Cecil v. Superior Court

140 P.2d 125, 59 Cal. App. 2d 793, 1943 Cal. App. LEXIS 384
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 23, 1943
DocketCiv. 14048
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 140 P.2d 125 (Cecil v. Superior Court) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cecil v. Superior Court, 140 P.2d 125, 59 Cal. App. 2d 793, 1943 Cal. App. LEXIS 384 (Cal. Ct. App. 1943).

Opinions

SHINN, Acting P. J.

The Director of Agriculture of the State of California, who is the petitioner in this proceeding in prohibition, seeks to stay further steps in a mandamus proceeding pending against him in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, upon the ground that his motion for change of venue to the county of his residence (Sacramento) was improperly denied.

It is not questioned that petitioner did reside in the county of Sacramento at the time the proceeding was instituted in the superior court and at the time of his motion for change of venue. It is conceded that he was not entitled to the order he sought if the “cause or some part thereof” which is the basis of the mandamus proceeding arose in Los Angeles County and if that proceeding is one directed against a public officer for an act done by him in virtue of his office. Respondent contends that the mandamus proceeding is such a proceeding and that the cause arose in Los Angeles County. We are obliged to agree with these contentions and to hold that that proceeding is triable in Los Angeles County under section 393(b) of the Code of Civil Procedure, for this section, if it applies, takes precedence over section 395, Code of Civil Procedure, which requires that the place of trial be changed to the county of defendant’s residence in certain other cases.

Arden Farms Company, a corporation, operates a milk plant at 1900 West Slauson Avenue, Los Angeles, and holds a milk distributor’s license issued by petitioner as Director of Agriculture of the State of California. The auditor of the Bureau of Marketing Enforcement of the department filed a complaint with the department accusing Arden of purchasing and receiving in Los Angeles County certain quantities of fluid milk, using the same in the manufacture of ice cream and paying the producers therefor lower prices than those which had been established under and in accordance with the provisions of the Agricultural' Code, by which complaint and proceedings to be had thereunder it was sought to have revoked the license of Arden ás a distributor of fluid milk and to require Arden to do any and all other things which the [795]*795Director of Agriculture might deem fitting and proper in accordance with his powers and the provisions of law applicable thereto. After notice to Arden a hearing on the complaint was held in Los Angeles County, evidence was taken before a representative of the department, the matter was submitted, and the Director of Agriculture made an order at his office in Sacramento revoking the license of Arden as a milk distributor, as of a date four weeks after the date of the order.

A further provision of the order was that if Arden should, before the effective date of the revocation, pay to Central Milk Sales Agency, an association of producers from which Arden had made the purchases in question, some $16,000, which represented the total amount of the alleged underpayments as found by the director, Arden would have the right to petition the director to modify or set aside the order. Arden declined to pay the sum and five days before the date when the revocation would have become absolute brought the proceeding in mandate for a retrial of the issues involved in the proceeding before the department and seeking revocation of the order which conditionally revoked its license and an injunction against interference with its business by reason of said order. The grounds upon which the relief was sought are not material to a decision of the question of petitioner’s right to a change of venue.

The question before us has not been passed upon by our courts in any of the reported cases. There have been decisions construing the applicable provisions of section 393 of the Code of Civil Procedure, but these tend more strongly toward the contention of respondent than that of appellant.

It is not contended by petitioner that the act of the director in revoking the permit was not an act done by him in virtue of his office. The attorney general does contend, however, that the proceeding in mandamus is not directed against that act but only against threatened future acts, and it is also urged that the cause which Arden is prosecuting in the superior court arose in Sacramento County because the director signed the order there. We regard these positions as untenable.

McMillan v. Richards, (1858) 9 Cal. 365 [70 Am.Dec. 655], was in mandate to compel the sheriff to issue a deed. In Bonestell, Richardson & Co. v. Curry, (1908) 153 Cal. 418 [95 P. 887], it was sought to enjoin the secretary of state [796]*796and certain other state officers from entering into and carrying out a contract to purchase paper for the state printer’s office, which had been awarded by the state officers to a paper company. State Commission in Lunacy v. Welch, (1908) 154 Cal. 775 [99 P. 181], was a proceeding in mandamus against the Treasurer of San Benito County to compel him to pay moneys into the state treasury. Bloom v. Oroville-Wyandotte Irr. Dist., (1939) 34 Cal.App.2d 102 [93 P.2d 164], was in mandamus to require the respondents to pay money on bond obligations of an irrigation district and to levy an assessment in order to raise the money. In the McMillan case the court emphasized that the statute related to "affirmative acts of the officer by which in the execution of process or otherwise he interferes with the property or rights of third persons, and not to mere omissions or neglect of official duty.” None of the cases has done more than hold that acts which the officer has failed to do or which he will do unless enjoined therefrom are not acts done within the meaning of the section and which provide the substance of the cause of action. The Bonestell case, supra, (153 Cal. 418) upon which petitioner places his principal reliance, did not decide the questions which are before us. In referring to the decision in the McMillan case it was said (p. 420): "This construction contemplates only such affirmative acts of an officer as directly interfere with the personal rights or property of the person complaining, such as wrongful arrest, trespass, conversion, etc. The complaint in the case at bar shows no such ease.” Most assuredly Arden is prosecuting a cause for redress _ against interference with its personal rights and property. The Director of Agriculture has gone into the county of Los Angeles, has inquired into alleged violations of law by Arden, and has issued an order which will put an end to Arden’s business as a distributor of milk by revoking its license, unless such revocation is avoided by the payment of an additional sum for milk produced, as fixed by the findings of the department. Or we may say that Arden has been assessed some $16,000 because of the manner in which it has conducted its business in the county of Los Angeles, and if it fails to pay that amount, the right to carry on its business in and from the county of Los Angeles will be ended by the revocation of its license. We are not considering a mere general order issued by the Director of Agriculture applicable alike to all milk distributors in the state or to those engaged in certain branches of the industry, but an adjudication relating to [797]*797particular practices and transactions of a single milk distributor engaged in business in Los Angeles County and which, directly affects its property located in its principal place of business.

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Bluebook (online)
140 P.2d 125, 59 Cal. App. 2d 793, 1943 Cal. App. LEXIS 384, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cecil-v-superior-court-calctapp-1943.