Title I. & T. Co. v. Superior Court

RICHARDS, J.,

pro tem.

This application for a writ of prohibition was presented to the district court of appeal for

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the sécond appellate district and an alternative writ issued. Upon the hearing thus ordered the justices of that court, being unable to agree as to whether a permanent writ should issue, the matter was transferred to this court for decision.

The facts upon which the application for the writ was based are briefly these: One Charles C. Branch commenced an action in the superior court of the county of Los Angeles against George C. Peckham and H. E. Branch, and in said action recovered judgment against said defendants in the sum of $579.75 and costs of suit. Thereafter, and on March

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1918, an execution was issued upon such judgment in the usual form, which was delivered to the sheriff of said county for levy. On March 8, 1918, the said sheriff levied said execution upon the petitioner herein, by notifying said petitioner that all moneys, goods, credits, and debts due or owing, or any personal property in petitioner’s possession or under its control belonging to said defendants, and particularly any escrow by which defendant H. E. Branch was to receive money from Gillman Bros., or others, for the sale of Gillman’s Belief Hot Springs, formerly known as San Jacinto Hot Springs of San Jacinto, California, were attached by virtue of the execution, a copy of which was delivered to the petitioner. To this levy and garnishment the petitioner made no reply, whereupon and on May 1, 1910, upon the filing of an affidavit of L. B. Bandall, one of the attorneys of record of the plaintiff in said action, setting forth the fact of said garnishment and of the failure of the petitioner herein to reply thereto, and averring “that the Title Insurance and Trust Company of Los Angeles, California, has in its possession and under its control money and personal property belonging to the defendant H. E. Branch,” and further deposing that according to the information and belief of the affiant, “said' Title Insurance and Trust Company has in its possession or under its control certain books, papers, and documents showing the condition and details of the said assets of said defendant,” and thereupon praying for an order of said court requiring the officers of said petitioner to appear and be before said court at a designated time, there to “answer such questions as may be proper concerning the assets of said defendant H. E. Branch in the hands of or under the control of said Title Insurance and Trust Company, producing with them at said time and place all books, papers, and documents necessary to