Santa Ana Independent v. California Newspaper Publishers' Ass'n

171 P.2d 548, 75 Cal. App. 2d 764, 1946 Cal. App. LEXIS 1304
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 12, 1946
DocketCiv. 3438
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 171 P.2d 548 (Santa Ana Independent v. California Newspaper Publishers' Ass'n) 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
Santa Ana Independent v. California Newspaper Publishers' Ass'n, 171 P.2d 548, 75 Cal. App. 2d 764, 1946 Cal. App. LEXIS 1304 (Cal. Ct. App. 1946).

Opinion

BARNARD, P. J.

This is an appeal from a judgment establishing a newspaper as one of general circulation. The court, after finding that proof of publication of notice had been duly made and that time for hearing had been fixed by the court, found “that ‘The Santa Ana Independent’ is a newspaper of general circulation published for the dissemination of local and telegraphic news and intelligence of a general character and has been established, printed, published and circulated weekly on Friday of each week in the City of Santa Ana, County of Orange, State of California, for one year or more next preceding the date of the filing of said petition; that it is a newspaper published for the dissemination of local and telegraphic news and intelligence of a general character and has a bona fide subscription list of paying subscriptions; that said newspaper has an average circulation throughout said year of 14,500.00; that of the persons receiving said paper approximately 2,500 have signed subscriptions whereby they agree to pay ten cents per month for said paper; that of this number approximately 500 are paid to date, and 2,000 are delinquent. ’ ’

The appellant first contends that the petition filed was insufficient to give the court jurisdiction in such a proceeding. While it is conceded that the petition contained all of the matter required by section 6000 of the Government Code, it is *766 argued that it failed to allege that this newspaper was not one of the kind described in section 6001 of that code. The first of these sections defines a newspaper of general circulation, and the other describes another kind of paper. It would seem, logical that the recital of facts which would bring a newspaper within the kind described in section 6000 should be considered as sufficiently distinguishing it from one of the kind described in section 6001, especially in the absence of a demurrer. It is admitted that the petition here sufficiently alleged the matter required under section 6000, and the court found those facts to be true. As a practical matter, it would have added nothing to have included allegations of a negative nature, with respect to the matters covered by section 6001, when the facts bringing the matter within the provisions of section 6000 were affirmatively alleged. No demurrer was filed, the matter was not raised in the trial court, and we must hold that no lack of jurisdiction appears in this respect. It is further argued, in this connection, that there was also a failure of proof in this regard. While no witness was asked a direct question relative to this matter the evidence, as a whole, clearly disclosed that this newspaper was not published for distribution to a particular class but that, on the other hand, it was actually published and distributed for the purpose of reaching, and in a manner well calculated to reach, the widest possible circulation among all classes of people in the community. Moreover, in addition to the mode and extent of its distribution, the character of the paper in this regard was disclosed to the court, as a copy was introduced into evidence with a stipulation that it was a fair sample of the paper as regularly issued.

It is next urged that there is a further jurisdictional defect in that the notice required by section 6021 of the Government Code was not published a sufficient number of times. That section requires that the notice “shall be published for 10 days: (a) In the petitioning newspaper, and (b) In some other newspaper if the court so directs.”

The petition in this matter was filed on June 5, 1945. This was a weekly paper published on Friday of each week, and on June 23,1945, an affidavit was filed that the required notice had been regularly published in the issues of said newspaper - on June 8,15 and 22,1945. On the same day, the court signed an order reciting that the petition and notice had been duly published as directed by an order of the court made and entered on June 5, 1945, and fixing June 29, 1945, as the day for hearing the matter.

*767 The appellant contends that this publication was for three days only; that the statute required publication on ten separate days; and that where such a newspaper is published weekly compliance with the statute can only be had by publishing once a week for ten weeks.

Section 12 of the Political Code provides that the time, in which any act is required to be done shall be computed by excluding the first day and including the last. Section 3259 provides that a “day” is the period of time between any midnight and the midnight following. It would reasonably seem that the expression “10 days” was intended to refer to ten such consecutive periods, in the absence of anything showing a contrary intention. Section 6000 of the Government Code refers to a newspaper published “at regular intervals.” Beyond doubt, this contemplates a weekly paper as well as a daily. Section 6021, requiring such a notice to be published for “10 days,” applies to a weekly newspaper as well as to one published daily. This period of ten days, reasonably, should be computed by excluding the first and including the last day. The statute provides for that particular period, and since it applies to weekly newspapers and provides that the notice shall be published in the petitioning paper, it seems rather clear that the intention was to provide for publication in such issues of a weekly newspaper as would be published during the period provided for. Of course, the usual rules would apply to make sure that the publication covered the full period of ten days, and this would be fully covered by three publications in a weekly paper.

It would be unreasonable to hold that the language of this statute was intended to require publication for ten weeks, or 70 days, in a weekly newspaper, but to require publication for only ten days in a daily. The natural and usual meaning of the expression “for 10 days” is that it refers to a period of ten consecutive days and not to a different period of time. The period of time and not the number of publications is designated. In Tilton v. Russek, 171 Cal. 731 [154 P. 860], the court said, in referring to a different statute, “The expression, ‘publication for ten days,’ found in section 22 of the act, . . . does not require any specific number of publications. It designates a period of time during which the publication is to be made.” If the Legislature had intended to provide for publication on ten separate days in the case of a weekly newspaper it could, and undoubtedly would, have said so. In numerous *768 other cases where there was some such intention it has provided for publication “once a week” for a given number of weeks. The fact that the statute provides for publication for ten days in the petitioning newspaper itself, and further provides for publication in some other paper if the court so directs, indicates an intention to provide for a rather limited publication, safeguarded by the provision for further publication in any ease where this seems necessary or advisable. From a factual standpoint, it may be observed that the record on this appeal is a complete demonstration of the adequacy of the notice in this particular instance.

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Bluebook (online)
171 P.2d 548, 75 Cal. App. 2d 764, 1946 Cal. App. LEXIS 1304, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/santa-ana-independent-v-california-newspaper-publishers-assn-calctapp-1946.