William G. Lorigan

The case involved a taxpayer suit by Nickerson against San Bernardino County and its officials challenging the board of supervisors' purchase of approximately 93.5 acres of land using proceeds from voter-approved hospital improvement bonds. The plaintiff alleged that the board exceeded its authority by acquiring excess acreage beyond the 30 acres needed for hospital grounds, intending part of the land for a county farm, paying an inflated price, and failing to follow statutory procedures for notices, claims, and payments. The trial court granted a nonsuit in favor of the defendants, and the California Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the board's determination of necessity was conclusive, the published notices substantially complied with statutory requirements despite minor omissions, the price description was adequate, and any irregularities in the payment process caused no harm to taxpayers since the county received the land as intended.

propertyprocedure

The case involved a dispute between two brothers over ownership of 600 acres of land in Riverside County that their mother, Frances E. Parks, had purchased from the Southern Pacific Railroad Company before her death in 1912. Plaintiff sought partition asserting equal ownership under the decree distributing their mother's estate, while defendant claimed three-fourths ownership based on a deed from the railroad that named both him and his mother as grantees. The trial court found each brother owned an undivided one-half interest and ordered partition, a judgment affirmed on appeal. The court reasoned that the mother had been the sole equitable owner of the property at her death, with the son's name on the deed merely creating a resulting trust in her favor, as she had paid nearly all the purchase price, repaid his small contribution, and exercised full control over the land for decades without any evidence of an intent to gift him an interest.

propertyfamily lawprocedure

The case involved a plaintiff who suffered severe injuries, including the loss of limbs, when electricity arced from the defendant's overhead power lines to a cable he was holding while moving a tall stationary hay derrick under the wires along a rural lane. The trial court awarded the plaintiff a $25,000 verdict, which the appellate court affirmed on this second appeal. The court held that the electric company was negligent in stringing its wires at a height of only about 27 feet 8 inches, given the known prevalence of taller farm derricks that regularly traveled the highways and lanes in the area, and that the plaintiff was not contributorily negligent as a matter of law. The reasoning applied the settled rule requiring companies transmitting electricity to exercise a high degree of care to avoid foreseeable contact or arcing with objects reasonably expected to pass beneath the lines.

torts & liabilitybusiness & regulatory

This case involved a suit by California Adjustment Co., as assignee of numerous shippers, against the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway for alleged violations of the state constitution's long-and-short-haul clause. The complaint alleged 15,207 instances in which the railroad charged higher rates for freight shipments from San Francisco to intermediate points than the rates it charged for the same class of freight shipped the longer distance to Los Angeles, resulting in overcharges totaling about $25,000 plus interest. The trial court entered judgment for the plaintiff in the amount of $34,242.31, and the railroad appealed. The Supreme Court of California affirmed, holding that the constitutional prohibition on greater compensation for shorter hauls than for longer hauls applied, that the railroad had not obtained the required commission approval to deviate from the rule for the shipments at issue, and that the payments were recoverable even without protest because the shippers were compelled to pay to obtain their goods; the court also rejected the argument that contemporaneous longer-haul shipments had to be proven.

business & regulatory

This case involved a dispute over the validity of a delinquent tax sale of real and personal property in Marysville, where the plaintiff sought to clear title clouded by a tax sale certificate issued to defendant Johnson and to prevent issuance of a tax deed. The trial court ruled the sale and certificate invalid due to procedural defects, including failure to file proof of publication of notices, improper postponement of the sale without notice, and holding the sale on an incorrect date under the applicable Political Code provisions, while ordering the plaintiff to reimburse Johnson $641.91 for taxes paid. The appellate court affirmed, holding that these violations of statutory requirements, such as section 3746 of the Political Code, rendered the sale void regardless of whether 1876 charter rules or later general tax laws applied, and that no tender for redemption was required since the sale was invalid, though reimbursement of the purchase price was equitable. The court also rejected claims for additional interest or penalties and found no judicial notice of unproven ordinances.

taxespropertyprocedure

The case involved the conviction of defendant Keyes for the first-degree murder of an 11-year-old newsboy, whom he enticed to his home, killed after an attempted sodomy, and dismembered, resulting in a death sentence. Keyes appealed, arguing that the trial court erred in its jury instructions on insanity (particularly settled insanity from habitual intoxication, lucid intervals, and imbecility), in handling evidence of his mental history and expert opinions, and in denying separate jury trials on his sanity before and after the main trial under Penal Code section 1368. The court found substantial conflicting evidence on the defendant's sanity at the time of the crime, which the jury resolved against him, and held that the instructions were legally sufficient and that the trial judge did not abuse discretion in denying separate sanity proceedings. Accordingly, the judgment and death sentence were affirmed.

criminal lawprocedure