Rison

Defendant in this case has moved for an order requiring the plaintiff to submit to a physical examination prior to the trial by a physician to be designated by the court. Defendant relies upon the authority of Camden & Suburban Ry. Co. v. Stetson, 177 U. S. 172 , 20 S. Ct. 617 , 44 L. Ed. 721 , which held that, although under the common law the federal courts might not order such examination (Union Pacific Ry. Co. v. Botsford, 141 U. S. 250 , 11 S. Ct. 1000 , 35 L. Ed. 734 ), it might do so where the federal court in which the action was brought was in a state permitting such examinations by statute.

There is no statute in California expressly authorizing such an order. The Supreme Court of the state of California has held, in Johnston v. Southern Pacific Co., 150 Cal. 535 , 89 P. 348 , 11 Ann. Cas. 841, that an order for physical examination is within the general powers of the courts (C. C. P. § 128, subd. 5), “to control in furtherance of *789 justice the conduct of its ministerial officers, and of all other persons in any manner connected with a judicial proceeding before it, in every matter appertaining thereto.”

The statute just quoted is but a codification of a general…