McKenzie v. Hill

98 P. 55, 9 Cal. App. 78, 1908 Cal. App. LEXIS 41
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 22, 1908
DocketCiv. No. 529.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 98 P. 55 (McKenzie v. Hill) 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
McKenzie v. Hill, 98 P. 55, 9 Cal. App. 78, 1908 Cal. App. LEXIS 41 (Cal. Ct. App. 1908).

Opinion

KERRIGAN, J.

Motion to dismiss appeal.

The appeal is from an order made in proceedings supplementary to execution, directing appellants, as garnishees, to apply $876 toward the satisfaction of a judgment recovered by plaintiff McKenzie against defendant Hill. The ground of the motion to dismiss is that no notice of such appeal was served upon the defendant Hill.

The undisputed facts in the case are as follows: On the seventeenth day of January, 1907, respondent McKenzie recovered judgment against defendant Hill for the sum of $3,805, and assigned the same to C. M. Craig. Craig prepared an affidavit as the basis for an order for the examination of appellants, the San Francisco Stock and Exchange Board and A. B. Ruggles, its president. Upon this affidavit the Hon. James M. Troutt, one of the judges of the superior court of the city and county of San Francisco, made an order, requiring the presence of said appellants before said judge to be examined concerning the possession of the sum of $876, money belonging to defendant Hill not exempt from execution, and which money was subject to be applied.toward the satisfaction of said judgment. After the examination of the president of said stock and exchange board the court ordered the application of the said $876 toward the payment of said judgment. No notice of appeal was served upon defendant Hill.

Under these circumstances appellants contend that defendant Hill would be affected by a reversal of the order appealed from, and hence is an adverse party as contemplated by section 940, Code of Civil Procedure; and as no notice of appeal was served upon him the appeal should be dismissed.

*80 It is not at all clear to us in what manner Hill could be injuriously affected by a reversal or modification of the judgment appealed from; but in any event we are convinced that he was not a party to the proceeding, and therefore was not entitled to notice. ‘ ‘ The adverse party upon whom the notice of appeal is to be served is the party who appears by the record to be adverse, and the record to be considered for that purpose is the record of the proceedings in which the appeal is taken.” (In re Ryer, 110 Cal. 569, [42 Pac. 1082].) An examination of the record here shows that in an action against Hill a judgment had been obtained, which is now final and in full force and effect, and upon which judgment an execution had been issued; that in proceedings supplementary to execution the garnishees were examined, and the order appealed from was made. In that proceeding Hill was not served, nor did he in any way participate therein. It thus, appears, to reiterate, that Hill was not before the court, and was not a party to that proceeding. Proceedings supplementary to execution, while collateral to an original action, are still quite independent of it. Indeed, they embrace all the elements of an independent civil action. It has its own record, and only parties thereto need be served with notice of appeal. In Wells v. Torrance, 119 Cal. 441, [51 Pac. 626], these proceedings are called, so far as a garnishee is concerned, original proceedings. In Coffee v. Haynes, 124 Cal. 565, [71 Am. St. Rep. 99, 57 Pac. 482], they are said to be proceedings not against the judgment debtor, but against his creditor. They are a substitute for a creditors’ bill. (Adams v. Hackett, 7 Cal. 201; Pacific Bank v. Robinson, 57 Cal. 522, [40 Am. Rep. 120]; H errlich v. Kauffman, 99 Cal. 275, [37 Am. St. Rep. 50, 33 Pac. 857].) “This (proceeding supplementary to execution) cannot be regarded as a mere incident to the original action. ... In this proceeding the merits of the original action are in no way involved. New issues are presented, new parties are brought in, and new rights are determined, the adjudication of which in no way alters the face of the original judgment.” (Harper v. Behagg, 14 Ind. App. 428, [42 N. E. 1115].)

Our conclusion that Hill was not a party to the record, and consequently not entitled'to notice of appeal, is supported by the cases in this state. In Re Ryer, 110 Cal. 560, [42 Pac. 1082], an heir interested in the estate of Ryer filed his peti *81 tion for partial distribution. To this petition certain of the heirs and legatees of the deceased filed their answers. Others interested did not appear or object to the petition. On the issues framed the petition was denied; a motion for a new trial was refused, and from the order denying this motion an appeal was taken. A motion was made to dismiss the appeal, on the ground that the parties interested who did not appear at the hearing had not been served with notice of appeal. In denying the motion the court said: “Upon appeal from an order denying a new trial, the parties to the motion in the court below are the only proper parties to the appeal; and the appellant is not required to give notice'of appeal to others than those to whom the original motion was directed. The ‘adverse party’ upon whom a notice of appeal is to be served is the party who appears by the record to be adverse; and the record which is to be considered for that purpose is the record of the proceedings in which the appeal is taken. The rule that the notice of appeal must be served upon all parties that would be affected by a reversal of the order and judgment appealed from is to be construed with the other rule that only the record can be examined for the purpose of determining who are such adverse parties. . . . The proceeding instituted in the superior court by the appellant herein is in the nature of a collateral inquiry, or episode, interjected into the proceedings for the administration of the estate, in which there are pleadings, process, trial, findings and a judgment, thus presenting all the elements of a civil action instituted in an independent suit for the purpose of determining the right of the appellant to a share of the estate, and, in matters of procedure upon appeal, should receive the same consideration as upon an appeal in a civil action.”

In Re Bullard, 114 Cal. 462, [46 Pac. 297], the administrator of the estate rendered an account for settlement, and in connection therewith reported that he had allowed a claim in favor of the Hibernia Savings and Loan Society. One of the heirs of the decedent contested the allowance of this claim, and excepted to the account in this respect. Prom an order settling the account he appealed, and served notice thereof on the administrator alone, and not on the claimant, and for this failure a motion was made to dismiss the appeal. The Hibernia Savings and Loan. Society did not in any way partic *82 ipate in the proceeding, and yet, notwithstanding that it was vitally interested in the matter, the court held that it did not appear from the record that it was in any respect a party to the proceedings, and that it was unnecessary to serve it with notice of appeal.

A late case on the subject is Estate of McDougald, 143 Cal. 476, [77 Pac. 443], where the eases just referred to are quoted from with approval, and the matter is fully discussed. There the administrator filed an account, to which a judgment creditor filed written objections.

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Bluebook (online)
98 P. 55, 9 Cal. App. 78, 1908 Cal. App. LEXIS 41, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mckenzie-v-hill-calctapp-1908.