Drew v. Superior Court

ELLISON, P. J.,

pro

tem.

Petition for a writ of prohibition, asking that the superior court of Mendocino County be prevented from hearing or deciding a proceeding instituted in said court against said petitioner for an alleged contempt of court.

The record herein shows that on the twenty-eighth day of October, 1918, in an action pending in said superior court, wherein Phil Lobree was plaintiff and L. E. White Company, a corporation, and Goodyear Redwood Company, a corporation, were defendants, the plaintiff recovered a judgment against the defendants for the sum of $7,150, interest and costs.

On the fourth day of August, 1919, Robert Duncan, attorney for the plaintiff in said action, made and filed and presented to the judge of said court his affidavit, wherein he stated, in substance, the fact of the rendition of said judgment, the issuance of execution thereon and its return wholly unsatisfied; that F. C. Drew was then, and at all times since the beginning of said action had been, the president and general manager of said L. E. White Company; that said company owned property and had it in its possession or under its control, which it unjustly refused to apply to the satisfaction of said judgment, and that said Drew', as president and general manager, had property of said corporation in his possession or under his control, which he unjustly refuses to apply to the satisfaction of said judgment; that the corporation had books of account in the possession or under the control of said F. C. Drew showing properties belonging to said corporation, and particularly of the receipt of money from the sale of its properties to the Goodyear Redwood Company and the amounts and disbursements thereof, and prayed that a referee be

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appointed in San Francisco, and that an order be made directing said L. E. White Lumber Company; by its president and its general manager and other officers, to appear before said referee at a time and place to be named, and answer concerning the property of said corporation and produce its books showing the property and moneys belonging to it.

Upon the presentation of this affidavit said court made an order appointing Casper A. Ornbaum referee, and directed and ordered said L. E. White Lumber Company, by its president and general manager, F. C. Drew and F. C. Drew, to appear before said Ornbaum at a place designated, on the fourteenth day of August, 1919, at 2 o’clock P. M., and submit to examination and make discovery under oath concerning the property of said corporation, and to bring its books, etc.