Brichman v. Ross

8 P. 316, 67 Cal. 601, 1885 Cal. LEXIS 705
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 22, 1885
DocketNo. 9072
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 8 P. 316 (Brichman v. Ross) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brichman v. Ross, 8 P. 316, 67 Cal. 601, 1885 Cal. LEXIS 705 (Cal. 1885).

Opinion

Searls, C.

Action to recover personal property. Plaintiff had judgment, /rom which and from an order denying a new trial defendant appeals. '

The verdict of the jury was rendered and judgment entered thereon December 7, 1882.

Notice of motion for a new trial was served and filed December 18, 1882, more than ten days after verdict and judgment, and respondent claims here for the first time, so far as is shown by the record, that the motion came too late, and that the validity of the proceedings, so far as involved in the motion for new trial, cannot be considered.

; 1. A party intending to move for a new trial must, within ten days after verdict, file with the clerk and serve upon the adverse party a notice of such intention. (Code Civ. Proc. .§ 659.)

2. The right to move for a new trial is statutory, and no power is given to the Superior Court, or a judge thereof, to extend the time for giving notice of such motion. Section 1054 of the Code of Civil Procedure does not authorize such order.

3. Objection, however, that a notice of motion for new trial is not given in time must be taken in the court below, or it will be deemed to have been waived, and the time extended by consent of parties, and such objection cannot be taken for the first time in this court. (Patrick v. Morse, 64 Cal. 462; Gray v. Nunan, 63 Cal. 220; Hobbs v. Duff, 43 Cal. 485; Hodgdon v. Griffin, 56 Cal. 610.)

It follows that the objection of respondent is untenable, because not taken in the court below.

It appears the action was brought to recover personal property, the furniture and fixtures in a restaurant, which according to the evidence, plaintiff had contracted to sell to one Flanders, [603]*603when the latter should pay the purchase price thereof, until which time plaintiff was to retain the title. Flanders paid a part of the purchase price, and was placed in possession of the furniture and engaged in the business of keeping a restaurant, using the furniture in question therein.

Defendant denies plaintiff’s ownership of the goods and chattels, avers that plaintiff took possession of the property under proceedings in claim and delivery in this action, and still retains such possession, and for a further answer avers that he is a constable in and for Empire township, county of Stanislaus, and that as such, he levied upon and took possession of the goods in question, under and by virtue of a writ of attachment issued out of a Justice’s Court, in an action in which one John Simon was plaintiff and E. Flanders was defendant.

That the property in dispute was owned by Flanders and was taken from his possession under said writ, which ran against his property, etc.

Defendant first offered in evidence the writ of attachment, which was objected to as insufficient to justify him as constable in seizing the property without proof of the regularity of the proceedings under which it issued. The objection was sustained by the court, whereupon the pleadings, summons, undertaking on attachment, and affidavit for attachment, as well as the writ, were offered in evidence.

Objection was made to the sufficiency of the affidavit for an attachment, which showed that defendant (Flanders) was indebted to him, the said plaintiff, in the sum of $141.14 on contract, but failed to show whether upon an exprsss or implied contract.

The objection was sustained and the papers excluded, and the rulings are assigned as error.

The first question presented is as to the sufficiency of a writ of attachment, regular upon its face, to justify the officer acting under it.

Ministerial officers are presumed to know the law, and are bound at their-peril to know the general jurisdiction of the courts, whose process they are called upon to enforce, and if they execute process which the court has no jurisdiction to issue, they are liable. (Freeman on Executions, § 100.)

[604]*604If, however, a writ is issued by the proper officer, in due form, in a case where he has jurisdiction and authority to exercise jurisdiction over the subject-matter of the writ, and there is nothing on the face of the writ showing it to be illegal, the officer to whom it is directed, and whose duty it is to execute it, may do so, and justify his acts thereunder by producing the writ, although from some cause not apparent on the face of the writ, the whole proceeding is irregular or void. (Freeman on Executions, § 101, and cases cited.)

The rule is the same in case of process issuing out of courts of limited jurisdiction. (Savercoul v. Boughton, 5 Wend. 170.) “A sheriff or other ministerial officer is justified in the execution of, and must execute all process and orders regular on their face and issued by competent authority, whatever may be the defect in the proceedings upon which they were issued.” (Pol. Code, § 4187.)

It is said by Drake in his work on Attachment, § 185 a:—

“ When the officer attaches property found in the possession of the defendant, he can always justify the levy by the production of the attachment writ, if the same was issued by a court or officer having lawful authority to issue it, and be in legal form. But when the property is found in the possession of a stranger claiming title, the mere production of the writ will not justify its seizure thereunder; it rests upon the officer to go further and prove that the attachment defendant was indebted to the attachment plaintiff. If in the attachment suit, judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff, that will establish the indebtedness of the defendant; if not, the officer must otherwise prove the indebtedness, in order to justify his proceeding.” (Thornburg v. Hand, 7 Cal. 554; Damon v. Bryant, 6 Pick. 411; Rinchey v. Stryker, 28 N. Y. 45; Horn v. Corvarubias, 51 Cal. 524; Sexey v. Adkinson, 34 Cal. 346.)

In the case last cited our Supreme Court held to the doctrine enunciated by Drake as above quoted, and in very nearly the language of that author.

In Babe v. Coyne, 53 Cal. 261, the writ under which a sheriff had made a levy, and the affidavit on which it was issued, were introduced in evidence, and this court held that it made out a prima facie case of justification of the seizure of the property, [605]*605notwithstanding the affidavit was originally insufficient, and was amended subsequent to the seizure. This was in a case where the property was in the possession of the defendant, and was attached as his property. Had the affidavit not been offered with the writ, the ruling would doubtless have been the same.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
8 P. 316, 67 Cal. 601, 1885 Cal. LEXIS 705, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brichman-v-ross-cal-1885.