Leach v. Superior Court

12 P.2d 1, 215 Cal. 531, 1932 Cal. LEXIS 446
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedMay 23, 1932
DocketDocket No. L.A. 13222.
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 12 P.2d 1 (Leach v. Superior Court) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Leach v. Superior Court, 12 P.2d 1, 215 Cal. 531, 1932 Cal. LEXIS 446 (Cal. 1932).

Opinion

CURTIS, J.

Petition for writ of prohibition directed to the Superior Court of the County of Los Angeles to restrain that court from issuing, or causing to be issued, a commitment based' upon the conviction of the petitioner herein of a violation of the Corporate Securities Act. Upon conviction of the petitioner, he appealed from the judgment to the District Court of Appeal. That court affirmed the judgment in an opinion in which the facts in the case are set forth in detail. (People v. Leach, 106 Cal. App. 442 [290 Pac. 131].) After the rendition of said decision of the District Court of Appeal petitioner made an unsuccessful attempt to file in this court a petition for a hearing herein, but due to the fact that this petition was not filed within the time provided by the Constitution and statutes of the state, it was not considered on its merits. On the going down of the remittitur after decision of the District Court of Appeal, petitioner applied for probation and the same was granted as to all offenses of which he was *533 finally adjudged guilty, except as to count three of the indictment charging the petitioner with the violation of the Corporate Securities Act and count fourteen charging petitioner with the crime of grand theft. The judgment as to count fourteen was, by the trial court, made to run consecutively with the judgment based upon count three of said indictment. Petitioner now seeks by this proceeding to restrain the trial court from enforcing against him said judgment of conviction upon the charge of violating the Corporate Securities Act.

The principle contended for in this proceeding is not a novel one in so far as this court is concerned. In the early case of Bennett v. Wallace, 43 Cal. 25, a writ of certiorari was sought to review an appealable judgment of a court after the time for appeal had lapsed. In denying the petition the court said “It is not denied on the part of the petitioner that the final judgment and the orders of the District Court in question might have been examined here upon appeal taken in time for that purpose; but it is insisted that, as the time limited by statute for the taking of the appeal has been suffered to elapse, the case has thereby become one in which there is no appeal, and is thus brought within the terms of the statute referred to. This view is answered by the case of Millihen v. Huber, 21 Cal. 166. The statute was intended to supply a remedy where none existed in the first instance, and not to supplement one lost through the laches of the party himself. Writ dismissed.”

The case of Faut v. Mason, 47 Cal. 7, was also a proceeding in certiorari to review and set aside a judgment after the time for appeal had passed. The county court granted the writ, but on appeal the order was reversed. The court, upon the authority of Bennett v. Wallace, supra, held that the statute providing for the remedy by writ of certiorari “ ‘was intended to supply a remedy where none existed in the first instance, and not to supplement one lost through the laches of the party himself’ The court in Faut v. Mason, supra, on page 9, further said: “In this case defendants might have appealed from the judgment rendered against them by the Justice of the Peace, and have obtained any relief to which they were entitled. They let the time for taking an appeal go by without taking one, but that was *534 their fault, and they must bear whatever consequences it entails.”

In the more recent case of Valentine v. Police Court, 141 Cal. 615 [75 Pac. 336], the two cases just cited were approved and the principles of law enunciated therein were applied to proceedings in prohibition, as will appear from the following excerpts therefrom: “It is . . . here urged that the ordinance upon which the prosecution was based was void for several different reasons, that the complaint filed in the police court did not state any offense, and that the judgments of the police court and the warrant based thereon are also void. All these questions were the proper subject of investigation and determination upon the appeal taken to the superior court. And it is not the purpose of the law that these same questions should be reinvestigated and redetermined by the supreme court or by any other court upon application for a writ of certiorari or prohibition, or upon an application for both of those writs. The writ of certiorari issues only in cases where there is no remedy by appeal. (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 1068; White v. Superior Court, 110 Cal. 54 [42 Pac. 471].) And this rule applies with equal force where the right of appeal has been lost by laches. (Faut v. Mason, 47 Cal. 7; Bennett v. Wallace, 43 Cal. 25.) It is equally clear that the rule continues to apply after the appeal has been heard and determined, as in this case adversely to appellants. ‘The statute (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 1067) was intended to supply a remedy where none existed in the first instance. ’ (Bennett v. Wallace, 43 Cal. 25.) It was never intended that it should be substituted for an appeal. (Faut v. Mason, 47 Cal. 7.) It is also settled that prohibition cannot be resorted to where, as here, there is a plain, speedy, and adequate remedy by appeal.”

We quote also from the ease of Jones v. Police Court of Alhambra, 86 Cal. App. 332, 338 [260 Pac. 919, 921], as follows: “ ‘ “The statute (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 1067) was intended to supply a remedy where none existed in the first instance.” (Bennett v. Wallace, 43 Cal. 25.) It was never intended that it should be substituted for an appeal. (Faut v. Mason, 47 Cal. 7.) ’ (Valentine v. Police Court, 141 Cal. 615, 617 [75 Pac. 336].) In Postal etc. Co. v. Superior Court, 22 Cal. App. 770, 774 [136 Pac. 538], it was also said ‘It is not, of course, the consideration whether the petitioner *535 takes advantage of the right of appeal, but whether the right of appeal exists in his favor that is decisive of the question. For instance, he cannot allow the time for appeal to lapse and then successfully urge this circumstance as a legal justification for the writ of certiorariWe may well conclude this opinion with the following: ‘That the defendant might have appealed to the superior court from the . . . judgment there can be no question. And it is well settled that when an appeal may be taken resort cannot be had to a writ of review. The cases so holding are numerous and need not be cited. ’

It is true that the ease of Jones v. Police Court of Alhambra, supra, and some of the cases cited therein are cases involving the right to the writ of certiorari

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Bluebook (online)
12 P.2d 1, 215 Cal. 531, 1932 Cal. LEXIS 446, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/leach-v-superior-court-cal-1932.