People ex rel Jeschly v. Police Justice

7 Mich. 456, 1859 Mich. LEXIS 79
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 6, 1859
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 7 Mich. 456 (People ex rel Jeschly v. Police Justice) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People ex rel Jeschly v. Police Justice, 7 Mich. 456, 1859 Mich. LEXIS 79 (Mich. 1859).

Opinions

Martin On. J.:

Under the provisions of chapter 94 of the Revised Statutes of 1846, justices of the peace were empowered to hold courts for the trial and punishment of certain offenses committed within their respective counties, and from their judgments an appeal lay to the proper circuit court. By an act of the Legislature of 1849, — 8. L. 1849, p. 342, —the right of appeal was taken away, and the remedy by certiorari was substituted. This was the condition of the law when, in 1850 (8ess. L. p. 364) an act was passed by the Legislature authorizing the election of a police justice, and establishing a police court in the city of Detroit. This act transferred to such police court the jurisdiction over offenses committed within the limits of Detroit, which had theretofore been exercised by justices of the peace, and prohibited its exercise by such justices, except in case of absence or disability of the police justice' — but left to them jurisdiction to try and punish offenses committed elsewhere within the county of Wayne, than in Detroit, as it existed before its passage.

By an act of the Legislature of 1855 {8. L. 1855, p. 352) section 18 of chapter 94, which had been repealed in 1849, and which authorized an appeal from the judgment of a justice of the peace, was restored; and this, it is contended by the relators, gives the right of appeal from the judgment of the police court as well. Neither the act of 1855, nor section 18 of chapter 94, in words gives such appeal, and if conferred at all it must be by implication arising from the transfer of jurisdiction from justices’ courts to the police court. But, to my mind, the character of justices’ courts and the Police court of Detroit, are so widely different that no implication can arise, that the Legislature of [459]*4591855 had the latter in vieAV in the passage of the act giving an appeal from justices’ judgments in criminal cases. Justices of the peace have civil jurisdiction, and none is conferred upon the police justice: they have also jurisdiction co - extensive Avith the limits of their county; the police justice only Avith the city limits. The former have 'also certain political powers, Avhile the police justice has none. I regard the police court, therefore, as simply a municipal court, having a special local jurisdiction, conferred and limited by the laAV of 1850, and that the police justice is in no sense a justice of the peace.

It is true that the offense of which the relators were competed, would have been Avithin the jurisdiction of a justice of the pieace of Detroit, had not the act of 1850 transferred such jurisdiction to the police court. But it by •no means folloAvs that the tribunal to Avhich such jurisdiction Avas transferred became, by reason of such transfer, a court of a justice of the peace, ‘pro hac vice, so as to be embraced within all subsequent legislation respecting justices’ courts. In fact, quite the contrary would be the natural as well as the legal inference. When an act of the Legislature is passed, having reference to the jurisdiction of ■a particular court, there is no presumption that another not mentioned was intended to be embraced Avithin its provisions.

And this is especially true in the construction of acts •conferring jurisdiction. Noav the act of 1855, although in terms a restoration'of §18 .of chap. 94 of the Revised Statutes of 1846, must be construed to be in fact an act conferring appellate jurisdiction upon the circuit courts, over the judgments of justices of the peace in criminal cases. This act was passed after the Police Court of Detroit had been some five years in existence; and yet it did not embrace such court Avithin its provisions. If the Legislature had intended to confer upon the circuit court appellate jurisdiction over the police court, it is hardly possible that it would have omitted to mention it in the act.

[460]*460Nor can appellate jurisdiction be acquired by implication, or anything short of positive enactment; and I am aware of no instance where courts have presumed to exercise it, except upon express grant of power. If, in the present case, this jurisdiction is implied, it must be either because the police court is regarded to be in fact a court of a justice of the ¡reace of special and limited jurisdiction, or because the jurisdiction is presumed to attach to the offense, and follow it wherever triable. The first position can not be for an instant maintained, for the reasons already given; and a consideration of the character- and jurisdiction of the court will show that it ought not to be. The court is a municipal court, created for general police purposes. It embraces within its jurisdiction all local offenses against the laws of the state, affecting the peace and good order of the city. These offenses from their nature, and the character of those most usually guilty of them, require, and from the well known proceedings of police courts wherever established, receive, summary disposition. The forms of law are not observed, nor are they supposed to be, in their proceedings, in the great majority of- cases, as in other tribunals. From necessity this is so, and such necessity is tacitly recognized and acquiesced in by the law. To allow appeals from all judgments of the police court would not only be contrary to the policy of the law creating these tribunals, but it Avould operate most disastrously upon community, by retarding, if not wholly impeding, the cause of justice, in the numberless cases which the well-being and safety of society in cities requires should be summarily dealt with.

Nor can the latter position be any more easily maintained, The appellate jurisdiction conferred by the act of 1855 does not attach to the offense, but to the court. No one, I presume, would contend that if the power to try and punish these offenses had been transferred to the Recorder’s court instead of the police court, that an appeal [461]*461would lie to the circuit court from the judgment of the -Recorder, by force of this act of 1855. And yet, I confess, I am not able to discover upon principle why it would not in the one case as well as in the other.. If ‘the act is to receive the interpretation contended for by the relators, viz: that the circuit court has, through it, •appellate jurisdiction over every inferior tribunal upon 'which the power to try and punish for the offenses, conferred originally by chapter 94 upon justices of the peace, has been or may be transferred — for their position comes to this — it is because its language is to be construed, Uot according to its ordinary import and signification, but according to the caprice of judges, and their idea of right ■and justice. If it had been the intention that such jurisdiction should follow the offense, the Legislature would have so declared, and not have limited it to the judgment ■of a particular court or class of magistrates. The truth is that apellate jurisdiction can never be taken by implioation; nor does it ever attach to crimes or offenses, but only to judgments, and to such judgments and of such tribunals as the law in express terms extends it to.

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Bluebook (online)
7 Mich. 456, 1859 Mich. LEXIS 79, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-ex-rel-jeschly-v-police-justice-mich-1859.