90 Cal. App. 2d 848 | Cal. Ct. App. | 1949
The registered and legal owners of a 1947 Oldsmobile appeal from a judgment of forfeiture entered under Health and Safety Code, sections 11612-11613, on the ground that the car was used for the transportation of narcotics. The legal owner offered no proof of having made any investigation of the character or responsibility of the registered owner. The only question raised is the sufficiency of the evidence to support the forfeiture.
The defendant did not take the stand and offered no evidence other than some photographs of the premises which were offered to discredit the testimony of the witness Woodward as to what he saw from his window. Evidence was offered by the plaintiff to show that if the legal owner had made any investigation prior to the sale of the car it would have discovered that the purchaser was not a man of good moral character, reputation or responsibility. The legal owner conceded this and made no defense to the forfeiture.
On this evidence the trial court properly found that the automobile had been used to transport narcotics and the forfeiture was the inevitable result. The only plausible attack on the judgment is that the trial court had to infer from the fact that narcotics were found in the jar that the owner of the car put them there and that he had them in his possession while driving the car. The usual argument against basing an inference on an inference is made, but the premises are wrong. There was direct evidence that the driver of the car walked directly from the car to the signboard and there took the papers from his pocket and placed them in the jar. The only inference necessary to support the judgment is that the driver was operating the car with the owner’s consent.
The controlling principles in a case made on this state of
Judgment affirmed.
Goodell, J., and Dooling, J., concurred.