Odlum v. Duffy

219 P.2d 785, 35 Cal. 2d 562, 1950 Cal. LEXIS 363
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedJune 27, 1950
DocketS. F. 18043
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 219 P.2d 785 (Odlum v. Duffy) 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
Odlum v. Duffy, 219 P.2d 785, 35 Cal. 2d 562, 1950 Cal. LEXIS 363 (Cal. 1950).

Opinions

SPENCE, J.

This proceeding presents the single question of the effect of the reversal of the order of the trial court denying petitioner’s motion to vacate a judgment of conviction. Petitioner contends that such disposition of his appeal required the trial court to give him the relief demanded in his motion—that is, vacation of the judgment and of his plea of guilty, and permission to enter a new plea—and he now seeks a writ of mandate compelling the respondent court to so proceed. Upon the undisputed facts presented here, we have concluded that petitioner is not entitled to the issuance of the writ.

Petitioner pleaded guilty to a charge of issuing checks without sufficient funds and on January 21,1948, he was sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison. On September 27, 1948, petitioner, by a different attorney, moved to vacate the judgment upon a ground recognized in People v. Gilbert, 25 Cal.2d 422, 443 [154 P.2d 657]. At the hearing of his motion petitioner introduced some evidence in support of his position but the trial court, acting inconsistently with the Gilbert decision, refused to admit certain other evidence or to determine the motion on its merits, stating “I have no jurisdiction whatsoever in the matter. ’ ’ Upon such basis the motion was denied.

Petitioner appealed from the order denying his motion. (People v. Odlum, 91 Cal.App.2d 761 [205 P.2d 1106].) The District Court of Appeal, after noting the trial judge’s erroneous conclusion as to his lack of power to dispose of the [564]*564motion upon the merits, said at page 772: “Counsel for [petitioner] at the oral argument suggested that this court should vacate the judgment and the plea of guilty and direct the superior court to permit [petitioner] to enter a plea of not guilty. Our power is limited to review. It is for the superior court, after a hearing on the merits, to determine whether the judgment and plea of guilty should be vacated. If the plea of guilty is in fact and in law void it should be vacated, and both the People and the [petitioner] should be restored to their original position ... as [it was] immediately before entry of such plea.” The decision of the District Court of Appeal then followed—“Order reversed”—without any further express direction.

After the going down of the remittitur and on June 22, 1949, the motion was again submitted to the trial court for hearing. While petitioner was not allowed to come from prison and testify, he was represented by counsel, various papers were presented, including the probation officer’s report made before petitioner was sentenced, and upon such evidence the motion was denied. In so exercising its jurisdiction, the trial court heard and determined the merits of the motion as impliedly directed in the opinion of the District Court of Appeal. Petitioner’s attorney attempted to appeal from the order of denial but his notice of appeal was filed too late, and the purported appeal was dismissed. (People v. Odlum,, District Court of Appeal, Second Dist., Div. Three, Minutes, July 29, 1949, 93 A.C.A. p. 4.)

Petitioner contends in this proceeding that under the now final judgment of the District Court of Appeal (People v. Odlum, supra, 91 Cal.App.2d 761), the trial court “had no jurisdiction again [on June 22] to hear and deny the motion to vacate” and that, regardless of the merits of the motion, its duty was to vacate the judgment. His position cannot be sustained.

It is well settled that the reversal of a judgment or order ordinarily leaves the proceeding in the same situation in which it stood before the judgment or order was made. (3 Am.Jur. § 1191, p. 697; 2 Cal.Jur. § 590, p. 996; Estate of Pusey, 177 Cal. 367, 371 [170 P. 846]; Central Savings Bank of Oakland v. Lake, 201 Cal. 438, 443 [257 P. 521]; Monson v. Fischer, 219 Cal. 290, 291 [26 P.2d 6]; Sloan v. Court Hotel, 72 Cal.App.2d 308, 316 [164 P.2d 516].) The same rule has been stated with respect to the reversal of orders in criminal cases. (People v. Commons, 64 Cal.App.2d [565]*565Supp. 925, 937 [148 P.2d 724].) It therefore appears that upon the reversal of the trial court’s order refusing to vacate the judgment of conviction, the parties were restored to the position that they had before the reversed order was made and with the same rights that they originally had, “with the exception that the opinion of the court of appeal must be followed so far as applicable.” (Central Savings Bank of Oakland v. Lake, supra, p. 443; Thomas v. Lavery, 125 Cal.App. 666, 669 [14 P.2d 158]; see, also, 5 C.J.S. § 1950, p. 1476.) In its opinion the District Court of Appeal declared that the trial court had denied petitioner’s motion to vacate the judgment upon the erroneous assumption that it was without jurisdiction to act, and the trial court was directed, at least impliedly, to rule upon the motion after a hearing on the merits. This decision of the District Court of Appeal became final, and in conformity therewith it became the duty of the trial court to entertain and decide the motion, which duty was enforceable by mandamus. (16 Cal.Jur. § 37, p. 826; Katenkamp v. Superior Court, 16 Cal.2d 696, 698 [108 P.2d 1].) The trial court here did so proceed; the motion was heard on its merits and denied; the appeal from that order was abortive because not timely taken; and the order of denial on the merits now stands as a final determination of petitioner’s rights in that regard.

Petitioner takes the position that where the appellate court reverses an order denying a motion, without incorporating as a part of the reversal thereof express directions to the trial court to proceed further with a hearing of the motion, the trial court has no power to act other than to grant the motion. To sustain his theory, petitioner cites certain cases wherein the reversal of an order denying a new trial was held in effect to constitute the ordering of a new trial: People v. Hardisson, 61 Cal. 378, 380; Poeple v. Lee Look, 143 Cal. 216, 220 [76 P. 1028]; and People v. Hudson, 92 Cal.App. 593, 595 [268 P. 687]. But such eases involved appeals taken from the judgment of conviction and the order refusing a new trial, and as both were reversed, the reversal of the order was deemed “equivalent to the granting of a new trial.” (People v. Hardisson, supra, p. 380.) In other words, such disposition of the appeals was held, in effect, to constitute “ordering a new trial” within the meaning of section 1262 of the Penal Code, which provides that “ [i] f a judgment against the defendant is reversed without ordering a new trial, [566]*566the appellate court must, if he is in custody, direct him to be discharged therefrom.” (Emphasis added; Ex parte Ballard, 149 Cal. 114, 115 [84 P. 833].) Manifestly this code section and the above-mentioned cases have no application here in that the appeal was taken not from the judgment of conviction but from the order denying the motion to vacate the judgment. (People v.

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Odlum v. Duffy
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Bluebook (online)
219 P.2d 785, 35 Cal. 2d 562, 1950 Cal. LEXIS 363, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/odlum-v-duffy-cal-1950.