Oldfield v. Superior Court

TYLER, J.,

pro

tem.

Petition for prohibition to restrain respondent court from proceeding to try issues claimed by petitioner to have been finally determined in former proceedings.

The present petition arises out of protracted litigation between different parties to acquire possession of certain securities and funds held by the California Bank. A history of that litigation is found in

California Bank

v.

Traeger,

215 Cal. 346 [10 Pac. (2d) 51], which was an action in inter-pleader to have the conflicting claims determined. For an understanding of the present petition a brief review of such

[582]

litigation is necessary. In 1926, Barney Oldfield, petitioner herein, obtained a judgment against J. M. Danziger, husband of Edith Wake Danziger. Oldfield then sought to levy execution against the funds in question, upon the claim that although the ostensible title was in Edith Wake Danziger by virtue of an assignment from a corporation known as Wake Development Company, J. M. Danziger, the judgment debtor, was the real owner thereof. Edith Wake Danziger, after the levy and on November 7, 1927, commenced an action against J. M. Danziger, her husband; Barney Oldfield, as a judgment creditor of J. M. Danziger; and Wm. I. Traeger, as sheriff of Los Angeles County, in which action she claimed title to the property under an assignment of a note and mortgage executed by -Milton Sills to Wake Development Company, in the hands of the California Bank, which assignment ran from the Wake Development Company to her.

The ease was tried and judgment was entered in favor of defendants, including defendant Barney Oldfield. The judgment decreed that Edith Wake Danziger was never the owner of the note and mortgage but that the same belonged to J. M. Danziger. This action was numbered 237604. An appeal from such judgment was taken by Edith Wake Danziger to this court, and afterwards dismissed, and the judgment became final.

On February 19, 1929, the California Bank, the custodian of said mortgage and money and upon which levy was made by Traeger in the cause last mentioned, filed an action in interpleader in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County against Wm. I. Traeger and others. This action was numbered 272076. The bank deposited the money and securities it held in court. The money and securities so deposited were the subject matter of case numbered 237604. The parties defendant to the interpleader action were Wm. I. Traeger, sheriff, who had levied execution upon the bank and said property upon the Oldfield judgment; also Edith Wake Danziger, who claimed all of said moneys and securities by virtue of the assignment to her from Wake Development Company, subject to a lien of Lina Danziger for $4,400. This assignment was based on the same instrument under which she claimed title in her action against Traeger, numbered 237604 above referred to, where it was adjudged that she had no