Fischer v. Superior Court
Fischer v. Superior Court
Opinion of the Court
This is an original petition here by Jacob A. Fischer, M. A. Wheaton, and the Consolidated Golden Gate and Sulphuret Mining and Development Company, a corporation, for a writ of prohibition to the superior court of the city and county of San Francisco, and the Hon. James M. Troutt and Hon. James M. Sea-well, judges of said court, and also to John F. Pink-ham, a receiver appointed by said Troutt as judge of said court in a certain action therein pending in which Charles J. Behlow is plaintiff and the said Jacob A. Fischer et al. defendants, commanding said court and judges, and said Pinkham, to desist from taking any further proceedings, etc., under the order appointing said Pinkham receiver, or under a certain injunction issued in said action, or under an order and citation by which it is proposed to punish said petitioners, Fischer and Wheaton, for contempt in refusing to deliver certain real property to said receiver. The proceeding in prohibition here was submitted upon a demurrer to the petition, and also an answer filed by said judges, and a separate answer by said receiver Pinkham.
The complaint in the action in which Pinkham was. appointed receiver was filed April 19, 1895. The theory and averments of this complaint are (briefly) that in the year 1889 the plaintiff Behlow, together with the defendants Fischer and F. C. Loftus and William C. Long, constituted a copartnership, and that as copartners they owned the mining claims and properties involved in this proceeding and situated in Tuolumne county; that on or about September 1st of said year, 1889, the said copartners, for the purpose of carrying on
In addition to the facts set out in said complaint, the petition for this writ contains averments of these other facts: In January, 1892, the said Behlow and others commenced a certain other action in the superior court
Petitioners contend that the said admitted averments of their petition, together with the fact that no previous notice had been given the corporation, show a want of jurisdiction either to grant the injunction or appoint the receiver.
The general rule, no doubt, is that so harsh a measure as the appointment of a receiver to take property out of one’s possession without trial will not be indulged in by a court without previous notice to the defendant. It would be unjustifiable, except where it clearly appeared that irreparable injury would be done during the few days necessary for a hearing on notice; and even in such an extreme case, a temporary injunction would usually be sufficient. “A motion to appoint a receiver will not be entertained unless notice has been given to the defendant, if practicable, and the appointment will not be made without notice, save in case of irreparable pending injury.” (Beach on Receivers, sec. 141, and notes.; Indeed, there are authorities to the point that a court has no power to appoint a receiver where one had already been appointed by another court of equal co-ordinate jurisdiction and was in possession. ' In Beach on Receivers, section 15, it is said: “As between courts
It is to be observed that the order complained of makes Pinkham receiver of the corporation. He is to take possession of the mining properties of the corporation, and to “ develop, work, operate, and run said min
The question last stated was exhaustively considered in the French Bank case, supra. In that case a receiver had been appointed by the trial court, in a suit brought by creditors of a corporation alleged to be insolvent; and, upon certiorari, it was held that the court had no ' jurisdiction to make the appointment. In that case it was held that such jurisdiction was not conferred by any subdivision of section 564 of the Code of Civil Procedure, or by any other provision of said code, o;r any legislative enactment. There it was sought to maintain the appointment upon the ground, among others, that the corporation was insolvent. In the case at bar the respondents do not base their right upon the insolvency of the corporation; but if they did, the court declared in the French Bank case, supra, that “ there is no statute of this state, none to which we have been pointed, which undertakes to confer upon a private person, either as stockholder or creditor, the right to maintain an action to dissolve a corporation upon the ground that it is insolvent, or to obtain relief by seizing its property out of the hands of the constituted management, and placing it in the hands of a receiver.” And this being so, what other provision of the codes or of the statutes is there, which confers the power to appoint a receiver under the facts presented in the case at bar? We cannot see any, and have not been referred to any, which confers such power. How is plaintiff’s position any better than that of a creditor or stockholder? Indeed, plaintiff bases his right very largely upon the fact that he is a stockholder of the said corporation.
It is difficult to understand upon what ground the right to a receivership is based in the case at bar, or ■ what that position is which, it is contended, lifts the plaintiff in the case above the principles hereinbefore stated, and enables him, through the agency of a re
The authority relied upon by respondents is the case of Fischer v. Superior Court, 98 Cal. 67. That was a petition for a writ of prohibition, commanding the superior court of Tuolumne county to desist from acting under an order appointing said Lane receiver in the action hereinbefore designated as the Tuolumne case, and the writ was denied. But that decision was made upon the basis that there had been a trial and adjudication of the rights of the parties, and that the appointment of Lane was part of the final judgment and decree; He had been appointed before judgment; but judgment had been rendered in favor of plaintiffs (erroneously as it afterward appeared) and by the judgment he had been reappointed. This court, in its opinion in Fischer v. Superior Court, supra, say: “ The application for the writ, and the order to show cause, was made prior to the rendition of the aforesaid judgment, but that judgment includes the authority under which the receiver is now acting, and for that reason we shall address ourselves to the legal* sufficiency of that authority.” The additional words, “ although the jurisdictional question presented is probably the same under either order,” in no way change the decision or make it authority upon the question of the power to appoint a receiver before judgment. The court further says: “It will not be necessary to •enter into a discussion of the principles and authorities relied upon to sustain the proposition that a court of
Our conclusion is that there was no jurisdiction in the court to make the order appointing the said Pink-ham receiver in the said case of Behlow v. Fischer, supra, and that, under the views above expressed, a writ should issue commanding the respondents herein to desist from taking any further proceedings under said order, or under the order citing petitioners to answer for contempt. This makes it unnecessary to consider other points made by petitioners—as, for instance, that petitioners violated no order or process of the court, because there was no order or process commanding them to deliver property to the receiver, and that they did .not interfere with the possession of the receiver because he had no possession.
The injunction complained of restrains the petitioners, and all of the defendants in the San Francisco case, from withdrawing certain moneys then deposited in certain banks or elsewhere, in the name of said corporation, or in the name of said Lane, and from selling any of the mines of the corporation, or any interest therein. Although this injunction was granted with
It is ordered that a peremptory writ of prohibition issue, commanding the respondents to desist from taking any proceedings under the order appointing John F. Pinkham receiver, and under the order citing petitioners for contempt, as prayed for in the petition.
Van Fleet, J., Temple, J., Henshaw, J., and Harrison, J., concurred.
Beatty, C. J., concurred in the judgment.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- JACOB A. FISCHER v. SUPERIOR COURT OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO
- Cited By
- 22 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Corporations — Receiver—Notice—Bond—Jurisdiction—Contempt— Prohibition.—An order appointing a receiver of the property of a corporation, made without any notice, and without any bond from the plaintiff on the appointment of the receiver, is without jurisdiction, and the enforcement of the order by proceedings for contempt, for refusing to deliver property to the receiver, will be prevented by writ of prohibition. Id.—Necessity of Notice upon Appointment of Receiver.—A receiver will not be appointed to take property out of the possession of a defendant without trial, without previous notice to the defendant, save in case of irreparable pending injury, and in no case where a temporary injunction would be sufficient. Id.—Property in Possession of Another Receiver—Jurisdiction.—A court has no power to appoint a receiver where a receiver has already been appointed by another court, with equal jurisdiction, and was in possession at the time of the appointment. Id.—Requirement of Bond—Abuse of Discretion.—The appointment of a receiver to take the property and business out of the hands of a person in possession, and claiming ownership thereof, without requiring a bond from the plaintiff, is, in most cases, a gross abuse of discretion. Id.—Unauthorized Receivership of Corporation — Prohibition.—In the absence of statutory authority, a receiver cannot be appointed during the pendency of an action to displace the management of the cor- _ poration by its directors; and there is no statutory authority under section 564 of the Code of Civil Procedure, or any other provision of the code, or any legislative enactment, to seize the property of the corporation out of the hands of the constituted management, and place it in the hands of a receiver during the pendency of an action; and prohibition is the proper remedy to prevent the attempted exercise of such receivership. Id.—Corporation Formed by Partnership—Rule as to Receivership Unchanged.—Where the complaint upon which the receiver was appointed shows the organization of a corporation, and a conveyance to it of all the mining property owned by the partnership, and the issuance of shares to the corporation through the several partners, and that the corporation has carried on the business of operating the mines, and has the legal title thereto and right to possession thereof, an averment that the corporation is a mere medium of the partnership, and not an independent corporation, and that the fraud was committed by one of the members of the partnership upon another in the distribution of the shares of the corporation, does not change the rule that the court has no power to take the control of the property and business of the corporation out of the corporate management and give it to a receiver; nor is any new power given the court by the averments of the complaint. Id.—Injunction against Withdrawing of Moneys of Corporation— Remedy—Motion—Appeal—Prohibition.—An injunction to restrain a corporation and its officers from withdrawing moneys deposited in certain banks in the name of the corporation, or in the name of a receiver appointed in another action, and from selling any of the mines of tho corporation, or any interest therein, although granted without notice, does not have the effect to suspend the general and ordinary business of the corporation, and the remedy therefor is by motion in the superior court to dissolve the injunction, and an appeal from the order denying the motion; and its enforcement cannot be prevented by a writ of prohibition.