John Breuner Co. v. Superior Court

DOOLING, J. This is an original proceeding in certiorari to review an order of the superior court adjudging James G. Bryant, as Director of the Department of Employment of the State of California, not to be in contempt. To understand the questions involved a review of the litigation between the parties is necessary.

On June 22, 1944, petitioner commenced an action to recover a refund of unemployment taxes paid by it and to remove certain charges from its account under the California Unemployment Insurance Act. This action resulted in a judgment in favor of petitioner ordering the refund of $35,-462 and the removal of charges from its account in the sum of $36,636, covering the years 1941, 1942 and 1943. This judgment was appealed and affirmed (John Breuner Company v. Bryant, 35 Cal.2d 897 [218 P.2d 4]) on May 11, 1950. Shortly thereafter the money judgment was paid to petitioner and the entries made in petitioner’s “Employer Reserve Account Ledger ’ ’ which led to the contempt proceeding against Bryant.

When unemployment taxes are paid by an employer they are entered in an account headed “Employer Contributions.” The accounts are open accounts so that the contributions of one year are added to the total theretofore paid in previous years by the same employer. When benefits are paid to employees of this employer the amounts are entered in a parallel column headed “Insurance Charges.” The difference between the total contributions and the total benefit payments is then entered in a third column headed “Reserve Balance. ’ ’

What Bryant through a subordinate in his department actually did in compliance with petitioner’s judgment was to deduct from the amount shown in the “Insurance Charges” column the sum of $36,636 as directed by the judgment and to deduct from “Employer Contributions” the amount of $35,462 paid to petitioner pursuant to the judgment. The [306]difference between the two accounts as thus altered was thereby increased by the sum of $1,174 which was added to the “Reserve Balance” to increase it by that amount. Actually this was accomplished by a bookkeeping shortcut in which the sum of $1,174 was added to the petitioner’s “Reserve Balance,” and the following notation entered on the reverse of the sheet:

“The previous reserve of the 11th Rating Period has been adjusted as follows pursuant to court order

“charges removed.................... $36,636.00