Universal Oil Land Co. v. Gates

3 P.2d 1034, 117 Cal. App. 363, 1931 Cal. App. LEXIS 555
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 5, 1931
DocketDocket No. 7978.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 3 P.2d 1034 (Universal Oil Land Co. v. Gates) 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
Universal Oil Land Co. v. Gates, 3 P.2d 1034, 117 Cal. App. 363, 1931 Cal. App. LEXIS 555 (Cal. Ct. App. 1931).

Opinion

HOUSER, J.

In this matter petitioners seek to prohibit the superior court from proceeding with the trial of an action in which the petitioners are defendants and one I. Maurice Wormser, as receiver, and Bessie E. Arnold are plaintiffs.

It appears that in a suit for divorce pending in the Supreme Court of the state of New York, in which the said Bessie E. Arnold is the plaintiff and her husband Ray H. Arnold is the defendant, the said court made its order by which the said defendant was ordered to make monthly payments to the said plaintiff of a certain sum of money pending the determination of the said action; that thereafter, on the failure of the said defendant to make one of such monthly payments to the said plaintiff, the said court made its order by which the said I. Maurice Wormser was appointed receiver in sequestration of all the personal property of the said defendant for the purpose of making the said several monthly payments theretofore ordered to be made by him to the said plaintiff in the action pending its determination. It also appears that the said defendant, who is now a resident of this state, is the owner of certain shares of stock in each of the corporations which are petitioners herein; that each of said corporations has and maintains an office in the city of Los Angeles, state of California, for the transaction of its corporate business; that by further order of the Supreme Court of the state of New York the said receiver and the plaintiff in said action were authorized to commence and prosecute an action in this state against each of said corporations to compel it “to transfer to the name of the receiver”, I. Maurice Wormser, the several shares of stock owned by the defendant Ray H. Arnold in each of such *365 corporations; that in pursuance of said authorization the said Wormser, as such receiver, and Bessie B. Arnold did commence an action in the superior court of this state against each of said defendant corporations, wherein the plaintiffs therein sought to have it ordered that the said several shares of stock in each of said corporations then belonging to Ray H. Arnold be transferred by it to I. Maurice Wormser, as said receiver; that he be adjudged the lawful owner of said respective shares of stock; and that each of said corporations be enjoined and restrained pending the trial and final determination of the action from transferring on its books to any person any of said shares of stock. It further appears that the defendants in said action both demurred and answered to the complaint therein for want of jurisdiction of said superior court over the cause of action, but that said demurrer was overruled by said court which, on a preliminary hearing of the matter, in effect ordered a temporary injunction pending the final determination of the action to issue as prayed in the complaint. As hereinbefore indicated, for the purpose of preventing further proceedings in said action, on application by the defendants therein to this court, its alternative writ of prohibition has issued; and at this time the question for determination by this court is whether the said superior court has jurisdiction of the action to which reference has been had.

The appointment of the plaintiff Wormser as receiver in sequestration in the divorce action between Bessie B. Arnold and Ray H. Arnold purportedly was authorized by the provisions of sections 1171 and 1171a of the New York Civil Practice Act. As far as is here pertinent, the substance of such statutes is that where a husband has failed to make payment to his wife as required by the terms of an order of the court: “ . . . the court may cause his personal property and the rents and profits of his real property to he sequestered, and may appoint a receiver thereof. The rents and profits and other property so sequestered may be applied, from time to time, under the direction of the court, to the payment of any of the sums of money specified in this section, as justice requires; ...”

Construing such statute in the case of Matthews v. Matthews, 240 N. Y. 28 [38 A. L. R. 1079, 147 N. E. 237], the court of appeals of New York in substance declared that the *366 order of sequestration, and the appointment of a receiver thereunder was “a remedy in the nature of an attachment . . . This in effect is the same as attaching the defendant’s property and holding it subject to the further order or judgment of the court. ...

“Wives and children of absconding husbands who have property within the state, therefore, have this new and additional remedy. The property may be seized and held by the sequestration order, subject to the further provision of the court.”

In the annotation of the cited case in 38 American Law Reports, 1079, 1084, where the related authorities are reviewed and commented upon, it is said:

“ . . . the courts seemingly take the view that the effect of these statutes is practically the same as that of statutes providing for ordinary attachment of an absent defendant’s property. ...
“And it has been held that as the remedy provided for, under a statute giving power of sequestering the property of a husband required by a divorce decree to provide for the education or maintenance of his children, or the support of his wife, in the event of his failure to make the payments required, is in the natwe of an execution, and not a judgment, an amendment extending the provision to final judgments for divorces is retroactive. (Moore v. Moore, 143 App. Div. 428 [128 N. Y. Supp. 259], affirmed in 208 N. Y. 97 [101 N. E. 711].)”

In the case of Lynde v. Lynde, 181 U. S. 183 [45 L. Ed. 810], it appeared that an action for divorce in the state of New Jersey resulted in part in alimony being allowed to the plaintiff therein; and the same not having been paid, a receiver in sequestration was appointed for the purpose of collecting the moneys theretofore ordered to be paid by the defendant to the plaintiff. Thereafter the defendant removed to the state of New York. In considering the force and effect in New York of the appointment of the receiver in sequestration by the New Jersey court, in part the United States Supreme Court said: “The provisions for bond, sequestration, receiver, and injunction, being in the nature of execution, and not of judgment, could have no extraterritorial operation

*367 In the case of Fall v. Eastin, 215 U. S. 1 [17 Ann. Cas. 853, 23 L. R. A. (N. S.) 924, 54 L. Ed. 65, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 3, 9], it appeared that in a divorce suit instituted in the state of Washington, the court, having jurisdiction of each of the parties thereto, rendered a decree affecting the title to real property in the state of Nebraska and endeavored through a commissioner appointed by the Washington court to convey title to such land to the plaintiff.

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Bluebook (online)
3 P.2d 1034, 117 Cal. App. 363, 1931 Cal. App. LEXIS 555, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/universal-oil-land-co-v-gates-calctapp-1931.