Graf

Several actions for damages alleged to have been sustained from personal injuries incurred by the respective plaintiffs therein were filed, consolidated for the purposes of trial, and were tried to the conclusion of the plaintiffs’ evidence in the Superior Court of Santa Barbara County. The defendant, an incorporated water district, interposed a formal motion in writing for dismissal of said actions, upon the ground that from all of the evidence adduced it appeared that the superior court was without jurisdiction of the subject matter thereof, that each of the plaintiffs was an employee of the defendant, that he was injured in the performance of services growing out of and incidental to such employment, that said injuries were proximately caused by the alleged employment, and that the jurisdiction of their demands lay in the Industrial Accident Commission. Said motion was dated and filed on April 7, 1931. Two days thereafter, and on April 9, 1931, after argument of counsel, the trial court announced and there was entered in the clerk’s minutes the following:

On the same day, April 9, 1931, there was prepared and presented to, and signed by, the judge of said superior court a…