James

This is an appeal from the judgment in a special proceeding for a writ of review. The lower court held that the defendant acted in excess of jurisdiction in issuing a search-warrant, refused to quash the writ, and directed the return to plaintiff of the property seized.

Plaintiff and respondent was president of the Broadway United States Bonded Warehouse, in San Francisco, and manager thereof for the Danforth Warehouse Company, a corporation, the owner. There were in storage in this warehouse three cases of opium, in the original .packages, the tins containing the opium, having been stamped, replaced in the cases, and sealed by United States customs officers. This opium, so far as the record discloses, was owned by Look Tin Eli, who had purchased it from the original consignee, and who paid the duty on the same.

On the 9th of April, 1912, defendant Oppenheim, as police judge of the city and county of San Francisco, issued a search-warrant under which F. A. Sutherland, a deputy sheriff, and a detail of police officers took and removed said opium from the warehouse and deposited it with the property clerk of the police department. Plaintiff James moved the police court for an…