People v. Saffell

168 P.2d 497, 74 Cal. App. Supp. 2d 967, 1946 Cal. App. LEXIS 1333
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 23, 1946
DocketCrim. A. 2170
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 168 P.2d 497 (People v. Saffell) 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. Saffell, 168 P.2d 497, 74 Cal. App. Supp. 2d 967, 1946 Cal. App. LEXIS 1333 (Cal. Ct. App. 1946).

Opinion

SHAW, P. J.

The defendants are prosecuted in this criminal action on a complaint containing three counts. They filed a demurrer to the complaint, which was overruled as to Counts I and III, and sustained as to Count II, with leave to amend. The People having failed to amend within the time allowed therefor, judgment of dismissal of Count II was entered, from which the People appeal. Such an appeal from the judgment entered on one count is proper although the other counts are not disposed of. (People v. Ring (1937), 26 Cal.App.2d Supp. 768, 770 [70 P.2d 281].)

At the threshold of our consideration of this appeal we are confronted with the question, what defects or objections to the complaint in a criminal action in a municipal, justice’s or police court—the practice is the same in all (Pen. Code, § 1461a)—may be raised and considered on a demurrer to the complaint? Prior to 1945 there was no provision for a demurrer to such a complaint in those courts, and objections to the complaint were made either by a motion in arrest of judgment or by motion to dismiss. The motion in arrest of judgment is expressly provided for by section 1452 of the Penal Code, and the defendant can found it on “any substantial defect in the complaint. ’ ’ By this motion a defendant cannot take advantage of defects in form in a complaint. (People v. Rosenbloom (1931), 119 Cal.App.Supp. 759, 763 [2 P.2d 228].) All defects consisting merely in the absence of that particularity which might be necessary to enable the defendants to prepare for and make their defense are to be regarded as defects in form and cannot be raised by such a motion. (People v. Welton (1922), 190 Cal. 236, 240 [211 P. 802].) Under section 1385 of the Penal Code, the court may dismiss an action “in furtherance of justice,” and under section 1387 such order may be “for the purpose of amending the complaint.” Under these sections the practice grew up of objecting to the sufficiency of a complaint to state an offense by motion to dismiss. Such a motion is not a proper mode for raising objections which go to mere uncertainty or want of particularity.

*Supp. 972 But by amendment of the Penal Code in 1945, sections 1428.1, 1428.2, and 1428.3 were added, which are applicable in all the courts above mentioned. These sections provide for a demurrer to the complaint, its permissible grounds, and tl^e procedure thereon. Section 1428.1 reads as follows: “At any time prior to entry of a plea, the defendant may demur to the complaint when it appears upon the face thereof either: 1. That the court has no jurisdiction of the offense charged therein; 2. That it does not substantially conform to the requirements of Section 1426 of this code; 3. That the facts stated do not constitute a public offense; 4. That it contains matter which, if true, would constitute a legal justification or excuse of the offense charged, or other legal bar to the prosecution.

“Failure to make the objections above mentioned by demurrer when they appear upon the face of the complaint, shall constitute a waiver thereof, except that after a plea of guilty or a verdict or finding of guilty the objection to the jurisdiction of the court, or objection that the facts stated do not constitute a public offense, may be taken on a motion in arrest of judgment. ’ ’ The permissible grounds of demurrer here set forth are substantially the same as those allowed in the superior court by section 1004, and they appear to have been borrowed from that section, except that the charging of more than one offense is not made a ground of demurrer, as it is in the superior court. Obviously the general scope of the demurrer so authorized is, aside from the joinder of offenses, the same as that of a demurrer in the superior court in a criminal action. It is settled that the only grounds of demurrer allowed are those specifically named in the statute. (People v. Schmidt (1883), 64 Cal. 260, 261 [30 P. 814] ; People v. Tibbitts (1925), 71 Cal.App. 709, 712 [236 P. 217] ; People v. McAllister (1929), 99 Cal.App. 37, 44 [277 P. 1082].) It is to be noted that uncertainty is not made a ground of demurrer by section 1428.1, except insofar as it constitutes a failure to conform to section 1426.

Section 1426 reads as follows: “All proceedings and actions before a justice’s or police court, or a municipal court, for a public offense of which such courts have jurisdiction, must be commenced by complaint under oath, setting forth the offense charged, with such particulars of time, place, person, and property as to enable the defendant to understand distinctly the character of the offense complained of, and to answer the complaint. In charging an offense, each count shall contain, and shall be sufficient if it contains in substance, a *Supp. 973 statement that the accused has committed some public offense therein specified. Such statement may be made in ordinary and concise language without any technical averments or any allegations of matter not essential to be proved. It may be in the words of the enactment describing the offense or declaring the matter to be a public offense, or in any words sufficient to give the accused notice of the offense of which he is accused. In charging theft, it shall be sufficient to allege that the defendant unlawfully took the labor or property of another.” In construing this section it is to be noted that prior to 1931 it contained only the present first sentence (except the words “or a municipal court”), and that everything else now appearing in it was added by the amendment of 1931. The matter so added, except for the reference to a municipal court, was simply a copy of section 952, applicable in the superior courts, as that section had been amended in 1929, which amendment, following that of 1927, omitted the requirement that a pleading be direct and certain. These amendments of section 952 were made as part of a program for simplification and liberalization of the rules of pleading in criminal cases. (People v. Pierce (1939), 14 Cal.2d 639, 645 [96 P.2d 784]; People v. Beesly (1931), 119 Cal.App. 82, 85 [6 P.2d 114, 970].) No doubt the addition of the words of section 952 in its amended form to section 1426 was made for the same purpose, and it should be construed according to the fair import of its terms, to effectuate that purpose. (Pen. Code, § 4.) But we cannot overlook the fact that in this amendment no part of the old section 1426 was deleted from the amended section. This indicates that the Legislature did not intend to repeal the old section completely. The old and new must, therefore, stand and he construed together and effect must be given to each, as far as possible, so as to make a consistent whole. (Donlon v. Jewett (1891), 88 Cal. 530, 534-5 [26 P. 370]; Smith v. Board of Trustees (1926), 198 Cal. 301, 306 [245 P. 173].) Should it prove impossible to reconcile the old and the new in their entirety, and there is no other indication of the legislative intention, then to that extent the new parts of the section must be regarded as controlling. (Donlon v. Jewett, supra.)

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Bluebook (online)
168 P.2d 497, 74 Cal. App. Supp. 2d 967, 1946 Cal. App. LEXIS 1333, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-saffell-calctapp-1946.