M. B. v. Superior Court

127 Cal. Rptr. 2d 454, 103 Cal. App. 4th 1384, 2002 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 11640, 2002 Daily Journal DAR 13566, 2002 Cal. App. LEXIS 5067
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 2, 2002
DocketB160315
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 127 Cal. Rptr. 2d 454 (M. B. v. Superior Court) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
M. B. v. Superior Court, 127 Cal. Rptr. 2d 454, 103 Cal. App. 4th 1384, 2002 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 11640, 2002 Daily Journal DAR 13566, 2002 Cal. App. LEXIS 5067 (Cal. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

Opinion

KLEIN, P. J.

The petition for writ of mandate raises two issues of first impression: whether a California criminal grand jury has the power to issue a subpoena duces tecum; and if it does, whether such a subpoena is defective if it is served without the good cause affidavit required by Code of Civil Procedure sections 1985 and 1987.5.

We conclude California criminal grand juries have the power to issue subpoenas duces tecum, and that such subpoenas do not require good cause affidavits.

Background

This proceeding arises out of a grand jury investigation into allegations that petitioners M.B., D.G. and M.W., 1 three Roman Catholic priests employed by the Los Angeles Archdiocese, committed acts of child molestation.

On June 12, 2002, the Los Angeles County District Attorney served grand jury subpoenas on the archdiocese’s custodian of records, seeking all documents in the archdiocese’s possession or control—including “confidential personnel files”—that “relate in any way to allegations of child molestation or sexual abuse” by any of the petitioners. 2 The archdiocese produced the requested documents, which the trial court sealed because the petitioners immediately moved to quash the subpoenas.

*1387 On July 15, 2002, following extensive briefing, an in camera inspection of certain grand jury proceedings, 3 and oral argument, the trial court concluded petitioners had standing to attack the subpoenas for facial defects, but that the subpoenas were not defective for failing to meet the affidavit requirements set forth in Code of Civil Procedure section 1985, subdivision (b) (affidavit shall be served with subpoena duces tecum showing good cause and materiality) and 1987.5 (service of subpoena duces tecum is invalid without affidavit). 4

On July 29, 2002, petitioners sought a writ of mandate from this court vacating the superior court’s order denying their motion to quash and declaring that the subpoenas must be quashed as facially defective. Upon receipt of the petition for writ of mandate, we issued an order to show cause and stayed the trial court’s order denying petitioners’ motion to quash.

Discussion

1. Grand jury had power to issue subpoenas duces tecum.

a. Common law supports the power.

“The institution of the grand jury is deeply rooted in Anglo-American history. In England, the grand jury served for centuries both as a body of accusers sworn to discover and present for trial persons suspected of criminal wrongdoing and as a protector of citizens against arbitrary and oppressive governmental action.” (United States v. Calandra (1974) 414 U.S. 338, 342-343 [94 S.Ct. 613, 617, 38 L.Ed.2d 561], fn. omitted.) “Traditionally the grand jury has been accorded wide latitude to inquire into violations of criminal law. No judge presides to monitor its proceedings. It deliberates in secret and may determine alone the course of its inquiry. The grand jury may compel the production of evidence or the testimony of witnesses as it considers appropriate, and its operation generally is unrestrained by the *1388 technical procedural and evidentiary rules governing the conduct of criminal trials.” (Id. at p. 343 [94 S.Ct. at p. 617].)

One of the grand jury’s traditional powers is the ability to compel production of documentary evidence by issuing subpoenas duces tecum. In Wilson v. United States (1911) 221 U.S. 361 [31 S.Ct. 538, 55 L.Ed. 771], a company president claimed that a grand jury subpoena for corporate books in his possession “was unauthorized, and hence void, because it was not directed to an individual, but to a corporation.” (Id. at p. 372 [31 S.Ct. at p. 541].) Wilson held the grand jury subpoena was valid, reasoning: “The power to compel the production of documents is, of course, not limited to those cases where it is sought merely to supplement or aid the testimony of the person required to produce them. The production may be enforced independently of his testimony, and it was held long since that the writ of subpoena duces tecum was adequate for this puipose. As was said by Lord Ellenborough in Amey v. Long, 9 East, 484, ‘The right to resort to means competent to compel the production of written, as well as oral, testimony, seems essential to the very existence and constitution of a Court of common law, which receives and acts upon both descriptions of evidence, and could not possibly proceed with due effect without them.’ ” (Ibid.)

Despite this compelling common law history, petitioners contend the grand jury in this case had no power to issue a subpoena duces tecum because Penal Code 5 section 939.2 6 —the grand jury statute discussing subpoenas—refers only to requiring the attendance of witnesses, and says nothing about calling for the production of documents. Petitioners argue: “The Grand Jury in California is entirely a creation of the Legislature. Its only powers are those specifically granted to it in statute by the Legislature. It has no inherent powers,” and “Without a specific grant of power from the Legislature, the Grand Jury cannot compel production of documents. Penal Code section 939.2 excludes that power.”

Petitioners are wrong. Not only is there statutory warrant for grand jury subpoenas duces tecum, but our Supreme Court has emphatically “rejected the contention that the California grand jury [is] a ‘purely’ statutory body, *1389 wholly distinct from its common law predecessor.” (People v. Superior Court (1973 Grand Jury) (1975) 13 Cal.3d430, 440, fn. 11 [119 Cal.Rptr. 193, 531 P.2d 761].)

In Fitts v. Superior Court (1936) 6 Cal.2d 230 [57 P.2d 510], the Supreme Court was faced with deciding the validity of a grand jury accusation, seeking under former section 758 to remove a district attorney for misconduct in office, that had been approved by only 11 grand jurors. Fitts noted section 758 was “silent as to the number of jurors who must concur in order to return a valid accusation. No other section of the code, nor does any statute of this state, fix the number of grand jurors who must concur in order to return an accusation.

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127 Cal. Rptr. 2d 454, 103 Cal. App. 4th 1384, 2002 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 11640, 2002 Daily Journal DAR 13566, 2002 Cal. App. LEXIS 5067, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/m-b-v-superior-court-calctapp-2002.