Rescue Army v. Municipal Court

171 P.2d 8, 28 Cal. 2d 460, 1946 Cal. LEXIS 228
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedJune 26, 1946
DocketL. A. 18946
StatusPublished
Cited by144 cases

This text of 171 P.2d 8 (Rescue Army v. Municipal Court) 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
Rescue Army v. Municipal Court, 171 P.2d 8, 28 Cal. 2d 460, 1946 Cal. LEXIS 228 (Cal. 1946).

Opinions

GIBSON, C. J.

Petitioners seek a writ of prohibition to restrain the Municipal Court of the City of Los Angeles from proceeding to try petitioner Murdock for the alleged violation of certain sections of an ordinance, regulating the solicitation of contributions, which it is claimed are in conflict with the federal Constitution, Amendments I and XIV, and the California Constitution, article I, section 21. It is alleged that Murdock has been twice convicted of a violation of the ordinance, that each time the conviction was reversed by the appellate department of the superior court, that a third trial has been ordered, and that the respondent court will proceed therewith unless restrained.

The constitutionality of a statute or ordinance may be tested by prohibition on the ground that invalidity of the legislation goes to the jurisdiction of the court to proceed to try the case. (See Whitney v. Superior Court, 182 Cal. 114 [187 P. 12] ; Levy v. Superior Court, 105 Cal. 600 [38 P. 965, 29 L.R.A. 811]; Arfsten v. Superior Court, 20 Cal.App. [463]*463269, 275 [128 P. 949]; cf. Broady v. Jennings, 70 Cal.App. 647 [234 P. 120].) This rule is supported by the great weight of authority in other states. (See eases collected in 113 A.L.R. 796, 800; 42 Am.Jur. 168.) The same principle has been applied in cases where habeas corpus has been used to test the constitutionality of an ordinance. (See In re McCoy, 10 Cal.App. 116, 124-125 [101 P. 419] ; In re Vitalie, 117 Cal.App. 553, 557 [4 P.2d 171] ; cf. Ex parte Kearny, 55 Cal. 212; Ferris, Extraordinary Remedies (1926) 83; 1 Bailey on Habeas Corpus (1913) 91-93; 25 Am.Jur. 164.) Although the right to discharge by habeas corpus is not limited to cases in which a court has exceeded its jurisdiction (see Pen. Code, §§1485, 1487; In re Bell, 19 Cal.2d 488, 492-495 [122 P.2d 22]; Portnoy v. Superior Court, 20 Cal.2d 375, 378 [125 P.2d 487]), the writ has been traditionally used for that purpose. (See In re Vitalie, 117 Cal.App. 553, 557 [4 P.2d 171].)

The view that constitutionality goes to jurisdiction has at times disturbed the courts because of the possibility that full application of the theory might render otherwise final judgments vulnerable to collateral attack, and confusion also has sometimes arisen because of a failure to understand that a court has jurisdiction to determine its own jurisdiction in the first instance. The difficulties inherent in applying the term jurisdiction in cases involving unconstitutional statutes impelled the court in the Bell case to recognize that habeas corpus may be used in certain situations to test the constitutionality of a statute whether or not there is a want of jurisdiction. (19 Cal.2d at pp. 492, et seq.) In prohibition, however, we are limited by statute to proceedings without or in excess of jurisdiction (Code Civ. Proc., §1102) and we are therefore squarely confronted with the problems referred to above.

The fact that a trial court has no jurisdiction within the meaning of the term as used in certiorari and prohibition proceedings does not mean that a judgment based upon an unconstitutional statute is open to collateral attack. In Chicot County D. Dist. v. Baxter State Bank, 308 U.S. 371 [60 S.Ct. 317, 84 L.Ed. 329], a civil case, the court declared that broad statements to the effect that unconstitutional laws confer no rights whatsoever must be taken with qualifications and that a decree based upon an assumption of validity is res judicata. (See, also, 136 A.L.R. 1032; (1942) 28 Va.L.Rev. 656-657; (1942) 27 IowaL.Rev. 315-322 and (1942) 26 Minn. L.Rev. 658-661. ) In certiorari and prohibition proceed[464]*464ings the term jurisdiction has a very broad meaning, and a writ may be granted where the court has no jurisdiction to act except in a particular manner, even though it has jurisdiction, in the fundamental sense, over the subject matter and the parties. (Abelleira v. District Court of Appeal, 17 Cal.2d 280, 287 et seq. [109 P.2d 942, 132 A.L.R. 715] ; Hill v. Superior Court, 16 Cal.2d 527 [106 P.2d 876]; Fortenbury v. Superior Court, 16 Cal.2d 405 [106 P.2d 411].) It does not follow, therefore, that to allow prohibition in such cases will result in opening the door to collateral attack.

The Bell case correctly declares that the trial court has jurisdiction to determine whether the statute is constitutional, and the same is true as to any other jurisdictional defense. The mere assertion of a claim of unconstitutionality does not oust the trial court of jurisdiction, .because the very issue of constitutionality is one which the court has jurisdiction to determine. (See discussion, In re Bell, supra, 19 Cal.2d 488, 492.) This proposition, however, is not inconsistent with the holding that prohibition lies to restrain a court from proceeding without or in excess of jurisdiction. (See Abelleira v. District Court of Appeal, 17 Cal.2d 280 [109 P.2d 942, 132 A.L.R. 715]; Hill v. Superior Court, 16 Cal.2d 527 [106 P.2d 876].) A court has jurisdiction to determine its own jurisdiction, for a basic issue in any case before a tribunal is its power to act, and it must have authority to decide that question in the first instance. It is necessary, therefore, to challenge the jurisdiction of the trial court in that court, by demurrer, motion, plea or other objection of some kind, so that that court may preliminarily decide the question whether it has jurisdiction t.o proceed. And unless a party can show that a lower tribunal, after first determining that it has jurisdiction, is proceeding to exercise it, there is nothing for a higher court to prohibit. This obvious principle is one of the cornerstones of our system of lower and higher tribunals.

The statement in Portnoy v. Superior Court, 20 Cal. 2d 375, 378 [125 P.2d 487], that a trial court is not deprived of jurisdiction to determine the constitutionality of a particular ordinance or statute by virtue of the fact that it may decide the question erroneously, is properly applicable to this basic right of the trial court to decide the question of jurisdiction in the first instance.

When, however, the trial court has heard and de[465]*465termined the jurisdictional challenge, and has decided in favor of its own jurisdiction, and then proceeds to act, that is, to try the cause on its merits, the situation is entirely different. It then may be properly claimed that a court without jurisdiction is purporting to exercise it. At this stage, jurisdiction to determine jurisdiction has been exercised, and the higher courts will, in an appropriate ease, restrain the lower court from acting in excess of jurisdiction (see, e. g., Greenberg v. Superior Court, 19 Cal.2d 319 [121 P.2d 713]; Abelleira v. District Court of Appeal,

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Bluebook (online)
171 P.2d 8, 28 Cal. 2d 460, 1946 Cal. LEXIS 228, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rescue-army-v-municipal-court-cal-1946.