Minyard v. Superior Court of S.F.

248 Cal. App. 2d 633, 56 Cal. Rptr. 801, 1967 Cal. App. LEXIS 1671
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 20, 1967
DocketCiv. No. 24106
StatusPublished

This text of 248 Cal. App. 2d 633 (Minyard v. Superior Court of S.F.) 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
Minyard v. Superior Court of S.F., 248 Cal. App. 2d 633, 56 Cal. Rptr. 801, 1967 Cal. App. LEXIS 1671 (Cal. Ct. App. 1967).

Opinion

AGEE, Acting P.J.

Petitioners Minyard and Danger seek a writ of mandate to require respondent superior court to grant their respective motions for change of venue from San Francisco to Napa County. It is clear that Danger’s motion should have been granted under the provisions of section 395 [634]*634of the Code of Civil Procedure. It is therefore unnecessary to discuss the Minyard motion, which is based upon the ground of convenience of witnesses. (Code Civ. Proc., § 397, subd. 3.)

On May 20, 1966 Alma Holt, real party in interest, filed an action for damages for personal injuries in the superior court in San Francisco, alleging that she sustained such injuries on January 18, 1966, in the City of Napa, while riding as a passenger in a taxicab which collided with a pickup truck.

The defendants in the order named in her complaint are: “Yellow Cab Company, a corporation, A. E. Minyard, William Michael Titmus, Charles Langer, First Doe, Second Doe, Third Doe and Fourth Doe. ’ ’

The complaint alleges that defendant Yellow Cab Company, Minyard, Titmus, First Doe and Second Doe owned and operated the taxicab and that defendants Langer, Third Doe, and Fourth Doe owned the pickup truck and Langer operated it.

Langer relies upon the following provisions of section 395 of the Code of Civil Procedure: “ [T]he county in which the defendants, or some of them, reside at the commencement of the action, is the proper county for the trial of the action. If the action be for injury to person . . . either the county where the injury occurs, or where the injury causing death occurs, or the county in which the defendants, or some of them, reside at the commencement of the action, shall be a proper county for the trial of the action. ’ ’

The proof before the court showed without dispute that the accident happened in Napa County, that Minyard was the owner of the taxicab, that Titmus was its driver and the employee of Minyard, that Langer was the owner and driver of the pickup truck, that at all times pertinent herein these three defendants were residents of Napa County, and that none of the defendants, except Yellow Cab Company, a corporation, were residents of the City and County of San Francisco at any of such times.

With respect to the taxicab, the affidavit of Minyard showed that ever since September 24, 1956, he was the sole owner of “Yellow Cab Co.” located at 711 Main Street, in the City of Napa, and operated all Yellow Cabs in the City of Napa; that Yellow Cab Company, a corporation, never did operate or maintain any taxicabs in the City or County of Napa; that the Yellow Cab involved in the accident in question was owned by him and operated by his employee, defendant Tit-mus.

[635]*635In addition, the declaration of Robert S. Patterson stated that he is an officer of Yellow Cab Company, a corporation having its principal place of business in the City and County of San Francisco; that his company did not own or operate the Yellow Cab involved in the accident which occurred on January 18, 1966, in the City of Napa; that he is informed and believes that “Ancel Eugene Minyard, on January 18, 1966, was sole owner of Yellow Cab Co., a fictitious name, operating Yellow Cabs within the City of Napa, in the County of Napa, State of California. ’ ’

Without the inclusion of Yellow Cab Company, a corporation, as a defendant there could not possibly be any question that Langer had a clear right to the requested change of venue.

However, the trial court held that it was compelled1 to deny Langer’s motion under the authority of Gutierrez v. Superior Court, 243 Cal.App.2d 710 [52 Cal.Rptr. 592], because the complaint on its face stated a cause of action against Yellow Cab Company, a corporate resident of the City and County of San Francisco.

We do not agree with the lower court that Gutierrez is controlling in the instant case. The applicable provision in section 395 is as follows: “If any person is improperly joined as a defendant, . . .[2] his residence must not be considered in determining the proper place for trial of the action. ’ ’

This provision affects two types of situations: (1) where the nonresident moving party claims that no cause of action is alleged against the resident defendant; (2) where the nonresident moving party concedes that a cause of action is for[636]*636mally alleged against the resident defendant but claims that the cause of action in reality does not exist.

The Gutierrez case comes within the first type of situation. It was a personal injury action filed in San Francisco. The accident out of which it arose occurred in Ventura County. The only defendant who was a resident of San Francisco was Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Company, a corporation. The complaint alleged two causes of action.

The moving defendants argued that the second alleged cause of action did not state a cause of action against Libbey and, under the rule that when several causes of action are alleged in a complaint a motion for change of venue must be granted on all causes if the moving defendant is entitled to a change on any one cause, the court was called upon to analyze the allegations of the second cause of action.

It held that the second cause of action did allege a cause of action against Libbey and therefore the motion to change venue from San Francisco to Ventura County was denied.

The instant case comes within the second type of situation described above. That is, Langer concedes that the following allegations of the complaint allege a cause of action against Yellow Cab Company, a corporation: “that at all of said times, defendants Yellow Cab Company, A. E. Minyard, William Michael Titmus, First Doe and Second Doe have owned, operated, maintained and controlled a taxicab business at and about the City of Napa, California, as a common carrier of passengers for hire, and more particularly, owned, operated, maintained and controlled that certain taxicab hereinafter mentioned as such common carrier of passengers for hire.” The other charging allegations merely included Yellow Cab Company, a corporation, under the designation of “defendants. ’ ’

Karst v. Seller, 45 Cal.App. 623 [188 P. 298], involves the same type of situation as that in the instant ease. There the action was filed in Los Angeles and the complaint named Seller, a resident of San Francisco, and Armstrong, a resident of Los Angeles, as codefendants.

Seller’s motion for a change of venue from Los Angeles to San Francisco, on the ground of his residence, was granted and plaintiff appealed from the order. The action involved the purchase of a truck by plaintiff under a written contract.

The order was affirmed, the court stating: “We do not think the record on the order before us disproves the existence of a cause of action against Seller and Armstrong, jointly, on [637]*637the alleged facts; but such cause of action, if it exists, is a cause of action for damages for fraud and deceit, and not for recovery on rescission of the contract. . . . The action in which the order here appealed from was made is on the rescission, and it is contended—we think rightly—that only the parties to such contract, or those in privity with them, can be joined. While the complaint in this action charges both defendants jointly on the contract, the record

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Related

Nanny v. Ruby Lighting Corp.
239 P.2d 885 (California Court of Appeal, 1952)
Kostal v. Pullen
225 P.2d 217 (California Supreme Court, 1950)
Gutierrez v. Superior Court
243 Cal. App. 2d 710 (California Court of Appeal, 1966)
Lachman Co. v. Central California Berry Growers' Ass'n
209 P. 379 (California Court of Appeal, 1922)
Karst v. Seller
188 P. 298 (California Court of Appeal, 1920)

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Bluebook (online)
248 Cal. App. 2d 633, 56 Cal. Rptr. 801, 1967 Cal. App. LEXIS 1671, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/minyard-v-superior-court-of-sf-calctapp-1967.