People v. Sanchez

132 P.2d 810, 21 Cal. 2d 466, 1942 Cal. LEXIS 469
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 31, 1942
DocketCrim. 4431
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 132 P.2d 810 (People v. Sanchez) 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. Sanchez, 132 P.2d 810, 21 Cal. 2d 466, 1942 Cal. LEXIS 469 (Cal. 1942).

Opinions

TRAYNOR, J.

— On March 4, 1941, an information was filed by the District Attorney of Los Angeles County against defendant Angelo John Porrello and two others accusing them in counts one and two of the crime of robbery, and of attempted robbery in count three. Defendant, a seventeen-year-old boy, was arraigned in Department 41 of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County and pleaded not guilty to all counts of the information. Trial of the action was set for April 16, 1941, and the case transferred to Department 44. On the day of the trial the judge of Department 44 transferred the case to Department 39, the department of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County designated to hold sessions as a juvenile court. The transcript gives no indication of the proceedings in Department 39, but shows that on the following day defendant again appeared in Department 44, withdrew his plea of “not guilty” to count one, pleaded [468]*468guilty to the charge and admitted being armed with a deadly weapon at the time the offense was committed. The court thereupon found the crime to be robbery in the first degree and granted defendant permission to file an application for probation. The cause was continued to May 7th, and when defendant appeared on that day the court recessed as a criminal court and reconvened as a juvenile court. It then ordered proceedings as to count one of the information suspended. Pursuant to section 834 and 835 of the Welfare and Institutions Code it declared defendant a ward of the juvenile court under section 700 (M) of that code and ordered him committed to the Preston School of Industry for the period of his minority. There it appeared that he was suffering from an advanced rheumatic heart disease, and the reports of the probation officer and letters in the record indicate that he was confined to bed with no prospect of improvement. The superintendent of the school repeatedly requested that defendant be returned to the court, and several months after defendant’s commitment the Director of Institutions filed an affidavit that owing to physical disability defendant was unfit to profit by the training program of the school and that it was inadvisable to retain him there longer, and directed his return to the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Upon the recommendation of the probation officer, the judge presiding in Department 41 of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, on August 12, 1941, vacated and set aside the order committing defendant to Preston, ordered him returned to the court for further consideration, and directed that the cause be placed on the calendar of Department .44 for August 20th. At the end of the supplemental report of the probation officer filed on August 12th appears the following:

“August 12 1941
“The above recommendation is approved, and so ordered
“B. J. Seheinman
“Judge of the Superior Court”

No other written order of that date appears in the record. On August 20th the minute entry for Department-44 states that the judge of that department transferred the cause to Department 41 for disposition, but it does not show that he acted as a juvenile court. The minute entry for Department 41 for the same day indicates that defendant appeared in that department and .that his case was continued. On September [469]*46911th the court, still acting in Department 41, pronounced judgment upon defendant and sentenced him to the state prison. There appears in the record a formal judgment dated September 11, 1941, vacating and setting aside the commitment to the Preston School of Industry and ordering that defendant be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for the term prescribed by law and be delivered into the custody of the warden of the state prison at San Quentin. Thereafter, on December 17th, defendant made a motion to vacate and set aside this judgment upon the grounds that it was void and in violation of his constitutional rights. This motion was denied and defendant has appealed.

It is contended that the superior court had no jurisdiction to make the original order committing defendant to Preston, on the ground that under the Juvenile Court Law the court had to transfer the case to the juvenile court department and could not proceed unless the juvenile court judge remanded the case to the criminal department of the superior court for further proceedings. There is no doubt that defendant came within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court. (Welf. & Inst. Code, §§ 700 (M), 825, 826, 883.) It is not denied that Department 39 of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County was designated to sit as a juvenile court, and judicial notice may be taken of this fact. (Cal. Code Civ. Proc., § 1875 (3); see 10 Cal.Jur. 727; Varcoe v. Lee, 180 Cal. 338, 344 [181 P. 223].) The record does not show the proceedings before this department, nor does it indicate any remand of the case from the juvenile court to the criminal department of the superior court. Such proceedings, however, are not part of the transcript on appeal, and error cannot be presumed from their absence. (People v. Wolff, 182 Cal. 728 [190 P. 22].) If defendant intended to rely upon error in the proceedings before the juvenile court or upon the contention that he was not properly remanded to the superior court, he should have made such proceedings a part of the record. (People v. Wolff, supra.) In the absence of a showing to the contrary, it is presumed that the proceedings were regular (In re Tassey, 81 Cal.App. 287, 290 [253 P. 948]) and that the court had the power to allow defendant to withdraw his plea of “not guilty?’ to count one of the information and to accept his plea of 1 ‘ guilty. ’ ’

The question arises as to the power of the superior court, acting in Department 44, to recess as á criminal court [470]*470and reconvene as a juvenile court. The court declared in the order that it was proceeding under sections 834 and 835 of the Welfare and Institutions Code. These sections refer only to minors over eighteen, but the order recites that the defendant is “a boy of the age of seventeen years, having duly pleaded guilty in this Court of the crime of Robbery . . . ” The case thus comes within the Juvenile Court Law. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 833.) The power of the court to make the order turns upon the facts stated rather than on the reference to certain sections of the act. (See In re Spiers, 32 Cal.App.2d 124, 128 [89 P.2d 456].) The contention is advanced that since the Juvenile Court Law provides that in counties having more than one judge of the superior court, the judges shall annually designate one or more of their number to hear all cases under the law (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 572), the provisions of section 833 allowing the court to recess as a criminal court and reconvene as a juvenile court do not apply in such counties. The designation of a separate juvenile court is intended to expedite the work of the courts, but failure to transfer the case to the department specifically assigned to juvenile court work is not a jurisdictional error. (People v. Barbera, 78 Cal.App. 277, 279 [248 P. 304].) In making its order in the present case the court acted as a juvenile court, and if the defendant wished to predicate error upon the failure to transfer the case to the juvenile court department he should have done so by an appeal from that order.

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Bluebook (online)
132 P.2d 810, 21 Cal. 2d 466, 1942 Cal. LEXIS 469, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-sanchez-cal-1942.