No creditor’s claim, as provided by section 1494 of the Code of Civil Procedure, was ever filed or presented for either of these disbursements. Petitioner claims that neither payment was authorized by the orders here sought to be annulled, for the reason that each order was, as she claims, in excess of the court’s jurisdiction.

Petitioner is the widow of Manoog Manoogian, deceased, and as such one of his heirs. Her husband died intestate on July 7, 1918, leaving an estate in Imperial County consisting, in part, of a crop of perishable fruit, viz., a crop of grapes. This grape crop, the intestate, in his lifetime, had mortgaged to the American State Bank of Brawley to secure his notes to the bank for twelve thousand dollars. At

[611]

the time of Ms death the notes were overdue, and the bank, which had taken possession of the crop under the mortgage, was then actually engaged in picking, packing, shipping, and marketing the grapes. The intestate, prior to his death, had entered into a contract with J. Schoenburg Company to do the picking, packing, shipping, and marketing. On July 10, 1918, Peter P. Hovley was appointed special administrator. The original minute entry of the order appointing Hovley was no more than the entry of an order appointing him special administrator, and did not purport to confer upon him any special powers. The bank refused to deliver to the special administrator any of the grapes uMess and until the balance due to it on the notes, amounting to about nine thousand dollars, was paid. "Wherefore the special administrator filed in the superior court a petition setting forth the facts relative to the notes and mortgage to the bank and the bank’s refusal to surrender possession of the grapes unless paid the balance due it; also the decedent’s arrangement with J. Schoenburg Company. Thereupon the court, on July 24, 1919, made its order, entered