Peterson

The appellant filed a petition in the superior court for a writ of mandate. He averred in his petition (briefly) that he had obtained a judgment in a justice’s court against the Eureka Electric Company, a corporation, for two hundred and thirty-three dollars and fifty cents; that he had taken out an execution upon said judgment, which had been returned nulla bona; that upon an examination of the secretary of said company he discovered that it was the owner of two certain United States letters-patent, and the inventions covered thereby; that thereupon he procured an alias execution, which he delivered to the sheriff with instructions “to levy upon, advertise, and sell all the right, title, and interest of said defendant, the Eureka Electric Company, in and to said letters-patent, and the inventions covered and protected thereby”; and that the said sheriff refused to advertise and sell said rights, etc., of said company to said patent rights. Wherefore, he prayed for a writ of mandamus requiring the sheriff “to advertise and sell all the right, title, and interest” of said company in and to said .patent rights. A general demurrer to the petition was sustained by the superior court,…