Johnston

This is an original proceeding in mandamus to require the respondent, as judge of the superior court, to direct Carrie E. Bridge to answer questions propounded to her in the taking of her deposition in a proceeding pending in that court. The sole question at issue is whether the said witness, being jointly sued with her husband as' a party defendant in said action, may be interrogated without his consent. The action is one to quiet title to an undivided one-half interest in certain real property situated in the county of Alameda, for an accounting of the rents, issues, and profits thereof, and to declare that the defendant Carrie B. Bridge, in whom the record title stands, holds such undivided one-half interest therein in trust for the plaintiff. Some fifteen other persons were joined as defendants, some of whom it is said have been served and appeared in the action. The defendants Carrie E. Bridge and H. S. Bridge, her husband, filed their joint answer verified by the oath of said H. S. Bridge, in which they expressly denied the allegations of the complaint that said Carrie E. Bridge has no interest, right, title, or claim in and to said real property and that she holds the naked…