Transbay Construction Co. v. Superior Court

SPENCE, J. Petitioner seeks the annulment of an order of the respondent coyrt adjudging petitioner in contempt for failure to comply with an order of said court permitting the inspection of certain documents and records.

Said orders were made in an action entitled Kent v. Transbay Construction Co., being action number 260969 in the files of the respondent court. In said action plaintiff sued to recover wages alleged to have become due from defendant to plaintiff’s assignors while working for defendant in the City and County of San Francisco on the substructure of the Bay Bridge. On September 17, 1935, and after notice duly served upon defendant, the respondent court made its order granting plaintiff’s motion for such inspection and ordered defendant to permit such inspection in the City and County of San Francisco within thirty days. Defendant failed to comply with said order and an order to show cause was issued. Defendant appeared in response to said order to show cause and urged that the order for inspection was in excess of the jurisdiction of the court in that it ordered defendant to permit such inspection in the City and County of San Francisco while the documents and records referred to in said order were then kept at Hetch Hetchy, where defendant was engaged in work upon the O’Shaughnessy dam. The respondent court took the position that the order for inspection was not in excess of its jurisdiction and therefore made an order on January 20, 1936, adjudging defendant in contempt of court. Said order recites the willingness of defendant to permit said inspection at Hetch Hetchy but further recites defendant’s failure and refusal to permit said inspection in the City and County of San Francisco as ordered by the court. A fine of $500 was imposed upon defendant but a stay of fifteen days was given and it was provided that the trial court would entertain a motion to set aside the order of contempt in the event that defendant complied with the previous order within that time. Defendant then filed its petition in this court seeking a writ of review.

In this proceeding petitioner’s main contention is that the original order of September 17, 1925, was in excess of the jurisdiction of the respondent court as it indirectly required the transportation by petitioner of certain documents and records from the place where they were kept in one part [568]of the state to another part of the state for the. purpose of said inspection. In our opinion this contention may not be sustained. In this proceeding we are cbncerned solely with the question of whether the respondent court exceeded its jurisdiction (4 Cal. Jur. 1022, sec. 4). Petitioner hás cited us to no authority- to sustain its claim that the trial court exceeded its jurisdiction and we know of none. In fact there are numerous authorities upholding the right of state courts to require the production of documents and records in one state, even though the documents and records are kept at the principal place of business of the party in another state. (Hammond Packing Co. v. State of Arkansas, 212 U. S. 322 [29 Sup. Ct. 370, 53 L. Ed. 530, 15 Ann. Cas. 645]; Kentucky Finance Corp. v. Paramount Auto Exchange Corp., 171 Wis. 586 [178 N. W. 9]; Martin v. D. B. Martin Co., 10 Del. Ch. 211 [88 Atl. 612, 102 Atl. 373]; State v. Jessup & Moore Paper Co., 1 Boyce (24 Del.), 379 [77 Atl. 16, 30 L. R. A. (N. S.) 290].) We therefore believe that there can be no question of the jurisdiction of the respondent court to require the production of the documents and records at the City and County of San Francisco even though said documents and records were then kept at some other place within thp state.