Clutter v. Superior Court

ARCHBALD, J., pro tem. Petitioner intervened in an action for ejectment and for damages for withholding the possession of certain real property pending in respondent superior court, and filed his cross-complaint in another similar action pending therein in which he was named as a defendant, claiming title to the real property involved therein. Said actions were consolidated and a judgment followed quieting title to the property in petitioner. An appeal was taken from the consolidated judgment, which resulted in a reversal with the following direction: “The judgment is reversed and the trial court is directed to enter judgment for plaintiffs in accordance with the views expressed in this opinion.” (Conlin v. Blanchard, 219 Cal. 632 [28 Pac. (2d) 12].) Following the filing of the renvittitw after such decision on appeal, and on application of plaintiffs in said consolidated action, a judgment was entered therein by [137]respondent court decreeing that plaintiffs, who are the heirs at law of Sam Huston Collins, deceased, “are the owners”, subject to administration of the estate of said decedent, “and are entitled to the possession” of said real property; that petitioner and his predecessors wrongfully entered into possession of said property and that “plaintiffs shall have the necessary writ or writs from this court to carry into effect this judgment”. After providing for the recovery of costs of suit by plaintiffs from petitioner, the judgment continued: “That this cause be, and the same is, hereby continued for the purpose of taking evidence and stating the account of the reasonable rental value of said property, and for damages for the unlawful withholding of the same since June 17, 1930, and for such further proceedings in connection with the statement of said account as shall be proper.”

Petitioner here contends that respondent court had no jurisdiction to do anything more than enter judgment as directed, and seeks to restrain such further proceedings determining the issue of damages for the unlawful withholding of said property or an accounting for the reasonable rental value thereof.

The Supreme Court in its decision on appeal held that the proceedings upon which petitioner’s claim of title was based were void, and that he acquired such title after plaintiffs had “asserted their rights and filed their lis pendens Under the circumstances petitioner had no right, title or interest in and to said property. His possession was wrongful ab initio, and plaintiffs had a right to unite in their complaint to recover said property a claim for damages for the withholding thereof and for the rents and the profits of the same. (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 427 [2].) The record before us shows that plaintiffs united said claims in their complaint, but no evidence was introduced as to such damages or such rents and profits on the trial. If the judgment entered on the trial had been affirmed, both issues would have been finally determined against them. The judgment, however, was reversed, and a new judgment as to the claim of possession has been entered in accordance with the directions given. That issue has been finally determined. Not so, however, the issue as to damages or rents; and we see no reason why such issue should not now be determined in the original action. Petitioner does not deny the right