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People v. Stralla

96 P.2d 941, 14 Cal. 2d 617, 1939 Cal. LEXIS 366
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 20, 1939
DocketCrim. 4227
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 96 P.2d 941 (People v. Stralla) 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. Stralla, 96 P.2d 941, 14 Cal. 2d 617, 1939 Cal. LEXIS 366 (Cal. 1939).

Opinion

SHENK, J.

The grand jury of the county of Los Angeles returned an indictment against the defendant Adams and others, charging the violation of subdivision 2, section 337a, of the Penal Code. The specific accusation was the keeping and operating of the gambling ship “Rex” anchored in the waters of what is known as Santa Monica Bay, at a point four miles oceanward from the end of the municipal pier of the city of Santa Monica and approximately six miles landward from a line drawn between the headlands, Point Vicente on the south and Point Dume on the north. The defendant Adams appealed from the judgment of conviction and from the order denying his motion for a new trial.

There is no dispute as to the sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury’s verdict if the offense was committed within the jurisdiction of the state. The appeal presents the single question whether the territorial jurisdiction of the State of California extends over the area of the waters known as Santa Monica Bay. If it does, an affirmance of the judgment will be required.

The territorial boundaries of the state were defined in the Constitution of California of 1849, article XII, section 1, which fixed the ocean boundary of the state as: “thence running west ... to the Pacific Ocean and extending therein *620 three English miles; thence running in a Northwesterly direction and following the direction of the Pacific Coast to the forty-second degree of north latitude; thence on the line of said forty-second degree of north latitude to the place of beginning. Also, including all the islands, harbors, and bays along and adjacent to the coast.” That language was readopted in the Constitution of 1879, section 1, article XXI, without substantial change. Section 33 of the Political Code enacted in 1872 provides that the sovereignty and jurisdiction of this state extends to all places within its boundaries as established .by the Constitution, subject to qualification in cases where jurisdiction has been ceded to or acquired by the United States Government.

The immediate problem for .solution is whether the waters commonly known as Santa Monica Bay were intended to be included within the designated territorial boundary. The answer comprehends not one, but several factors, namely: Is this body of water a bay geographically? Is it a bay historically ? Is it a bay legally ?

For the purpose of considering those factors this court may examine historical data and maps, public papers and records, and may take judicial notice of such geographical, historical and political data even though the same have not been introduced in evidence in the trial court. (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 1875; Rogers v. Cady, 104 Cal. 288 [38 Pac. 81, 43 Am. St. Rep. 100] ; Varcoe v. Lee, 180 Cal. 338, 343 [181 Pac. 223].)

The waters known as Santa Monica Bay lie in an indentation of the California coast between Point Vicente and Point Dume. The points are distant from each other about 25 nautical miles or about 29 statute miles. The line of the coast forms a curve inward to a distance of about ten miles from a line drawn between the headlands. The line of the shore recedes slightly from Rocky Point, which is to the north of Point Vicente, making the distance between shores landward from Point Dume and Rocky Point greater than the distance between those two points. Otherwise the bay is widest between Point Vicente and Point Dume.

The foregoing geographic description appears to conform to the definition of a bay. Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary defines “bay” as “an indentation in the shoreline of a body of water; the water between two projecting headlands; sometimes, an arm of the sea connecting with *621 the ocean”. We find in Webster’s International Dictionary: “An inlet of the sea, usually smaller than a gulf, but of the same general character. The name is used, often for large tracts of water, around which the land forms a curve, or for any recess or inlet between capes or headlands; as, tbe Bay of Biscay; Hudson Bay.” The Oxford English Dictionary (1933) gives: “An indentation of the sea into the land with a wide opening." The Encyclopedia Brittanica, eleventh edition: "A wide opening or indentation in a coast *622 line. This may be of the same origin as ‘bay’, in the architectural sense, or from a Latin word which is seen in the place named Baiae.” “A bay is a bending or curving of the shore of a sea or of a lake, and is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word signifying to bow or bend. "For a similar reason the word bay is in Latin termed sinus, which expresses a curvature or recess in the coast.” (State v. Town of Gilmanton, 14 N. H. 467, 477.) A visual illustration of the outline of the land surrounding the waters known as Santa Monica Bay, and of the land and waters constituting San Pedro Bay, is reproduced herein from a portion of a map designated as “United States—West Coast California, San Diego to Santa Rosa Island” (geodetic survey charts numbers 5144 and 5147), with lines drawn between headlands added. The waters known as San Pedro Bay extending from Point Fermín to the city of Huntington Beach, formerly called Point Lasuen, have been judicially declared to be a “bay.” (United States v. Carrillo, 13 Fed. Supp. 121.) This map serves to give an easy and affirmative answer to the question whether the waters known as Santa Monica Bay are geographically a bay. Visually, if one of these bodies of water is a bay geographically, the other would seem also to be a bay.

*621

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Bluebook (online)
96 P.2d 941, 14 Cal. 2d 617, 1939 Cal. LEXIS 366, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-stralla-cal-1939.