Garten v. Tibbitts

255 Cal. App. 2d 211, 63 Cal. Rptr. 69, 1967 Cal. App. LEXIS 1262
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 18, 1967
DocketCiv. No. 803
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 255 Cal. App. 2d 211 (Garten v. Tibbitts) 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
Garten v. Tibbitts, 255 Cal. App. 2d 211, 63 Cal. Rptr. 69, 1967 Cal. App. LEXIS 1262 (Cal. Ct. App. 1967).

Opinion

CONLEY, P. J.

Michael P. Garten, publisher of the “News-Ledser,” a paper of West Sacramento in Yolo County, filed a petition in the superior court to have its standing as a newspaper of general circulation in the county ascertained and established. (Gov. Code, § 6020.) In due course, the owner [208]*208and publisher of the “Woodland Record,” a competing newspaper in Yolo County filed' objections to the petition. After the publication of a requisite notice to the public, a formal hearing was held and the superior court denied the petition. While several points were urged against the granting of the petition, the case was decided on one issue only; the trial court correctly concluded that the “printing” of the paper on a monthly average for more than 50 percent of the year previous .to the filing of the petition took place in a county other than Yolo (Gov. Code, § 6003). The copies of the “News-Ledger” circulated to the subscribers were produced by the offset printing method. Generally speaking, all of the work, mechanical and otherwise, necessary to produce the master sheet df this weekly paper was done in Yolo County, but the press work, except for three issues, was effected in the City and County of San Francisco where the offset printing method was used; this process of duplication is based upon photography of the master sheet and not by the impression of type on paper.

The witness, Feher, testified on cross-examination:

,“Bx Mb. Fbiedman: . . . Mr. Feher, the papers that actually go.out to the subscribers which were duplicated or made in San Francisco- never had any impressing of type on that particular paper done in-West Sacramento, did they?
“A Mr. Friedman,' in the offset process, there is no impressing of type on paper except that which we do ourselves in our own plant. There is merely duplication. Transference of an"image from a negative to a master to a blanket, and it is the blanketi-^the rubber blanket that comes in contact with the paper. There is no type that comes in contact with the paper in the press work.
“Q So the answer to my question, am I correct, that the answer is yes, there is no impressing of type on the paper in West Sacramento that actually goes out to the individual subscriber ?
“ AI am afraid I will have to say yes.
“Fbiedman: .Thank you. . .
“Cqubt-: The actual paper received through the mail, the print or pictures,, whatever is on there, .is not done in West Sacramento no matter how it got there. It was placed on this paper in San Francisco?,
“A That’s correct, it isn’t impressed — not typed and pressed on paper.. ... • , ,- •-
“Coubt: However, this particular piece of paper didn’t receive the impression in Yolo County. It was in San Francisco at the time we are talking about ?
[209]*209“A Mr. Friedman, eo.uld you ask the question once more?
“Friedman: Answer the court’s question.
“Court: Yes. Suppose I subscribe to your paper. I get the paper through the mail. It is a physical piece of paper. Certain impressing on it, commonly printed matter and pictures there. At one time this is a blank piece of paper and then becomes colored with various images developed into large bluish pictures. Where did that paper pass from the blank stage to the stage where it had impressions on it?
“A At San Francisco.
“Friedman: And it came from the galvanized piece of—
“A It came from the original, similar to that.
“Friedman: It is transposed?
“A Transference of image from the master to the negative to the pressmaster, to a rubber blanket and there is no type impressed on paper to produce the final result. It is duplicated. It isn’t impressed with type. It is only transference of images done by chemical process so there is no type of any kind involved in the press work. ’ ’

Offset is a printing process in which the printing is done first on the rubber surface of a rotating cylinder. The impression is then transferred to paper by the pressure of other cylinders. The term offset describes the offsetting of the ink from the rubber; it is a planographic technique.

It is now general knowledge that offset is tending to replace the older forms of lithography in nearly every field. Offset lithography is usually done on a press having three cylinders; a lithographic plate is wrapped around the first cylinder. This plate is a sheet of aluminum or zinc about as thick as heavy paper. The plate prints on a second cylinder which is covered by a rubber blanket. The impression on the rubber is then printed on the blank paper carried by the third cylinder.

The process is being largely improved and refinements in the photographic methods for making the plates are being widely developed. The image of words and pictures to be printed is applied to the metal surface by a photographic process called photolithography. As the testimony indicates, a picture of the final proof (prepared in Yolo County) was taken in San Francisco and then, from the negative, the picture was transferred to the metal sheet, a sensitized master ; the sheet was then wrapped on a cylinder and, in turn, ink was put on a rubber based cylinder and the blank paper impressed by the rubber cylinder. The form of the paper was [210]*210completely prepared in Yolo County, then duplicated in San Francisco and the multiple copies picked up, returned to Yolo County and there mailed, or otherwise delivered, to subscribers.

The master sheet was originally made in West Sacramento by the use of specialized typewriters, the setting of hand type for the advertisements, and the inclusion of news photographs through a particularized process.

Section 6000 of the Government Code provides: “A ‘newspaper of general circulation’ is a newspaper published for the dissemination of local or telegraphic news and intelligence of a general character, which has a bona fide subscription list of paying subscribers, and has been established, printed and published at regular intervals in the State, county, or city where publication, notice by publication, or official advertising is to be given or made for at least one year preceding the date of the publication, notice or advertisement. ’ ’

Unquestionably, this newspaper was “established,” having been in existence, under the same name, for more than one year prior to the filing of the petition. (Gov. Code § 6002.)

Section 6003 of the same code provides: ‘ ‘ For a newspaper to be ‘printed,’ the mechanical work of producing it, that is the work of typesetting and impressing type on paper, shall have been performed during the whole of the one year period.

“If a monthly average of at least 50 per cent of the work of typesetting and a monthly average of at least 50 per cent of the work of impressing type on paper is done in accordance with the other provisions of this article, the requirements embodied in ‘ printed ’ are met. ’ ’

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
255 Cal. App. 2d 211, 63 Cal. Rptr. 69, 1967 Cal. App. LEXIS 1262, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garten-v-tibbitts-calctapp-1967.