People v. Oliveria

59 P. 772, 127 Cal. 376, 1899 Cal. LEXIS 657
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 29, 1899
DocketCrim. No. 566.
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 59 P. 772 (People v. Oliveria) 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
People v. Oliveria, 59 P. 772, 127 Cal. 376, 1899 Cal. LEXIS 657 (Cal. 1899).

Opinion

*378 COOPER, C.

Appeal from judgment and order denying motion for new trial. Defendant was charged with the crime of robbery, committed on the eleventh day of December, 1898, in the county of Alameda, by forcibly taking from the person of one Joseph He vis one hundred and eighty dollars in gold coin. He entered his plea of “not guilty,” and, after trial before a jury, was convicted and sentenced to a term of three years in the state prison at San Quentin. He does not claim that the evidence is insufficient to justify the verdict, nor that the court erred in giving or refusing any instruction to the jury. He specifies certain alleged errors which he claims are prejudicial, and which we will notice in the order presented. It is claimed that the information charges the defendant under the name of Frank Oliveria, and that the evidence shows that the name of defendant is Frank Oliveria, Jr., and that defendant objected to the evidence on the ground of such variance. The information is entitled “People of the State of California against Frank Oliveria, Jr.” In the charging part it is stated: “The said Frank Oliveria on the eleventh day of,” etc., and concludes by stating: “And all of the acts of the said Frank Oliveria, Jr., in the premises were and are contrary to the form, force, and effect of the statute in such cases made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the people of the state of California.” The information was indorsed on the back thereof,“People of the State of California against Frank Oliveria, Jr.” When it was read to defendant with its indorsements, and he was asked his true name, he answered that his true name “is Frank Oliveria, Jr.” We think it sufficiently appears from the whole information that the defendant was charged under the name of “Frank Oliveria, Jr.” The Penal Code, section 959, provides: “The indictment or information is sufficient if it can be understood therefrom: .... 3. That the defendant is named, or, if his name cannot be discovered, that he is described by a fictitious name, with a statement that his true name is to the jury or district attorney, as the case may be, unknown.”

Section 960 provides: “Ho indictment or information is insufficient, nor can the trial, judgment, or other proceeding thereon be affected by reason of any defect or imperfection in matter of form which does not tend to the prejudice of a substantial right of the defendant upon its merits.”

*379 In San Francisco v. Randall, 54 Cal. 410, it is said: “The addition ‘Jr.’ is no part of a name proper,” and it was accordingly held that where in one proceeding “Jr.” was used, and in another it was not, that it was wholly immaterial.

In People v. Boggs, 20 Cal. 433, the indictment was against James B. Boggs and the verdict was against “defendant J. M. Boggs.” It was held that the error was immaterial. (See People v. Ah Kim, 34 Cal. 189; People v. Hughes, 29 Cal. 262.) In 1 Bishop’s New Criminal Procedure, section 687, it is said: “Junior and senior are no part of a name, however commonly employed. So that neither the omission nor insertion of either, contrary to what would be deemed proper, will create a variance or otherwise injure the indictment.” The text is supported by many cases cited in the footnote at page 407.

It is claimed that the court erred in overruling a challenge to the panel of jurors. It appeared during the drawing of the jury that a part of the regular panel of jurors, six in number, had been called in another department of the superior court in a case on trial in such other department, and for this reason did not answer to their names when called. The clerk informed the judge .of the court that there were six names in the box at the time of the commencement of the drawing of the jury who were engaged in the trial of a case in another department of the court. The judge, addressing defendant’s counsel, said: “How, gentlemen, we will take this jury out of the box, take those six names out of the box and draw again, or proceed as we have proceeded up to this point, as you please, addressing myself now to the defense. What is your pleasure about it? When we commenced to draw the jury for this case there were the names of six jurors who were engaged in another department on a jury trj'ing a case. Obviously, those names ought not to have been in the box. We will take them out of the box and commence to draw again or go on with the trial, as you please.”

The attorneys for defendant answered: “I think we would rather have them taken out of the box.” After some further remarks the judge said to defendant’s counsel: “What I want to do is simply to give you an opportunity to have a full panel drawn without those names in the box. I understand you, therefore, to waive any informality up to this point.” Counsel *380 for defendant answered: “Yes.” Ho objection or exception appears in the record np to this point to the regular panel, or to taking six jurors out of the box. After the regular panel was exhausted, the court ordered a special venire to issue for eight jurors. ¡No objection or exception was taken to the special panel before the jurors were sworn, the jurors were examined, the jury completed, and all sworn to try the cause. After the jury had been sworn, the defendant’s counsel challenged the panel on the ground “that there was not in the box at the commencement of the drawing, or at, and at any time during, the drawing, the full number of names that should be there during the drawing.” The court denied the challenge, and defendant excepted. We think the challenge was properly denied. It did not appear whether the challenge was to the regular panel or to the panel returned on the special venire, or to both panels. If it was the intent to challenge the regular panel, the defendant had expressly waived any irregularity in that regard. If the intent was to interpose a challenge to the panel called on the special venire, this could only be done on account of the bias of the officer who summoned them, which would have been good ground of challenge to a juror. (Pen. Code, sec. 1064; People v. Durrant, 116 Cal. 195, and cases cited.)

Whether the intent was to interpose a challenge to either panel, or to both, it must have been taken before a juror was sworn. (Pen. Code, see. 1060.)

While the witness ¡Nevis was testifying, he referred to one of the parties who robbed him as a little man about five feet high, more or less. The district attorney then said: “How did his size compare with this defendant’s? Will you stand up, Mr. Oliveria” (speaking to defendant). Counsel for defendant said: “We object to this question and to his, the defendant’s, standing up, on the grounds that it is immaterial, incompetent, and irrelevant.” The court overruled the objection, and defendant excepted and now claims in his brief that it was error to make the defendant stand up and thereby testify against himself. The record only shows that the district attorney asked defendant to stand up. It does not show that the judge told him to stand up or that he did stand up. But if it were disclosed by the record that he was compelled by the court to stand up for compari *381 son this would not he error. (People v. Goldenson, 76 Cal. 347.)

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Bluebook (online)
59 P. 772, 127 Cal. 376, 1899 Cal. LEXIS 657, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-oliveria-cal-1899.