Lawson

In an action for divorce plaintiff obtained judgment against the defendant, which provided, among other things, that defendant pay to plaintiff the sum of $100 per month for her support and maintenance. The defendant having failed to comply with this provision of the judgment, the plaintiff took proceedings under section 710, Code of Civil Procedure, and filed with the auditor of the city and county of San Francisco (defendant being at that time a justice of the peace of said city and county receiving a monthly salary of $300) a duly authenticated copy of the judgment, whereupon said auditor paid into court the sum of $1,200, the amount of salary at that time due defendant. In due time plaintiff moved the court for an order that the whole of this sum be paid to her in part satisfaction of said judgment. After hearing had, the court ordered that of the sum of $600, representing defendant’s salary for two months, the plaintiff be paid $400, and that $200 was exempt from execution, and should be paid to defendant.

Plaintiff appeals from this order, and asks for its reversal upon the ground, among others, that the defendant was not entitled to any exemption whatever; and this is the…

I dissent from the order denying a rehearing of these causes.

Each was regularly and properly appealed to this court, and afterward transferred to the district court of appeal for hearing and decision. In each was involved a question of vital importance to which no reference is made in the opinion of the district court of appeal, notwithstanding it was fully argued by the appellant—the question, that is to say, whether the statutory exemptions from execution have any application to an award of alimony. This, in my opinion, is a question of too serious import to be passed over in silence. It may be that in view of the terms of our statutes the apparent conclusion of the appellate court could not be set aside, but if so, I am convinced that the policy of the statute is indefensible— a view sufficiently illustrated by the result of this litigation. In such cases an explicit declaration by the courts of the grounds of their decision would serve the useful purpose of calling the attention of the legislature to the propriety of amending the statute.