In Re Shaw

SHINN, P. J.

Della Shaw seeks release from confinement in Camarillo State Hospital to which she was committed as an insane person by the Municipal Court of Los Angeles County. She was charged with disturbing the peace, and when her case came to trial the court announced that it had a doubt as to her sanity, ordered the criminal proceedings suspended and a trial had as to petitioner’s sanity. After a trial to the court defendant was found insane and was committed to the state hospital until she should regain her sanity. Petitioner assails the proceedings as an unwarranted assumption of jurisdiction by the court. She contends that the municipal court has no authority to determine the question of the present sanity of any person for the reason that the jurisdiction of the superior court is exclusive. The attorney general presents the views of the law which were entertained by the municipal court and has cited such law

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as may be found which tends to support those views. We find nothing in the law which purports to give the municipal court jurisdiction to conduct a proceeding to determine the present sanity of a person, whether the question arises in the course of a criminal cause or otherwise.

The jurisdiction of the superior court is defined in article VI, section 5 of the Constitution which, in material part, reads as set out below.

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The Legislature defines the jurisdiction of municipal courts and inferior courts pursuant to article VI, section 11, of the Constitution. Thus, the superior courts are courts of general jurisdiction, while the jurisdiction of municipal courts is limited to cases and proceedings in which jurisdiction is conferred by legislative action.

The general civil jurisdiction of the municipal court is defined in section 89 of the Code of Civil Procedure, and its criminal jurisdiction in section 1462 of the Penal Code. A proceeding to try the question of sanity is not mentioned in either section.

In 1951 the Legislature enacted section 1429.5 of the Penal Code to require that the question of sanity at the time of the commission of the act charged, when raised in a misdemeanor prosecution, be certified to the superior court for trial. The clear purpose of the enactment was to remove all uncertainty as to whether the lower courts had jurisdiction to determine the issue and to commit a defendant to a state hospital if found to be insane. It is suggested in a supplement to the brief of the attorney general that section 1429.5 is probably unconstitutional. That question does not call for decision in the present ease.