Anderson v. County of El Dorado

REGAN, J. Emmett Anderson and Ruth Ellen Anderson filed a “Petition for Writ of Mandate Or Other Appropriate Relief” in the Superior Court, County of El Dorado, praying that the court direct the respondents (in particular, the El Dorado County Department of . Welfare) to cease and desist from violating rules and regulations of the State Department of Social Welfare and the equal protection clauses of the federal and state Constitutions.

Petitioners since 1962 have been duly licensed operators of a home for aged persons, pursuant to a license issued by the State Department of Social Welfare.1 The department is authorized by section 16201 of said code to make such rules and regulations as it deems best for the government of such institutions. In their suit, petitioners contend that the statutory provisions governing licensed homes for the aged, and the rules and regulations promulgated .thereunder, imposed some sort of affirmative duty on .the part of the respondents towards operators of the homes, and that the local welfare department had adopted a wilful course of conduct depriving petitioners of their rights. Judgment was entered for respondents and the petition was denied.

Petitioners filed a timely notice of appeal and elected to proceed on the clerk’s transcript alone, consisting of the Petition for Writ of Mandate, Order to Show Cause, Answer to Petition, Memorandum of Counsel filed with the trial court, Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law and the Judgment. There has been no augmentation of the record. The record contains no total or partial reporter’s transcript nor an agreed or settled statement. This type of appeal is usually referred to as a judgment roll appeal. (Estate of Larson, 92 Cal.App.2d 267, 268 [206 P.2d 852]; see also Olson v. City of Hawthorne, 235 Cal.App.2d 51, 52 [45 Cal.Rptr. 48].) On such an appeal since “the evidence is not before this'court, we are confined to a determination of the questions as to whether the complaint states a cause of action; whether the findings are within the issues; whether the judgment is supported by the findings and whether reversible error appears upon the face of the record.” (Montaldo v. Hires Bottling Co., 59 Cal.App.2d 642, 646 [139 P.2d 666]; Estate of Larson, supra, [61392] Cal.App.2d at p. 268; see 3 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (1954) Appeal, §§ 80-81, pp. 2239-2243; see also Cal. Rules of Court, rule 52.2)

In White v. Jones, 136 Cal.App.2d 567, 571 [288 P.2d 913], it is stated: “Under the rule as amended the presumptions in support of the judgment that were made prior to the adoption of the Rules on Appeal apply except as expressly limited by rule 52, and it is not presumed, in the absence of the oral proceedings being made a part of the record on appeal pursuant to one of the methods provided for by the rules, that the record on appeal contains all matter material to the determination of the appeal. Therefore we must presume that the trial court received evidence which would support its findings. ’ ’