Funeral Directors Ass'n v. Board of Funeral Directors & Embalmers

McCOMB, J. This is an appeal from a judgment predicated upon an order sustaining a demurrer without leave to amend to appellant’s petition for a writ of mandate to require respondents, Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers, to vacate an order modifying a judgment of suspension of the Armstrong Family’s license to practice embalming.

The facts so far as material are:

On July 30, 1938, after charges were duly filed and a hearing held thereon, respondents in intervention’s (hereinafter referred to as the licensee) license to practice the art of embalming was suspended for a period of ninety days, the order to be effective upon the service of a certified copy thereof on the licensee. Service was made on September 12, 1938. On September 13, 1938, the licensee obtained an alternative writ of mandate from the superior court directing respondent board to show cause why the judgment of suspension against the licensee should not be annulled. Thereafter upon a hearing in the superior court the alternative writ was discharged and the licensee appealed from the order of the superior court to the District Court of Appeal. On March 18, 1941, the appeal was dismissed by stipulation of the parties and on the same date respondent board made an order suspending its former order of July 30,1938, and placing the licensee on probation for one year.

On August 22, 1941, appellant, an incorporated nonprofit association, composed of numerous funeral directors and embalmers operating and doing business in the city of Los Angeles, filed a petition in the superior court seeking a writ of mandate requiring respondent board to annul the order of March 18,1938, placing the licensee on probation for one year. To this petition respondents and the licensee filed demurrers on the ground, among others, that appellant (petitioner in the superior court) was not entitled'to maintain an action for a writ of mandate since it was not a- party “beneficially in[313]terested” as required by section 1086 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

This is the sole question necessary for us to determine:

Is appellant a party “beneficially interested,” as the phrase is used in section 1086 of the Code of Civil Procedure, in the orders made by respondent board on July 30,1938, and March 18,1941?

This question must be answered in the negative and is governed by the following rules of law: