People v. Mims

289 P.2d 539, 136 Cal. App. 2d 828, 1955 Cal. App. LEXIS 1562
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 9, 1955
DocketCrim. 3145
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 289 P.2d 539 (People v. Mims) 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. Mims, 289 P.2d 539, 136 Cal. App. 2d 828, 1955 Cal. App. LEXIS 1562 (Cal. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinion

DOOLING, J.

The People appeal from an order of the Superior Court granting respondent’s motion to set aside an information charging him with a violation of Penal Code, section 666 (petty theft after a previous conviction of petty theft). The motion was made and granted on the ground that respondent had been once in jeopardy.

Respondent was charged with petty theft (Pen. Code, § 488) in the municipal court. He pleaded guilty on January 20, 1955; his plea was regularly entered and the municipal judge continued the case to January 27, 1955, for judgment. On January 21, 1955, the district attorney filed a complaint in the municipal court charging the violation of Penal Code, section 666. It is agreed that this complaint is based on the identical taking of property which was the basis of the charge of petty theft to which respondent had already pleaded guilty.

Upon motion of the district attorney the municipal court set aside respondent’s plea of guilty to the charge of petty theft. Over respondent’s objection that by reason of the entry of his plea of guilty to the petty theft charge he had been once in jeopardy the municipal court held a preliminary hearing on the complaint charging violation of Penal Code, section 666, and held respondent to answer.

On his arraignment in the superior court on the information charging this violation respondent moved to set aside the information under Penal Code, section 995, on the ground that he had been once in jeopardy. After being once denied, this motion was later renewed and granted.

Appellant makes two points: 1. That the defense of once in jeopardy cannot be raised by a motion under Penal Code, section 995; 2. That jeopardy had not attached in this *830 ease upon the entry of respondent’s plea to the charge of petty theft.

The attorney general asks us to decide the second question even though we agree with his argument on the first. This seems proper since the same question will recur in this very case at a later stage if we reverse the present order on the technical ground that a motion under Penal Code, section 995, is not the proper manner in which to present the defense of once in jeopardy. We therefore consider first the question whether jeopardy did attach on the entry of respondent’s plea of guilty to the charge of petty theft.

It is agreed that the charge of petty theft to which respondent pleaded guilty was an offense necessarily included in the later charge of violating Penal Code, section 666, and it is settled that where jeopardy has attached on a charge of an offense necessarily included in another the jeopardy in the lesser is a bar to a prosecution for the greater offense. (People v. Greer, 30 Cal.2d 589, 597 [184 P.2d 512]; People v. Krupa, 64 Cal.App.2d 592, 598 [149 P.2d 416]; People v. Ny Sam Chung, 94 Cal. 304 [29 P. 642, 28 Am.St.Rep. 29].)

The appellant relies heavily on Penal Code, section 1429, which provides, so far as relevant here, that: “In the case of a misdemeanor triable in any inferior court ... If such defendant pleads guilty, the court may, before entering such plea or pronouncing judgment, examine witnesses to ascertain the gravity of the offense committed; and if it appear to the court that a higher offense has been committed . . . the court may order the defendant to be committed or admitted to bail, to answer any indictment ... or any complaint which may be filed charging him with such higher offense.” Appellant points out that this section is in the alternative (“before entering such plea or pronouncing judgment”) and argues that it authorizes a holding to answer for the higher offense at any time before judgment even though a plea of guilty has been entered to the lesser.

The right not to be placed twice in jeopardy for the same offense is constitutional (Cal. Const., art. I, § 13.) It follows that if jeopardy does in fact attach upon the regular entry of the plea of guilty that part of section 1429 which provides for a holding to answer for a higher offense after the entry of a plea of guilty to a lesser necessarily included offense must be held unconstitutional.

Both parties rely heavily upon People v. Krupa, supra, 64 Cal.App.2d 592. In People v. Krupa the defendant after *831 pleading guilty to the lesser included offense was actually sentenced. Judgment having been pronounced on the plea of guilty in the Krupa case anything said by the court about the effect of a plea of guilty before judgment is only dictum. The question was squarely presented however in People v. Goldstein, 32 Cal. 432. In that case after a plea of guilty had been entered but before judgment a second indictment was returned for the same offense. The court said at page 433:

“Where a defendant pleads guilty, and his plea is entered of record as provided in the Criminal Practice Act, (See. 300) he stands convicted in the eye of the law as fully as he would have been by a verdict of guilty. He is convicted by his plea, and there is, therefore, no occasion for a trial, and nothing remains to be done except to pronounce judgment. On the question of former conviction there can be no distinction between a plea and a verdict of guilty, for both are followed by the same consequences.
“Nor is it necessary that a judgment should have been pronounced upon the conviction to make the plea of former conviction good.”

The reasoning of this case appears to us to be unanswerable, but even if it were open to question, under a well settled principle of constitutional construction, we are foreclosed from reexamining it now. The right not to be placed twice in jeopardy for the same offense was contained in the California Constitution of 1849. (Const. 1849, art. I, § 8.) It was that constitutional provision which the Supreme Court construed in People v. Goldstein, supra. The same provision against being placed twice in jeopardy was readopted in the present Constitution. It is settled by a long line of authorities that where a provision of the earlier Constitution had been construed by the Supreme Court it must be presumed that the framers of the present Constitution in readopting it intended it to have the same effect. (In re Lavine, 2 Cal.2d 324, 331 [41 P.2d 161, 42 P.2d 311]; People v. District Court of Appeal, 193 Cal. 19 [222 P. 353]; United Railroads v. Superior Court, 170 Cal. 755, 763 [151 P. 129, Ann.Cas. 1916E 199]; People v. Pacific Gas & Elec. Co., 168 Cal. 496, 499 [143 P. 727, Ann.Cas. 1917A 328]; Morton v. Broderick, 118 Cal. 474, 483 [50 P. 644] ; McBean v. City of Fresno, 112 Cal. 159, 168 [44 P. 358, 53 Am.St.Rep. 191, 31 L.R.A. 794]; Ex parte Ahern,

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Bluebook (online)
289 P.2d 539, 136 Cal. App. 2d 828, 1955 Cal. App. LEXIS 1562, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-mims-calctapp-1955.