People v. Ferello

268 P. 915, 92 Cal. App. 683, 1928 Cal. App. LEXIS 880
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 22, 1928
DocketDocket No. 1437.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 268 P. 915 (People v. Ferello) 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
People v. Ferello, 268 P. 915, 92 Cal. App. 683, 1928 Cal. App. LEXIS 880 (Cal. Ct. App. 1928).

Opinion

KNIGHT, J.

Defendant was charged by information containing two counts with having contributed to the delinquency of her minor daughter, Nellie Ferello, in violation of section 21 of the Juvenile Court Law (Stats. 1915, p. 1246), the specific accusations against her being that on or about June 11, 1927, she persuaded, induced, and compelled her daughter, who was fifteen years of age, to serve and sell intoxicating liquor to various persons; and that on or about June 1, 1927, she served, sold, and gave wine to her daughter, which caused and manifestly tended to cause and encourage the girl to become delinquent. Upon trial the jury found defendant guilty on the first count and acquitted her on the second, and from the judgment of conviction she has appealed, urging as grounds for reversal insufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict and that the court erred in ruling upon the admissibility of evidence and in giving to the jury certain instructions.

The evidence, briefly stated, was as follows: Some time prior to the commission of the offenses charged in the information appellant’s husband died, and following his death appellant continued to occupy the family home with her son and daughter. She kept considerable liquor on the premises, mostly wine, and while testifying as a witness in *686 her own behalf admitted that prior to her husband’s death she had been “bootlegging” and as a consequence thereof had been arrested two or three times, but claimed that since her husband’s death she had been obeying the law. On June 11, 1927, she went to town, leaving her daughter in the house alone, and during her absence several men called at the house and the girl served them with wine from her mother’s stock, and collected the money therefor. Appellant testified that the actions of the girl in selling the wine were unauthorized by her; but the girl testified to the contrary, claiming that her mother upon leaving that morning instructed her “to clean up the house and take care of the customers,” and that accordingly when the men called, to purchase liquor she served them with wine and accepted the money therefor, which she turned over to her mother upon the latter’s return home. The girl further testified that during the first two weeks in June, .which was subsequent to her father’s death, her mother served and sold both wine and whisky to various persons calling at the house; and in ..this connection the evidence further shows that on one occasion appellant’s daughter and a girl friend were present while two men were there drinking, and that the men requested appellant to pour a drink for each of the girls, which appellant did, but that the girls declined to drink. Testimony was also given by a third girl to the effect that between June 1st and 11th she had seen appellant and her daughter serve men with liquor at their home.

The foregoing testimony is legally sufficient in our opinion to sustain the verdict of the jury finding appellant guilty on the first count. True, it was shown on the part of appellant that when the girl first made the disclosures against her mother as to liquor violations, the girl was an inmate of the detention home, having been placed there at the instance of her mother on account of the girl’s conduct with a young man with whom her mother had forbidden her to associate; and it may be reasonably inferred from. such circumstances that the girl first made the accusations against her mother in a spirit of revenge; but as has been repeatedly held, matters relating to the motives of a witness' are to be dealt with and determined exclusively by the jury; and on appeal, unless it be shown that the testimony of the witness is inherently improbable or impossible of belief, that *687 jury’s determination will not tie disturbed. (People v. Fleming, 166 Cal. 357 [Ann. Cas. 1915B, 881, 136 Pac. 291] ; People v. Tom Woo, 181 Cal. 315 [184 Pac. 389].) In the present case, by finding appellant guilty, the jury evidently accepted the girl’s testimony as being true, despite her motives, and there is nothing in the record upon which we can fairly base the conclusion that her testimony is inherently false; consequently the facts established thereby must be taken in support of the verdict.

One point stressed by appellant regarding the asserted insufficiency of the evidence is based upon an instruction given to the jury to the effect that “it is a violation of the law of this state commonly known as the Wright Act (Stats. 1921, p. 79), for a girl of fifteen years, if she knows it to he wrongful, to sell wine as a beverage” (italics ours), and that therefore, if the jury found that as a result of appellant’s persuasion and inducement the girl sold the wine as charged, “knowing it to be wrongful at the time,” appellant should be found guilty on the first count. Appellant contends that there is no proof whatever of such knowledge on the part of the girl.

In order to establish appellant’s guilt under the charge involving the girl’s alleged violation of the Wright Act, we do not agree, as the foregoing instruction implies, that it was essential for the prosecution to prove the element embodied in those portions of the instruction above italicized and quoted; but even though it were, the question of whether or not the Wright Act has been violated is not material to a determination of this appeal for the following reasons: One of the main purposes sought to be accomplished by the Juvenile Court Law is to prevent children from becoming delinquent as a result of inducement, persuasion, encouragement, or compulsion exercised on the part of others seeking to impose upon their immature minds; and to this end section 21 of the Juvenile Court Law was enacted denouncing as a crime the commission of any act or omission to perform any duty oh the part of another which shall cause or tend to cause or encourage a juvenile “to come within the provisions of any of the subdivisions 1 to 13, inclusive, of section 1” (Stats. 1915, p. 1225), of said law; and subdivisions 11 and 13 of said section respectively provide that a juvenile shall be deemed subject to the provisions of said *688 act “who is leading or from any cause is in danger of leading an idle, dissolute, lewd, or immoral life,” or “who violates any law of this state or any ordinance of any town, city, county, or city and county of this state defining crime.” Count one of the information upon which appellant was convicted was drawn in such form as to cover each of the foregoing subdivisions, the two elements of the charge being that appellant’s act in persuading and compelling her daughter to sell wine caused and manifestly tended to cause the girl to lead and that she was in danger of leading an immoral life; and that in thus persuading and compelling her daughter to sell wine appellant caused the former to violate the Wright Act.

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Bluebook (online)
268 P. 915, 92 Cal. App. 683, 1928 Cal. App. LEXIS 880, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-ferello-calctapp-1928.