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

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

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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.