Hand v. Superior Court

SHAW, J.

This is an application for a writ of prohibition. Petitioner, who is a resident of Illinois, was plaintiff in an

[169]

action wherein Edwin M. Allen et al. were defendants, then pending in one of the courts of that state. He came here to attend the taking of depositions to be used in the trial of the case, and while present in the office of the commissioner before whom the depositions were made he was served with a summons in an action brought against him in the superior court of Los Angeles County. Claiming that by reason of the facts he was privileged from service of such process, he appeared specially and moved the court to quash and vacate service of the summons. This motion was denied; whereupon he filed this petition to restrain the court from further proceedings in the action.

[1]

The authorities of other jurisdictions involving the question as to what extent a nonresident party to an action attending the trial of the case is exempt from service of process issued in another action therein brought are by no means uniform. Many of them relate to the question of immunity granted witnesses from arrest while attending as such upon the trial of cases, the rights of whom, however, in this state are fixed by section 2067 of the Code of Civil Procedure. As to the rights of parties to actions, where they are nonresidents of the state wherein the trial is had, one line of argument is illustrated by

Burroughs

v.

Cocke & Willis,

56 Okl. 627, [L. R. A. 1916E, 1170, 156 Pac. 196], and

Cooper

v.

Wyman,

122 N. C. 784, [65 Am. St. Rep. 731, 29 S. E. 947], upholding the privilege of immunity to parties, while other cases, such as

Guynn

v.

McDaneld,