Arata v. Superior Court

WOOD (Fred B.), J.

Certain personal property was seized under authority of a search warrant. At the preliminary examination the defendants challenged the legality of the seizure because of asserted insufficiency of the affidavit upon which the warrant was based. They sought by their cross-examination of the affiant to show that significant facts stated in the affidavit were not within his personal knowledge and therefore did not furnish legal support for an inference of “probable cause” (State Const., art. I, §19) upon the part of the judge who, upon reading the affidavit, issued the warrant.

Th…