In Re Drew

SHAW, C. J.

The petitioner applies for a writ of

habeas corpus

to discharge him from custody under an order of arrest issued by the superior court of Mendocino County upon a judgment of that court declaring him guilty of contempt of court, and imposing a penalty of five days’ imprisonment and five hundred dollars fine.

The judgment of contempt was based on an affidavit showing that in an action entitled

Phil Lobree

v.

L. E. White Lumber Co. et al.,

53 Cal. App. 85 [199 Pac. 821], judgment had been duly rendered and entered against said lumber

company;

that thereupon proceedings supplementary to execution had been duly instituted and an examination had been ordered before one Ornbaum, who was appointed referee for that purpose, that Drew had been ordered to appear before said Ornbaum in the city and county of San Francisco, at a specified time and place, for the purpose of being examined in pursuance of said proceeding, and that he had failed to appear in obedience to the order of the court. The judgment of contempt recites the facts upon which it was based.

In his present petition for a writ of

habeas corpus

the petitioner claims that there are many technical defects in the affidavit and proceedings upon which he was adjudged guilty of contempt and in the proceeding supplementary to execution upon the judgment aforesaid. None of these, except those hereinafter mentioned, is of any consequence, as they do not go to the jurisdiction of the court to institute the proceedings in contempt and render the, judg

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ment thereon. The main points of the petition are: (1) That the order of examination before the referee was void because the examination was to be held in San Francisco and the judgment was rendered in Mendocino County, and also because the referee, Ornbaum, resided in San Francisco County, that not being the county in which the judgment was rendered; (2) because prior to the beginning of the action in which the judgment against the L. E. White Lumber Company was rendered the said lumber company had ceased to exist as a corporation by reason of its having failed to pay its annual license tax as required by law, and that in consequence of that fact no valid judgment could be rendered against it.