People v. Superior Court (Bauman & Rose)

This purported appeal is brought by the Los Angeles District Attorney on behalf of the People from an order of the superior court sealing certain documents seized during a search of respondents’ law offices pursuant to a valid search warrant. The putative respondents are the law offices of Bauman & Rose, Lake and Levine and Donald Lake and Howard Levine, and Denise Breakman.

Preliminarily, we must address the issue of appealability. The district attorney urges us to deem respondents’ motions to seal the documents seized from their offices to constitute a special proceeding as to which the court’s order granting that request is a final judgment and therefore appealable. (Code Civ. Proc., § 1064 [a “judgment in a special proceeding is the final determination of the rights of the parties therein.”].) The district attorney, however, fails to cite any relevant authority that supports this theory of appealability. The cases on which he relies not only involve completely different circumstances than those presented here but have in common the fact that they were orders made after a judgment. (In re de la O (1963) 59 Cal.2d 128 [ 28 Cal.Rptr. 489 , 378 P.2d 793 ] [commitment…