Johnson v. Superior Court

Opinion

CHANNELL, J.

Petitioner contends that he was not an adult at the time the offense with which he is charged was committed. We agree and hold that a juvenile attains age 18 on his birthday rather than on the day before his birthday.

Petitioner was initially charged by complaint with an offense occurring on August 12, 1988. Upon learning that petitioner was born on August 13, 1970, the municipal court suspended proceedings and the case was transferred to the San Francisco Superior Court, Juvenile Division. There a petition pursuant to section 602, of the Welfare and Institutions Code, was

[1095]

filed alleging the following offenses: count 1, robbery on July 25, 1988, in violation of section 212.5, subdivision (b), of the Penal Code; count 2, possession of a controlled substance on July 25, 1988, in violation of section 11377, subdivision (a), of the Health and Safety Code; count 3, robbery on August 12, 1988, in violation of section 212.5, subdivision (b), of the Penal Code, with a great bodily injury allegation pursuant to section 12022.7, of the Penal Code. A jurisdictional hearing was held on October 25, 1988, at which count 3 was sustained and counts 1 and 2 were dismissed. The case was transferred to Stanislaus County for disposition, apparently because petitioner was already a ward of that county. Stanislaus County returned the case to San Francisco on the ground that petitioner was not a minor at the time he committed the offense. The San Francisco Juvenile Court agreed and on November 7, 1988, a complaint was filed charging petitioner with the robbery on August 12, 1988. After a preliminary hearing, an information was filed charging crimes arising from the incident on August 12, 1988. On January 4, 1989, petitioner filed a motion to dismiss pursuant to Penal Code section 995, the denial of which we review on this petition for writ of prohibition.

Welfare and Institutions Code section 602, provides that “[a]ny person who is under the age of 18 years when he violates any law of this state . . . is within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, ...”

Under a common understanding of the ancient common law rule, a person attains any given age on the earliest moment of the day preceding an anniversary of birth. (See Annot, Inclusion or Exclusion of the Day of Birth in Computing One’s Age (1949) 5 A.L.R.2d 1143.) The logic is as follows: “A person is in existence on the day of his birth. On the first anniversary he or she has lived one year and one day.”