Howard v. Superior Court

154 P.2d 849, 25 Cal. 2d 784, 1944 Cal. LEXIS 351
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 30, 1944
DocketS. F. 17092
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 154 P.2d 849 (Howard v. Superior Court) 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
Howard v. Superior Court, 154 P.2d 849, 25 Cal. 2d 784, 1944 Cal. LEXIS 351 (Cal. 1944).

Opinions

GIBSON, C. J.

The attorneys for the executors filed a petition asking for an allowance of $10,000 as ordinary fees and $15,000 as extraordinary fees, but the posted notice and the notice served on counsel for the husband of the testatrix merely referred to a petition for the allowance of $25,000 “on account of their compensation for services rendered,” without mentioning whether such compensation was for ordinary or extraordinary services. These notices were given pursuant to an order of court, prepared by the petitioning attorneys, which likewise did not differentiate between the two types of compensation. There was no opposition at the hearing and the probate court granted the fees as prayed.

About two months later, the husband filed a verified “petition” to vacate under section 473 of the Code of Civil Procedure, claiming that when he and his counsel examined the notice served on them they mistakenly believed that the executors’ attorneys were seeking merely ordinary fees, that they took no action in reliance on that mistaken belief and that the petition to vacate was filed promptly upon discovering the true facts. With this verified pleading the husband filed his verified objections to the petition for allowance of fees. The probate court issued an order to show cause why the prior order should not be set aside, and subsequently, after a continuance of the hearing, the prior order was vacated. The attorneys for the executors then sought a writ of certiorari on behalf of the executors, the estate, and themselves, to annul the vacating order on the ground that such order was in excess of the court’s jurisdiction because the petition to vacate did not show sufficient grounds of inadvertence, surprise, mistake or excusable neglect.

The extraordinary remedies of mandamus, prohibition and certiorari are permitted in some states as a substitute for a writ of error in reviewing interlocutory or intermediate orders [787]*787and decrees where irreparable injury would result from requiring a party to wait and appeal from a subsequent final order or judgment. (See Crick, The Final Judgment Rule, 41 YaleL.J. 539, 553, 557.) However, in this state, the writ of certiorari will issue only when an inferior tribunal “has exceeded [its] jurisdiction . . . and there is no appeal, nor . . . any plain, speedy, and adequate remedy.’’ (Code Civ. Proc., § 1068; Redlands High School Dist. v. Superior Court, 20 Cal.2d 348 [125 P.2d 490] ; Kupfer v. Brawner, 19 Cal.2d 562 [122 B.2d 268].) This writ cannot be used as a writ of error, whether or not an appeal is possible. (Cook v. Civil Service Com., 160 Cal. 589 [117 P. 663]; Estate of Paulsen, 179 Cal. 528 [178 P. 143] ; Estrin v. Superior Court, 14 Cal.2d 670 [96 P.2d 340]; Ivory v. Superior Court, 12 Cal.2d 455 [85 P.2d 894].) The order under section 473 of the Code of Civil Procedure vacating the allowance of fees, having been made in probate, was not appealable (Prob. Code, § 1240; Lilienkamp v. Superior Court, 14 Cal.2d 293 [93 P.2d 1008]; Estate of Grussing, 15 Cal.App.2d 11 [59 P.2d 152]) but the matter will be reviewable upon an appeal from a subsequent order granting or denying attorneys’ fees. (Lilienkamp v. Superior Court, supra.)

In Bank of America v. Superior Court, 20 Cal.2d 697 [128 P.2d 357], it was held that an order permitting an amendment to the complaint was not reviewable on certiorari because (1) the court had jurisdiction to make the order, and (2) the order was reviewable on appeal from the final judgment. In that case the petitioners had an adequate remedy by appeal from the final judgment, and we said that “Certiorari will not lie if the effect of the order sought to be annulled can be reviewed and nullified on an appeal from the final judgment, even though the order itself is not appeal-able.’’ Of course, the language must be read in relation to the particular facts there involved, and there may be situations in which an appeal from a subsequent order or from the final judgment may not be an adequate remedy, but the facts in this case are within the holding in the Bank of America ease. The vacating order does not amount to a final determination but merely reopens the matter for further consideration to the end that there may be a proper decision on the merits after a full examination of the facts, and the opportunity for review on a subsequent appeal affords an adequate [788]*788remedy. Hence petitioners are not entitled to have the order reviewed herein.

Certiorari likewise will not issue unless there is a lack or an excess of jurisdiction; and in this case the probate court unquestionably had jurisdiction of the res and of the parties. There is no question of the service of notice, either as to the original petition or as to the motion under section 473, although it is claimed that the notice of the original petition was defective and misleading.

The motion to vacate was made on the grounds that the order allowing fees was made without proper notice and that it was taken by reason of mistake, inadvertence, surprise and excusable neglect on the part of the husband and his counsel. In the absence of a formal written order, it will be presumed that the probate court in granting the motion found (1) that the notice of application for an allowance to the executors’ attorneys of $25,000 “on account of their compensation for services rendered” was defective, or at least misleading ; (2) that the husband and his counsel were in fact ■misled by the notice and believed that it related solely to ordinary fees; (3) that such belief was the result of mistake, inadvertence, surprise or excusable neglect; and (4) that the husband was entitled to relief from his default. If the showing made warranted such findings, the probate court had jurisdiction to grant relief under section 473, and we cannot decide in this proceeding whether or not there was any error in so doing.

The petitioners’ claims as to lack of a sufficient affidavit of merits, inadequacy of the showing of mistake, etc., and insufficiency of the proposed objections to the allowance of fees, do not affect the jurisdiction of the court to act on the petition, but merely indicate the possibility of error in the exercise of that jurisdiction. The motion was made upon statutory grounds and, assuming that the trial court should have decided that the mistaken belief of the husband and his counsel was due to their negligent failure to ascertain the facts with reference thereto, the error can be reviewed only on appeal.

The argument of petitioners that the court abused its discretion and therefore exceeded its jurisdiction is equivalent to saying that in every case in which a court errs in the exercise of discretion under section 473 it is acting in excess of its [789]*789jurisdiction, for there is no error unless the court abuses its discretion. This argument is obviously unsound.

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Bluebook (online)
154 P.2d 849, 25 Cal. 2d 784, 1944 Cal. LEXIS 351, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/howard-v-superior-court-cal-1944.