RUTH VAN TIGER, Petitioner, v. THE SUPERIOR COURT OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Respondent.
L. A. No. 15832
In Bank
September 15, 1936
377
It is apparent also, from what we have said, that the question of the repeal of the usury law by the adoption of said section of the Constitution is not necessarily involved in the decision of any issue arising in the present action. We have therefore expressly refrained from expressing any opinion upon that question.
The judgment is affirmed.
Shenk, J., Thompson, J., Langdon, J., Seawell, J., and Waste, C. J., concurred.
Everett W. Mattoon, County Counsel, Frank G. Finlayson and George S. Dennison for Respondent.
THE COURT. The order for a transfer of this cause after an opinion was filed in the District Court of Appeal was made mainly for the reason that said court as constituted at the time of the rendition of said opinion consisted of only one duly elected and qualified member thereof and two justices pro tempore. There is a serious question as to whether a court as thus constituted is a
We have examined the opinion filed in the District Court of Appeal and prepared by Mr. Presiding Justice Crail, and in our opinion, the correct conclusion was reached by the writer of said opinion, and we adopt the same as the opinion of this court.
It is as follows:
“The petitioner, Ruth Van Tiger, is petitioning the court for a writ of prohibition against the respondent to prevent it from modifying a final decree of distribution entered in the Estate of Nathan Brickman, deceased. The respondent is represented in court by the attorneys for Ruth Johnston who was the administratrix of said estate as well as one of the heirs. She is the real party in interest and for convenience will be called the respondent. The nominal respondent hereinafter will be called the trial court.
“By the terms of the will of decedent his estate was left to his lawful heirs. The testator left neither issue, nor spouse, nor parents, nor brothers, nor sisters. The lawful heirs were his nieces and nephews and they succeeded to the property ‘by right of representation’ (
“The petitioner herein, Ruth Van Tiger, was the sole and only child of a deceased brother and was entitled to one-third of the estate. The respondent, Ruth Johnston, was one of five children of testator‘s deceased sister. She and her brothers and sisters were each entitled to a one-fifth of one-third or a one-fifteenth interest in the estate. There were three children of another deceased brother, each of whom was entitled to a one-ninth interest in the estate.
“When the estate was ready for distribution the respondent, as administratrix, filed her final account and petition for distribution setting forth the relationship of the heirs as above set forth, but praying that the estate be distributed to said nine heirs ‘share and share alike‘. Her petition for distribution was uncontested. The petition was examined in the first instance by Commissioner
“When the petitioner learned the facts she commenced proceedings in the trial court to compel the respondent to deliver to her one-third of the estate in accordance with the decree. To this motion the respondent filed an answer setting forth substantially the facts as above narrated, and in addition an allegation that the court announced at the hearing and intended that its decree would be to distribute the property to the nine heirs ‘share and share alike‘; and at the same time and upon the same facts respondent served a notice of motion ‘to correct the decree as entered so as to make it conform to the decree as ordered by the court‘. The motion was made in court on November 20, 1935, ten
“It will be observed that respondent does not claim that the facts of the case are otherwise than as set out in the decree nor that the decree does not distribute the estate exactly as the law directs. The decree speaks the truth as to the facts in the case. The decree correctly found the facts with regard to the relationship of the parties to be as above set forth and no other distribution would have been proper under the facts of the case and the law applicable thereto. The rights of the respondent were not impaired by the decree as entered. Indeed it is nowhere claimed in the answer of respondent that her rights were impaired by the decree. Thus the only alleged mistake (so-called) is merely that the clerk correctly entered the decree in compliance with the law and the admitted facts. There was no mistake.
“The respondent cites to this court numerous authorities to the effect that the court may upon motion of the injured party, or on its own motion, correct clerical mistakes (
“The rule that a court may amend its orders so as to correct a mistake has no application to a case containing no element of mistake. (14 Cal. Jur. 992, and cases cited.) While a mistake of a clerk in the entry of judgment may and should be corrected by the trial court on motion, this gives the court no jurisdiction to amend an order which contains no mistake, and a valid judgment will not be set aside unless it is made to appear that a different result might have been reached. (14 Cal. Jur. 1052, and cases cited.) It has been said that nunc pro tunc orders are made to preserve substantial rights, ‘though always to preserve and never to impair the rights of litigants‘. (Osmont v. All Persons, etc., 165 Cal. 587, at p. 591 [133 Pac. 480].) ‘The power to make such a direction is however to be exercised only for the purpose of doing justice.’ (De Leonis v. Walsh, 140 Cal. 175, at p. 178 [73 Pac. 813, 814].)
“It seems to be the respondent‘s contention that if she could get the judgment ‘corrected’ so as to distribute the estate per capita instead of per stirpes, then the judgment would contain a judicial error and could not now be corrected. She says, ‘If, in its order of January 10, 1935 [the date of the hearing], the Court did err in ordering a per capita instead of a per stirpes, distribution, that error, if error there was, was a judicial error, and not a mere mistake of the clerk. Such error, therefore, if error there was, could not be corrected after the clerk had entered the decree of distribution.’ Surely the courts are not such weak crutches upon which justice must limp. In this case the court made findings, and the judgment accorded with the findings. The respondent does not claim either that the findings contain a mistake or that the judgment is not in accord therewith.
“Furthermore, the answer of the respondent contains the complete record of the trial court in regard to the matter, including all evidence and exhibits which were pre-
“Taking as true the allegations of respondent‘s answer (but not including mere legal conclusions therein) the respondent is not entitled to the relief demanded by her in the trial court nor to any relief. A consideration of the case by this court as one arising on a writ of review would warrant an annulment of the contemplated order of the trial court if made. We should and do decide the question now while the case is before us.”
Let the writ issue as prayed.
THOMPSON, J., Concurring.—I concur in the order but only for the reason that in my opinion the only decree was that which was entered in accordance with
Rehearing denied.
