Darbee v. Superior Court

This is a petition for a writ of mandate seeking a direction to respondent that it grant petitioners’ motion to compel the real party in interest, Julius F. Castelan, to answer certain interrogatories.

On August 7, 1957, the petitioners entered into a written option agreement with Castelan whereby they agreed to convey certain real property to him upon his exercise of said option. The agreement required that the option be exercised within six months from August 7, 1957. By the terms of the agreement the purchase price of $7,000 per acre was to be paid upon delivery of the grant deed as follows: 10 per cent in cash and the balance by Castelan’s promissory note payable in 10 equal annual installments. On February 5, 1958, two days before the six months’ period expired, Castelan gave notice to the petitioners that he was exercising the option. On April 2, 1958, Castelan requested of petitioners that a survey of the land be made so that the acreage and purchase price could be accurately determined. The petitioners furnished Castelan with a 1942 survey of the property on April 30, 1958, and at the same time requested that a substantial deposit be made on the acreage known to exist. Subsequently an oral agreement was entered into between the parties extending the time within which to place in escrow the deposit

On April 28, 1961, Castelan filed an action against petitioners for specific performance of the option contract and for a declaratory judgment to determine which party has the obligation to ascertain the number of acres subject to the option agreement. The petitioners have answered the complaint, denying, inter alia, the plaintiffs allegations “ ‘that the contract was fair and equitable ’ ” and “ ‘that plaintiff has performed all of the terms and conditions of the agreement which he is required to perform and has otherwise performed all conditions precedent to his right to bring suit.’ ” The petitioners also raise the defenses of abandonment of the contract and laches.

Petitioners took Castelan’s deposition. Among the questions asked were several- directed to whether anybody had agreed to buy the property from him at the time he exercised the option, and at any time after February 5, 1958, until the day of the taking of said deposition, and also whether during this period he had agreed to sell the property to anyone. Castelan refused to answer these questions, whereupon a motion was made to compel him to answer the questions. In ruling upon the motion a judge of the respondent court stated as follows;

Upon the resumption of the deposition Castelan was again asked the questions hereinabove alluded to and in addition was asked whether he had discussed the sale of the subject property with other people, when he last discussed the possibility of such people buying the property, and whether he had “a person to whom you can resell it right now.” Plaintiff refused to answer these or any other questions concerning his resale activities after August 7, 1958, upon the ground that the court had ruled such questions proper only if they related to such activities “at or about the time” he exercised the option in question, stating, as a basis for his refusal that the date August 5, 1958, i.e., six months after the exercise of the option was the outer limit of “at or about.” The petitioners thereupon again moved the court to compel answers to said questions, said motion being heard and denied without opinion by another judge of the respondent court.

The petitioners thereupon put several questions relating to the same subject matter to Castelan in the form of written interrogatories. These included the following numbered interrogatories to which Castelan objected, to wit:

“ ‘7. After August 5, 1958 and before the filing of the complaint, did you discuss with anyone the purchase by them from you of the property described in the option agreement ?

“ ‘8. State the names and addresses of all persons with whom you had discussions of the kind described in Interrogatory 7.

“ ‘9. State the times and places and persons present at each of the discussions described in Interrogatory 7.

“ ‘10. Have you made any agreements, written or oral, with anyone concerning the disposition of the property described in the option agreement, in the event you should obtain title to it?

“ ‘11. State the names and addresses of each person with whom you have made an agreement or agreements of the kind described in Interrogatory 10.

“ ‘12. State which of any such agreements are written, and which are oral. ’ ”

The form and nature of such objections have not been presented to us other than the statement in the return of the

The following interpretations of the discovery statutes are now well established: Discovery by interrogatories may be had as to any matter which is relevant to the subject matter involved in the pending action, provided said matter is not privileged. It is not necessary that such matter be relevant to an issue in the ease, and thus admissible at the trial, as long as the testimony sought “appears reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.” (Code Civ. Proc., § 2016, subd. (b); emphasis added.) In determining such relevancy the discovery statutes must be construed liberally in favor of disclosure unless the request is clearly improper by virtue of well-established causes of denial. (Greyhound Corp. v. Superior Court, 56 Cal.2d 355 , 390-391 [ 15 Cal.Rptr. 90 , 364 P.2d 266 ]; Regents of University of California v. Superior Court, 200 Cal.App.2d 787 , 789-790 [ 19 Cal.Rptr. 568 ] ; Code Civ. Proc., § 2016, subd. (b).)

The real party in interest makes no claim of privilege or of improper purpose. Nor does he, in his return to the alternative writ, make any claim of nonrelevaney to the subject matter. In his return he stands upon the proposition that three different judges of the respondent court denied three separate motions to establish a right to interrogate him concerning negotiations engaged in or any contract he entered into for the land subsequent to August 5, 1958. The basis of his return is the ruling of the first judge that such questions were proper only if they related to such activities “at or about the time he attempted to exercise the option in question” and his own (Castelan’s) “judicial” interpretation that “at or about” means six months prior to and six months subsequent to such time. Tacit approval of the first judge’s

When this court issued its alternative writ it necessarily indicated its belief that petitioners had alleged sufficient facts to show, prima facie, an abuse of discretion or a possible abuse of discretion. In making his return to that writ the real party in interest had the opportunity to rebut the prima facie case made by the petitioners. It was his burden to show the facts from which the court might find that the interrogatories were interposed for improper purposes, or that they were directed to subject matter which was not relevant to the pending action, or, in spite of such relevancy, that the information sought was not reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. (See Coy v. Superior Court, 58 Cal.2d 210 , 220-221 [ 23 Cal.Rptr. 393 , 373 P.2d 457 ].)

The showing made by the real party in interest is insufficient to sustain the burden imposed upon him. The only substantiation of the third judge’s order (which is the order under attack here) is the first judge’s ruling and its interpretation by the real party in interest. The placing by Castelan of a six months’ limitation, prior and subsequent to the date of the exercise of the option, amounts to a usurpation of the judicial function and constituted an unwarranted and arbitrary interpretation of the court’s language “at or about the time he attempted to exercise the option. ...” Moreover, the real party in interest loses sight of the fact that the first judge’s ruling was in connection with a motion to compel answers in a deposition. Even if we were to concede (which we do not) that the first judge’s limitation was a proper one, the ruling there made has no connection with our present inquiry. Depositions and interrogatories are different procedures to each of which litigants have the right to resort in the same proceeding for the purpose of pretrial discovery. (Greyhound Corp. v. Superior Court, supra, 56 Cal.2d 355 , 373.) They are not mutually interdependent; nor does the prior use of one procedure exclude the subsequent use of the other. (Coy v. Superior Court, supra, 58 Cal.2d 210 , 218; Carlson v. Superior Court, 56 Cal.2d 431 [ 15 Cal.Rptr. 132 , 364 P.2d 308 ].) In the Coy case the court pointed out the distinction between the function of the two procedures as follows: “A deposition is not final until read, signed and

The trial court made no assignment of its reasons for denying the motion. We would be resorting to clairvoyance if we undertook to read the first judge’s ruling into the third judge’s order. The absence of a sufficient showing to sustain the order, and the absence of any reasons or grounds on the part of the trial court for sustaining the objections compel the conclusion that there was an abuse of discretion on the part of the trial court.

We are not unmindful of the claim made by the real party in interest in his “Points and Authorities” that the information sought is not relevant to the subject matter of the pending action. As we have hereinbefore pointed out, to suffice as a valid objection such claim must be supported by some showing. No such showing was made in the return. We note, moreover, that the real party in interest concedes relevancy to the subject matter in his “Points and Authorities” but again reiterates that such relevancy is restricted to the six months’ period limitations he himself has set up. He there makes the bold assertion that “Beyond these limits the information sought by the defendants could have no conceivable relevance to the subject matter of the action.” He attempts to bolster the assertion by argument which we find unconvincing. Suffice it to say, we cannot see how information which is relevant to the subject matter loses its relevancy one day after the expiration of the arbitrary six months’ period. If questions directed to activities occurring within the six

With the subject matter of the pending action in mind it is readily apparent from a mere reading of the interrogatories in question that they are reasonably adapted to the purpose of ascertaining facts which are likely to result in the discovery of admissible evidence. The petitioners in their argument indicate that the testimony sought is calculated to produce evidence of Castelan’s inability or unwillingness to pay, his abandonment of the contract, his reasons for the 26-month period of silence, his delay for speculative reasons bearing upon the question of laches, inadequacy of the price, the highest and best use of the property for valuation purposes, and the identity of the parties having the actual or beneficial interest in said option. The testimony elicited might be admissible as direct evidence bearing on the issues or it may be adaptable to the purposes of impeachment. It may develop that the facts discovered will not serve either purpose or that the petitioners have no thought of producing those facts at the trial. These circumstances do not necessarily preclude the discovery of the facts sought because the intent of the new discovery procedures is to discover facts for trial preparation as well as for use at the trial itself. (Greyhound Corp. v. Superior Court, supra, 56 Cal.2d 355 , 372.) In countering the petitioners’ argument the real party in interest falls into the common pitfall of attempting to dem

It is therefore ordered that a peremptory writ of mandate issue directing the respondent court to vacate the order denying the motion for further answers, and to enter an order requiring further answers to the said interrogatories.

Bray, P. J., and Sullivan, J., concurred.