People v. Thompson

24 P. 384, 84 Cal. 598, 1890 Cal. LEXIS 850
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedJune 23, 1890
DocketNo. 20633
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 24 P. 384 (People v. Thompson) 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. Thompson, 24 P. 384, 84 Cal. 598, 1890 Cal. LEXIS 850 (Cal. 1890).

Opinion

Foote, C.

The defendant was convicted of grand larceny upon an information charging him with robbery. He appeals from the judgment therein rendered, and from an order denying a new trial.

His first point is, that the court erred in refusing to set aside an information filed on the 23d of October, 1889.

[600]*600An information for the same offense had been filed on the 7th of September, 1889, and was set aside, on motion, on the 31st of October, 1889, after the second information had been filed.

The reasons assigned why the court should have set aside the last information are, that the magistrate who examined the defendant made a defective commitment, and that therefore the information had no proper basis on which to rest, and the district attorney no authority to file it.

It is true that the indorsement upon the deposition or complaint, as first made, on the 13th of August, 1889, and returned to the superior court, was not in accordance with the statute, and that the information based on it was properly set aside.

There being no proper commitment nor information before the superior court, that tribunal could not try the defendant, and the papers thus sent up by the magistrate had no place in such court.

We see no reason why they could not be sent back to the magistrate, as they were by order of the superior court of the 29th of October, 1889, and indorsed under section 872 of the Penal Code, if the docket of such magistrate showed, as it did, that he had conducted the examination of the defendant, and had determined upon the evidence adduced that it was sufficient, and that the defendant ought to be tried in the superior court which had jurisdiction of the offense with which he was charged. The matter stood just as if the magistrate, after an examination which had satisfied him of the defendant’s probable guilt, had decided and entered such determination on his docket that the defendant should be tried, and had sent up the deposition, complaint, and other papers without any indorsement whatever. In such an event the matter would be in the same condition as if he had retained the papers in his own office, and had there, after a time, discovering his own laches in not indorsing and [601]*601sending them up to the proper court, indorsed a proper order of commitment on the complaint, no evidence having been reduced to writing, and then sent it up to the trial court.

If the papers from the magistrate’s court were not legally filed, and had no place in the superior court, they were still in the magistrate's court, and he could make a proper commitment, being guided by his docket, to show what he had actually done at the preliminary examination.

If the commitment as last made by the magistrate is good under sections 872 and 875 of the Penal Code, then there is no merit in the point raised by the defendant.

. So far as section 872 is concerned, the commitment of the 29th of October, 1889, is sufficient to satisfy its terms, and it is shown by such commitment that the magistrate examined into the merits of the charge against the defendant, was satisfied that he was guilty, and committed him for trial in the proper court.

There is no doubt, therefore, that as to the preliminary examination and determination of the magistrate that the defendant should be held for trial before the superior court, and committed to the hands of the sheriff for that purpose, that the commitment plainly shows these necessary facts.

But the defendant argues that, conceding such to be the facts, yet the magistrate neglected to add to the commitment, as the offense was bailable, the words, “ and that he be admitted to bail in the sum of-dollars, and is committed to the sheriff of the county until he gives such bail.”

It does not appear to us that the magistrate’s neglect to state that the defendant is admitted to bail in a certain sum, in default of giving which he is committed to the hands of the sheriff, goes to defeat the jurisdiction of the trial court to entertain an information filed by the district attorney, based upon a commitment which [602]*602shows that the magistrate has properly conducted a defendant’s preliminary examination, adjudged that he should be tried for his alleged offense in the proper court, and committed to the proper officer for that purpose.

It is true that the magistrate, in order properly to perform his whole duty in the premises, ought, under section 875, to have advised the defendant, the superior court, the sheriff, and all others concerned, of the fact that the defendant’s bail bond had been fixed, and that on giving it he might be discharged from custody; but the neglect to do this does not vitiate the commitment to the extent that we can say it does not show that as an examining magistrate he has heard the evidence for and against the defendant charged with a certain offense, adjudged that there is probable cause to believe him guilty as charged, ordered that he be tried before the proper court, and committed him to the hands of the sheriff that he may be thus tried.

If the commitment, as it does, shows the performance by the magistrate of all his duties, up to the end of the preliminary examination into the defendant’s case, the judgment of the officer, that the evidence warrants that he, defendant, should be put on trial for the offense charged, before the proper tribunal, and that he is ordered into the custody of the sheriff for that purpose, the omission to indorse that he is admitted to bail in a certain sum, otherwise to remain in custody, is not such an omission of duty as vitiates the other jurisdictional performances of duty.

We therefore conclude that the court did not err in refusing to set aside the information of the 23d of October, 1889, based on the commitment of that date, on which the defendant was tried.

But the further point is made, that the defendant’s rights were prejudiced by the admission of the conditional deposition of one Floyd, the prosecuting witness, taken on the 10th of October, 1889, over the defendant’s [603]*603objection. This deposition was taken in the presence of the judge of the superior court before the filing of the second information. In other words, it was taken at a time when there was nothing before the superior court which gave it jurisdiction to try the defendant.

For, as we have seen, the first information of the 7th of September, 1889, was set aside, for the reason that it appeared the defendant had never been legally committed for trial.

Was there, then, any case pending against the defendant in the superior court at the time the deposition of Floyd, of October 10, 1889, was taken ?

When the defendant was tried, it was by virtue of a commitment made after the first information was filed, but before the second one was filed. The deposition was therefore not taken at a time when the case in . which the defendant was tried was pending.

If the first information had been demurred to, the demurrer sustained, and the information dismissed, there would be no case pending against the defendant until another proper information was filed against him. So in this case, the first information being set aside, there was no case pending against the defendant until the second information, based upon a proper order of commitment, was filed.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
24 P. 384, 84 Cal. 598, 1890 Cal. LEXIS 850, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-thompson-cal-1890.