Majority
Headnote
[1] Eminent Domain-—Highways—Possession and Hse op Land by State Oppicers—Certiorari.—State officers, in taking possession of land to be condemned for highway purposes, and in carrying on the ° work of grading for the highway, after an order has been entered, pursuant to the provisions of section 14 of article I of the constitution, giving such right of possession upon deposit of security, are “persons acting under” the orders made by the superior court in the condemnation proceeding so as to subject such officers to the provisions of a writ of review (issued by the district court of appeal) requiring “all persons acting under” the orders made by the superior court in the condemnation proceeding to “desist from further proceedings in the matter.”The two matters now awaiting our disposition arise out of an application for a writ of review, and the title above set forth is the title of the proceeding for review. In order that our ruling upon the two specific matters which now engage our attention may be thoroughly understood, it will be necessary for us to state with some particularity the questions of fact and law which are involved in the original proceeding for the writ of review.
The present constitution of California has always contained a provision to the effect that “Private property shall not be taken or damaged for public use without just compensation having been first made to, or paid into court, for the owner, and no right of way shall be appropriated to the use of any corporation other than municipal until full compensation therefor be first made in money or ascertained and paid into court for the owner, irrespective of any benefit from any improvement proposed by such corporation, which compensation shall be ascertained by a jury, unless a jury be waived, as in other civil cases in a court of record, as shall be prescribed by law.” (Const., art. I, see. 14.) In fact, this language was the entire text of the section as originally adopted. In 1911 the section was amended in a respect which is not of moment in the present litigation. In 1918 a second amendment was adopted. This amendment opens with the original text as above set forth, the time-honored language being followed immediately by these provisions: “provided, that in an action in eminent domain brought by the state, or a county, or a municipal corporation, or a drainage, irrigation, levee,
On December 13, 1922, the people of the state of California, by the department of public works of the state of California, as plaintiff, filed complaint in eminent domain with respondent, superior court. All the petitioners before us for the writ of review were defendants in that action, as were also county of Los Angeles, Reider-Haag Company, a corporation, and eight fictitiously named persons. By the complaint the plaintiff in the action sought to condemn a right of way nineteen miles in length for a state highway across that extensive tract of land familiarly known as the Rancho Malibu. After the filing of the complaint, and upon motion to that end, respondent superior court made its two certain orders in the action, each dated December 13, 1922. The first of these, after reciting the fact that the complaint had been filed, and various other matters, including a description of the right of way sought to be condemned, ordered “that the plaintiff . . . deposit in” a certain named bank “the sum of Thirty-two Thousand One Hundred Eighty Dollars, in a savings account on interest, which sum is to be placed in a special deposit to be paid out only upon the order of the Court herein, and to be held as security for payment to the owner or owners of the property
Section 1071 of the Code of Civil Procedure is in part as follows: “The writ of review must command the party to whom it is directed to certify fully to the court issuing the writ, ... a transcript of the record and proceedings . . . , that the same may be reviewed by the court; and requiring the party, in the mean time, to desist from further proceedings in the matter to be reviewed.” Section 1072 of the same enactment provides: “If a stay of proceedings be not intended, the words requiring the stay must be omitted from the writ; these words may be inserted or omitted, in the sound discretion of the court, but if omitted, the power of the inferior court or officer is not suspended or the proceedings stayed.” Following the mandate of these sections the writ of review which issued in the present instance was in the usual form prescribed 'by section 1071, containing at its close the clause, “and in the mean time we command and require the said respondents, and all persons acting under said orders, to desist from further proceedings in the matter so to be reviewed.”
We come now to a more direct consideration of the two matters which are the subject of our present inquiry. Soon after the filing of the complaint in the condemnation action
Immediately after taking possession of the right of way the four officers began the construction of the proposed highway across the Rancho Malibu and along the proposed right of way, and they continued with the work after service upon them of the writ of review. In the prosecution of the labors incident to the construction, probably before and certainly after the service of the writ, they removed parts of the soil from place to place and effected a substantial disturbance of the surface of the country. In short, they proceeded with the work of grading necessary tó an installation of the highway, mating the cuts and fills incident to the prosecution of a work of that nature. Thereupon petitioners presented to this court an affidavit showing the character of the operations being conducted upon the property and asked the issuance of an order to show cause why the four officers should not be punished as for a contempt of court in violating the order for a stay of proceedings which was incorporated in the writ of review. The order to show cause was issued. To it the officers make return that they are advised by their counsel that they
[1] As the writ of review required, in part, that "all persons acting under” the orders made by respondent court “desist from further proceedings in the matter” sought to be reviewed, it is at once apparent" that a great part of our labor will be to determine whether, in carrying on the work of grading for the highway, the four state officers are acting under respondents in the matter to be reviewed. We are of the opinion that this question must be answered unfavorably to the position of the officers. It appears to us that the possession of the right of way is in respondent court and that it will be so until the rendition of decree by that tribunal in the condemnation suit. It may not be strictly correct to say that respondent court has impounded the real property over which the proposed right of way is to pass, or has impounded the right of way itself, for the use of the word “impound,” as related to judicial procedure, is usually if not invariably descriptive of the act or process by which a court talies possession, pending the conclusion of a litigation, of money or other personal property in controversy. Nevertheless it appears to us that under the provisions of the constitution to which we have referred respondent court, since the making of the two orders which petitioners seek to review, in effect occupies the same position as to this real property, or as to the right of way, as does an impounding court toward the personal property which it has seized. If these views be correct it at once follows that the state officers are acting, before decree in the condemnation suit, under respondent court as to everything they do in and about the “impounded” real property or right of way. If our views are correct it at once also follows that the officers are acting, at least before such decree, in the matter sought by petitioners to be reviewed.
We shall now state the arguments which have led us to the views above expressed. It will be observed, from a general survey of the language of the constitution providing for the exercise of the right of eminent domain, that there was
It is to be observed that, as a prerequisite to the making of an order for possession and use, the constitution provides that the plaintiffs in a condemnation suit shall give “such security in the way of money deposits as the court . . . may direct, and in such amounts as the court may determine to be reasonably adequate to secure to the owner . . . imme
[3] The language of the constitution immediately following that just quoted is most significant. “The court may, upon motion of any party to said eminent domain proceedings, after such notice to the other parties as the court may prescribe, alter the amount of such security so required in such proceedings. ’ ’ Suppose that, in a given action in which an order for possession and use had been made the defendant should become convinced that the amount of security was inadequate and should move for an increase under this provision. Suppose that after due consideration the court should order the increase and the plaintiff should refuse to make deposit of the added amount. It is too plain for words that in such an event it would become the immediate duty of the court to order that the possession of plaintiff should cease, that his use of the land should terminate, and that the defendant should resume the interrupted possession and control of his property. A court cannot in the first instance
Let us take another view of the sentence quoted from the constitution in the paragraph immediately preceding the present one. Suppose again that a defendant, the possession and use of whose property had been ordered to the plaintiff, should ask the court for an order to show cause why the amount of deposited security should not be increased. Suppose the showing made by the defendant in support of his application were so strong that it appeared to the court that it might be necessary to order the security increased in a large amount. Can it be possible, under such circumstances, that the court, upon an application to that end, could not direct that the “use” of the plaintiff Under the order for possession and use should cease pending the hearing on the order to show cause? It appears to us to be plain that such a jurisdiction would necessarily exist under the broad principles of equity and under the constitutional guaranties incident to the taking of private property under the right of eminent domain.
For the foregoing reasons it seems to us that respondent court has in effect “impounded” the real property covered by the proposed right of way, and that the four officers of the state, in exercising the “use” authorized by respondent court are acting under the court and that their acts are proceedings under the orders desired by petitioners to be reviewed by this court under their petition for the writ of review. In other words, we conclude from what has been said above that the four officers are guilty of a contempt of this court. We do, in addition, however, cite some general authority upon the question as to what matters constitute or
The four officers make some points which are in effect covered by what we may have said already, but one of them seems, in addition, to merit some specific attention. After the extended discussion which we have bestowed upon the really controlling question in the case, however, we shall be brief in our treatment of the particular point now in question. [4] It is contended that the officers may not be punished for a contempt because they are not parties to the proceeding for review. If that were so, no one could ever be punished for a violation of the terms of the supersedeas which may incontrovertibly be made part of a writ of review under sections 1071 and 1072 of the Code of Civil Procedure, with the single exception of cases in which the proceedings to be reviewed were those of an “officer.” It is provided that “The writ may be directed to the inferior tribunal, board or officer [whose proceedings are sought to be reviewed], or to any other person having the custody of the record or proceedings sought to be certified” (Code Civ. Proc., see. 1070). Where the respondent is a court or a board the writ should not be directed to the judge of the court nor to the members of the board (4 Cal. Jur., tit. Certiorari, sec. 60, and notes). Individuals who are not named in writs of injunction are frequently punished for a violation of their terms. It is necessary only that they should have acted as the agents of persons named in a writ
The officers cite many authorities in opposition to the views which we have expressed. It will be found, however, that the cases cited by them fall into two classes: First, those in which the writ of review contained no supersedeas clause and in which the only point involved was whether the writ, without such a clause, had any effect as a supersedeas; and, second, those in which an attempt was made by writ of review, either with or without supersedeas clause, to annul or vacate some act which had been completed under the order desired to be reviewed. This case falls in neither of those classes.
Although we have reached the conclusion that the four officers of the state are guilty of a contempt, we are of the opinion that their punishment should be but nominal. In exercising the “use” of the property covered by the proposed right of way they have acted in good faith under the advice of their counsel, and in the belief that they were not within the inhibition of the supersedeas clause of the writ of review. Under all the circumstances of the case it is more important that the four officers be furnished, through this expression of our views, with a guide for their future conduct, than that they be subjected to any substantial punishment for contempt.
We now mention the second of the two questions to which we referred early in this opinion. Petitioners ask that we now issue a supersedeas to prevent the agents of the state from acting further, and until the termination of the proceeding for review, under the “use” allowed by the order of respondent court authorizing the possession and use of the land covered by the proposed right of way. This motion was made out of an abundance of caution and in view of the possibility that we might determine that the four officers were not within the supersedeas clause of the writ of review. The motion falls to the ground because of the conclusion we have reached as to the effect of the supersedeas clause.
It is ordered that A. B. Fletcher, N. D. Darlington, C. A. Whitmore, and G.
Finlayson, P. J., and Craig, J., concurred.
Cases cited
- Eachus v. Los Angeles Consolidated Electric Railway Co. 103 Cal. 614 p. 651
- Smith v. Southern Pacific Railroad 146 Cal. 164 p. 651
- Sievers v. Root 10 Cal. App. 337 p. 651
- Hunt v. Manning 24 Cal. App. 44 p. 651
- Fairchild v. Oakland & Bay Shore Railway Co. 176 Cal. 629 p. 651
- Robinson v. Southern California Railway Co. 129 Cal. 8 p. 651
- De Baker v. Southern California Railway 106 Cal. 257 p. 652
- Grigsby v. Burtnett 31 Cal. 406 p. 652
- Stonesifer v. Kilburn 94 Cal. 33 p. 655
- Burns v. Superior Court 140 Cal. 1 p. 655