Shell Oil Co. v. District Court

The petitioner, first having obtained leave of court so to do, filed a petition for an alternative writ of mandate or prohibition. The order to show cause was issued, and the respondents filed a return objecting, among other things, to the jurisdiction of this court to issue a writ of mandamus or prohibition in the matter. The respondents, upon the application of the complainant in the case of West Coast Petroleum Corporation v. Shell Oil Company, and others, now pending in the District Court of the United States' for the Western District of Washington, issued a subpmna duces tecum to E. L. Miller, an officer of the Shell Oil Company residing in this district, directing the witness to appear before Mrs. M. Y. Collins, a notary public in the city and county of San Francisco, state of California, with certain corporate records, and to give his testimony for use at the trial of the case in the above-mentioned court.

The application for the subpmna duces tecum and the order for its issuance were made without notice, but after its issuance the petitioners moved the court upon due notice to vacate the order and to quash the *395 subpoena duces tecum. This motion was duly presented and…