Webb v. Superior Court

202 Cal. App. 3d 872, 248 Cal. Rptr. 911, 1988 Cal. App. LEXIS 596
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 6, 1988
DocketF008848
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 202 Cal. App. 3d 872 (Webb v. Superior Court) 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
Webb v. Superior Court, 202 Cal. App. 3d 872, 248 Cal. Rptr. 911, 1988 Cal. App. LEXIS 596 (Cal. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinions

Opinion

HAMLIN, Acting P. J.

Petitioner Benny E. Webb (petitioner) seeks a writ of prohibition to prevent the Tulare County Superior Court from conducting further criminal proceedings against him in action No. 24994. In that action petitioner is charged with eight counts of misappropriation of public funds in violation of Penal Code section 424, subdivision l.1 Petitioner contends the trial judge erroneously denied his section 995 motion to set aside the information against him.

[876]*876This court issued an order requiring respondent superior court to show cause why the relief sought by petitioner should not be granted and staying trial pending determination of this petition or further order of this court. Petitioner urges that there was no reasonable or probable cause to commit him on the information in that he is charged in all counts with misappropriation of public money in violation of section 424, subdivision 1, a statute that applies only to officials charged with the receipt, safekeeping, transfer, or disbursement of public moneys, which he is not. Petitioner also asserts that respondent superior court erred in failing to read all the transcripts of the preliminary hearing and the grand jury proceedings as promised so as to be able to consider all the testimony therein before ruling on his motion and in publicizing its ruling before filing it with the clerk of the court. We find petitioner’s contentions unmeritorious and will deny his petition for writ of prohibition.

The Facts

At the time the information was filed against petitioner, he was a supervisor for the Fifth Supervisorial District of Tulare County (County). Morton Avenue in the City of Porterville (City) is within that district. In 1984 the south side of Morton Avenue from York Street to about 300 feet east of Walch Street was unimproved with curbs and gutters, and many of the residents experienced problems with flooding. This area on Morton Avenue is one in which there are both City and County properties, so that some of the property fronting on Morton Avenue was in the City and the remainder was in the County.

In 1984 petitioner approached some of the Morton Avenue property owners to see if they would be willing to give the front several feet of their property in exchange for curbs and gutters being installed on the widened southern boundary of Morton Avenue. In February 1984, landowners Alice Taylor and Jacqueline Griffin agreed and signed contracts to have the improvements installed. The check from the County for her property was given to Taylor by petitioner; a check from the City was given to Griffin. They endorsed the checks in petitioner’s presence and returned them to him as agreed. Petitioner turned the checks over to Manuel Rodriguez, the cement contractor who installed the curbs and gutters for both properties. The checks were in amounts that far exceeded the costs of those improvements to the properties of Taylor and Griffin.

Later in the year, five other property owners agreed with petitioner to give the front several feet of their properties in exchange for the installation of curbs and gutters. Petitioner then went to the City public works department staff and at least one of the members of the city council to see if they [877]*877would be willing to go along with his plan to have curbs and gutters installed on the remainder of the stretch of Morton Avenue under consideration. Petitioner’s plan was that the City would allocate $23,250 to complete all of the improvements within the Morton Avenue improvement project. Part of the plan was that checks would be drawn on the City’s treasury made payable to the five property owners and that those checks would pay for the curbs and gutters not only in front of the property owned by those named individuals but for curbs and gutters for all of the property within the Morton Avenue improvement project.

The city council approved the acquisition of the property of the five property owners and authorized the disbursement of the warrants, ostensibly in payment for the fee interest in property being conveyed by the private property owners to the City. The checks were then delivered to petitioner, who delivered them to the individual property owners and instructed them, according to their prior agreement, to endorse the checks and hand them back to him in the same transaction. That is to say, on each occasion, petitioner personally took the check to the property owner, handed the check to the property owner for signature, waited while the check was signed, and immediately took back the check from the property owner. The checks were then taken by petitioner to Rodriguez, who deposited them in his bank account and proceeded to install the curbs and gutters all along the properties within the Morton Avenue improvement project. All the property owners believed the value of their property was the same as the cost of the improvements to their property, and no one intended that any amount payable to him or her be used to improve anybody else’s property.

In another matter (the subject of count VIII of the information), petitioner prevailed upon a friend of his, Peter Ruddock, to purchase from Union Oil Company (Union) a parcel of property located at the northeast corner of Main Street and Vandalia, generally described as 680 South Main Street, Porterville, for $45,000. Immediately thereafter, the parcel purchased was split into two lots pursuant to petitioner’s directions. The lot comprising three-fourths of the original parcel was then purchased for $50,000 by the Tulare County Board of Supervisors (Board) at petitioner’s request. Part of the additional $5,000 went to Ben Ennis, a real estate agent, as a commission he did not claim and which he donated to Senior Gleaners, a senior citizen organization, with the stipulation that it be used to pay the engineering firm that did the necessary work to accomplish the lot split. At petitioner’s direction, Ruddock gave to Porterville Youth Incorporated the second lot into which the original parcel was split.

[878]*8781. Taylor Property (Count I)

A. Testimony of Alice Taylor

Alice Taylor testified that petitioner approached her regarding the installation of curbs and gutters in front of her house in exchange for a strip of frontage from her property. She signed a contract with Manuel Rodriguez for the work but did not recall reading the contract. She also signed a deed and the county warrant in payment for the strip of her property and gave the check back to petitioner; petitioner did not tell her that funds from her warrant would be used to pay for improvements to other property and she never agreed to such a deal. Alice Taylor’s contract with Rodriguez shows that the cost of the installation of her curbs and gutters was $1,458. The check she signed and returned to petitioner was in the amount of $3,240.

B. Testimony of County Staff

Doug Wilson, the public works director for the County, at petitioner’s request, took an item to the Board to authorize the funding of a construction project at the corner of Rose Lane and Morton Avenue. The Board authorized approximately $6,000 for that work. The purpose of the money was to pay costs involved in the acquisition of rights-of-way and some cleanup on the private road, Rose Lane. Wilson testified that the rights-of-way were to be purchased from Griffin and Taylor, owners of the southeast and southwest corners of Rose Lane and Morton Avenue.

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Webb v. Superior Court
202 Cal. App. 3d 872 (California Court of Appeal, 1988)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
202 Cal. App. 3d 872, 248 Cal. Rptr. 911, 1988 Cal. App. LEXIS 596, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/webb-v-superior-court-calctapp-1988.