23 Cal. App. 2d 237 | Cal. Ct. App. | 1937
Pursuant to section 15 (b) of the Narcotic Act (Deering’s Gen. Laws, Act 5323), appellant filed and served, upon its owners, notice of seizure and intended forfeiture of the above-described automobile, which it claimed had been used for the unlawful transportation of narcotics. The owner of the automobile defaulted. As permitted by the section, respondent, General Motors Acceptance Corporation, answered, asserting that it was the legal owner of the automobile by reason of the seller’s assignment to it of the contract by which the automobile had been conditionally sold to the defaulting owner, and claiming, in conformity to subdivision (e) of the section, (1) that such
The state argues that, under the plain wording of subdivision (£) of section 15, the judgment was unauthorized, since respondent did not affirmatively show that the seller had made a reasonable investigation of the purchaser’s responsibility, character and reputation. On the contrary, respondent contends that it was not required to prove such an investigation, in absence of the state’s production of evidence showing that the seller, by conducting a reasonable investigation could have discovered facts which would have put a prudent seller on inquiry as to the possible legal or illegal use of the automobile. To give vitality to respondent’s argument, it is necessary to so construe subdivisions (e) and (f) as to add to their positive language a qualification not therein expressed. But such construction is prohibited by section 1858 of the Code of Civil Procedure. As he states, respondent’s counsel advanced the same contention in People v. One Pontiac, etc., 22 Cal. App. (2d) 503 [71 Pac. (2d) 302], which has been decided adversely to him since the submission of the present case. This court there held that subdivision (f) placed upon the claimant the burden of proving the three elements conjunctively enumerated in sub
The judgment is accordingly reversed.
Spence, Acting P. J., and Sturtevant, J., concurred.