City of Long Beach v. Superior Court

Petitioner, City of Long Beach, seeks a “writ of prohibition or other appropriate relief’ permanently restraining respondent Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles from enforcing its order requiring that petitioner answer a particular interrogatory. The interrogatory reads as follows: “9. List the witnesses whom you intend to call at the time of trial herein, and the nature and extent of the testimony which will be offered by or through said witnesses.”

Petitioner is a defendant in a Los Angeles Superior Court action entitled Henderson v. City of Long Beach, Southern California Edison Company, and Does I through XX, inclusive, No. SOC 31526. Eugene Francis Henderson, plaintiff in that personal injury action and real party in interest herein (hereinafter “plaintiff’), filed a complaint on May 25, 1973. The complaint alleged that on December 14, 1972, plaintiff was involved in an automobile accident on Harbor Scenic Drive in the City of Long Beach; that petitioner “negligently and carelessly owned, maintained, controlled, inspected, warranted, designed [and] constructed certain premises and standard lighting and appurtenances thereto in the…