People ex rel. Grow v. Rosborough

By the Court, Shafter, J. Petition for a mandamus to be directed to the defendant, commanding him to settle' a statement, on motion for a new trial in Grow v. His Creditors.

It appears that Wetzel, one of the creditors, filed his written opposition to the petitioner’s discharge, on the ground of fraud. The issue was tried by a jury, who found fraud as alleged. Grow moved for a new trial, for errors of law and on the ground that the verdict was not justified by the evidence. .The Judge refused to settle a statement on new trial duly filed and submitted.

Proceedings in insolvency not “ special cases.”

Proceedings in insolvency are no longer to be regarded as “ special cases,” in the sense in which that phrase was applied to them prior to 1863, for by the amendments of the Constitution the jurisdiction became organic. To that extent the jurisdiction of the County Courts in insolvency rests upon the same foundation as the general jurisdiction of the District Courts, and that of the Supreme Court, both original and appellate.

We held, in Dorsey v. Barry, 24 Cal. 449, relied upon in argument, that- the jurisdiction in ’contested election cases was special — a statute creation ; that the proceedings were intended to be summary, and that the subject matter made it [417]essential that they should be so in order to make them of any avail, and that the special procedure was, withal, so complete in itself that it was manifestly the intention of the Legislature that the litigation should be kept to the method which the Act prescribed, and end where it ended; and, therefore, that that class of cases was not within the scope .of the one hum dred and ninety-third section of the Practice Act relating to new trials. But this reasoning has- nó application to proceedings in insolvency. The jurisdiction of the County Courts in insolvency is now, as has been remarked already, of constitutional significance. The proceedings under the statute, setting the jurisdiction in motion, are not intended to be summary or hurried, but are, at least so far as the trial of opposition is concerned, to be conducted according to the course of the common law in the main. Instead of its being necessary in the nature of the contest that judgment should be reached within a given interval, it is obvious that there is nothing to distinguish the controversy from litigation concerning property, or other personal interests at large.