Neilon

The petitioners pray for a writ of mandate to compel the respondent, as ex-officio clerk of the superior court in and for the county of Siskiyou, to “file ánd enter in the clerk’s register” the dismissal of each of twelve separate and distinct actions, which had been commenced in said court by the petitioners, each in Ms own right, against Churchill Company, a corporation, and others.

Section 581 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides that an action may be dismissed: “ ... 1. By the plaintiff himself, by written request to the clerk, filed with the. papers in the case, at any time before the trial, upon payment of Ms costs; provided, a counterclaim has not been set up, or affirmative relief sought by the cross-complaint or answer of the defendant. ...”

It appears from the petition that Jacob P. Wetzel was and is the attorney for each of the petitioners in the actions referred to, and, acting as such for them, and upon the provisions of the above-named code section, presented to the clerk the several written requests for dismissal of said actions, but that that official refused, and still refuses, to file and enter the same in his register.

The petition alleges that the actions…