Crest Catering Co. v. Superior Court

Carl Kirsten, as administrator of an Employee Welfare and Retirement Fund and as assignee of the trustees of the fund, brought an action against Crest Catering Company to compel payment of contributions allegedly owed to the fund under the terms of a contract with a labor union. He alleged that in June 1957 Crest orally agreed with the union to make contributions to the fund at specified hourly rates for each hour worked by each of its employees and to be bound by the terms of certain trust instruments establishing the fund. He also alleged that Crest failed to make a full and complete accounting of its indebtedness under the contract.

During discovery proceedings, Kirsten directed interrogatories to Crest as to the number of employees and the hours worked by each during the period in issue in order to ascertain the correct amount due under the alleged contract. When Crest responded that all its books and records had been destroyed by fire, Kirsten suggested that Crest obtain the requested information from copies of its employment tax returns. The completeness and accuracy of Crest’s answers to several sets of interrogatories became the subject of a sharp and acrimonious dispute.…

I dissent. I would grant the writ of prohibition for the reasons expressed by Mr. Justice Herndon in the opinion prepared by him for the District Court of Appeal (Crest Catering Co. v. Superior Court (Cal.App.) 40 Cal.Rptr. 533 ).