Chuck v. Quan Wo Chong Co.

22 P. 594, 81 Cal. 222, 1889 Cal. LEXIS 1019
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 19, 1889
DocketNo. 13397
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 22 P. 594 (Chuck v. Quan Wo Chong Co.) 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
Chuck v. Quan Wo Chong Co., 22 P. 594, 81 Cal. 222, 1889 Cal. LEXIS 1019 (Cal. 1889).

Opinion

Works, J.

This was an action to recover the possession of certain real estate in the city of San Francisco under the landlord and tenant act, and for the recovery of treble rents for its detention. Trial was had, and judgment rendered in favor of the plaintiff, and a writ of possession was duly issued and placed in the hands of the sheriff. The writ was partially executed when application was made by the defendant, asking that the judge of the court direct that proceedings be stayed on his filing the necessary undertaking. The order was made and a bond was given, but the sheriff declined to stay proceedings or to return the property that had been taken into possession by him to the defendant. The defendant then made application to the court for a rule [224]*224upon the sheriff to show cause why further proceedings should not be stayed and the property returned and restored to the defendant. The order to show cause was duly issued, and after a hearing, the court below discharged the rule and declined to restore the defendant to possession. This appeal is from the last-named order, discharging the rule to show cause, and refusing to order the sheriff to restore the property to the defendant.

It is claimed, on the part of the defendant, that after the order directing a stay of proceedings- upon the giving of a stay bond, and the due execution of such bond, that the court below had no further power or jurisdiction in the matter, and that the defendant was entitled upon the execution of such bond to the immediate restoration of the property. On the other hand, the plaintiff and respondent contends that at the time the first order staying proceedings was made, and the bond executed, the writ of restitution had been fully executed, and the plaintiff put in possession of the property, and that for that reason the order upon the sheriff was inoperative, and that he could not restore the property to the defendant. ' ■ ,

The main question therefore is,' whether or not the writ of restitution had been fully executed at the time the first order for a stay of proceedings was given. In the answer of the plaintiff to the order to show cause why the proceedings should not be stayed, and the property be restored to the defendant, it was averred “ that at the hour of eleven o’clock, or thereabouts, on said twenty-second day of December, 1888, the sheriff of the city and county of San Francisco fully executed said writ so far as the same required the delivery of the possession of said premises by formally delivering over the possession thereof to plaintiff’s agents, and that this plaintiff by his agents has held the continual and exclusive possession thereof ever since said time, and that he has refused, and still refuses, to allow the defendant [225]*225to enter thereon; that after the sheriff had taken away from said premises a portion of the personal property levied upon, the order of this honorable court staying further proceedings was served upon said sheriff, or his deputy, and that thereafter, for the protection of said sheriff, and for the protection of said defendant, and for the protection of this plaintiff, this plaintiff granted permission to said sheriff to place one or more persons on said premises, whose business it should be to look after the personal property belonging to defendant thereon; that under the license of, this plaintiff, granted as aforesaid, said sheriff has had one or more persons upon such premises in charge of said personal property, but that said persons claim no right whatever to the possession of the premises, and that this plaintiff is now, and ever since the delivery of the possession to him as aforesaid has been, in the exclusive possession thereof; that plaintiff’s agent in charge of said property is not now, nor has he been at any time mentioned herein, in the employ of the sheriff’s office; that the writ of possession issued upon plaintiff’s judgment was fully executed upon the part of the sheriff prior to any stay of execution herein; that plaintiff has obtained possession of said premises by virtue of his judgment herein, and in strict accordance with law, and if the defendant, through failure to obtain a stay of proceedings prior to the execution of plaintiff’s writ, has suffered, it is not in the power of this court to relieve it from the consequences of its laches at the expense of plaintiff’s rights.”

It further appears, from the affidavit of one John O’Shea, that during all of the times mentioned he was in the employ of the sheriff of the city and county of San Francisco, and that he was in possession of the property, and was “then and there instructed by the sheriff that the possession of said premises had been surrendered to Lee Chuck, the plaintiff above-named, and that said sheriff had no further right to the possession thereof; [226]*226and that ever since said time he has been in charge of .the personal property belonging to the defendant which is upon said premises; that he still continues to remain upon said premises, but that ever since the delivery thereof to plaintiff as aforesaid, he has remained thereon by the license of said plaintiff, and that at no time since has he, nor has any other agent or employee of said sheriff, been in possession of said premises, but that the said Lee Chuck ever since said time has continued in possession thereof.”

The return of the sheriff, which was introduced in evidence, is as follows: “I hereby certify that in obedience to the writ of possession issued in the case of Lee Chuck v. Quan Wo Chong and Company, I did, on the twenty-second day of December, 1888, at eleven o’clock, a. m., cause the therein-named plaintiff to have quiet and peaceable possession of the premises therein described;.that on the twenty-first day of December, 1888, under and by virtue of the said writ of possession, I levied upon certain personal property situate in said premises, and removed a portion of the same for safe-keeping to the warehouse of Davis, Haber, and Company, auctioneers, San Francisco, where the same will' be sold at public auction, at sheriff’s sale, to satisfy the judgment recovered by the plaintiff in the said action. The other portion of the personal property so levied upon I have not been able to remove, as while engaged in the act of removing, an order of this court commanding me to release the property so levied upon was served upon one, and I at once stayed all proceedings under said writ. This is a partial return only to the said writ, and is made under an order of court this day made and entered.”

. It appears from these proceedings that the premises involved in this litigation were occupied and used by the defendant as a mercantile establishment, and the personal property therein was a stock of merchandise.

The return of the sheriff and other evidence clearly [227]*227shows that at the time the first order staying execution of the writ was made and the stay bond executed, the sheriff had only taken out of the building so much of the personal property as was necessary to satisfy the money judgment recovered by the plaintiff, and that the balance of the property still remained in the building. There was the utmost expedition on the part of the attorney for the plaintiff to procure his writ and obtain possession of the property, and this was done before the defendant or its attorney had notice that the judgment had been rendered, and before an opportunity to procure an order directing a stay of proceeding and give the necessary bond was given.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
22 P. 594, 81 Cal. 222, 1889 Cal. LEXIS 1019, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chuck-v-quan-wo-chong-co-cal-1889.