Manss v. Superior Court

[534]

BURNETT, J.

This is an application for a writ of prohibition to restrain respondent from trying petitioner on an indictment found by the grand jury of said county. The charging part of the indictment is as follows: “The said F. H. Manss on or about the 20th day of October, A. D. 1913, at the county of Mendocino, state of California, and before the finding of this indictment did then and there willfully, unlawfully and knowingly resist, delay and obstruct a public officer named M. M. Curtis, who was then and there a duly elected, qualified and acting constable of Big River Township, said county of Mendocino, state aforesaid, who was then and there in the discharge of and attempting to discharge his duty as such constable, being then and there engaged in the execution of a writ of attachment duly and regularly issued out of the justice court of Big River Township in said county of Mendocino, in the case wherein Mrs. Oddie Osborne was plaintiff and H. H. Ashley and George Ashley were defendants, under which said writ of attachment said M. M. Curtis as constable as aforesaid was in the possession of a certain lot of ties which he had attached under said writ, and said defendant did then and there willfully, unlawfully and knowingly resist, delay, and obstruct said M. M. Curtis as a public officer as aforesaid, in the discharge of and attempting to discharge his duty as such constable by holding said ties under said attachment, and said defendant by force and violence and against the will of said officer did take a portion of the said ties so in his possession by authority of said writ of attachment as aforesaid from the possession of said officer.”

It is thus made plain that the grand jury and the district attorney had in view the offense characterized and condemned by section 69 of the Penal Code as follows: “Every person who attempts, by means of any threat or violence, to deter or prevent an executive officer from performing any duty imposed upon such officer by law, or who knowingly resists, by the use of force or violence, such officer, in the performance of his duty, is punishable by fine not exceeding five thousand dollars and imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding five years. ’ ’

It is clear also that the indictment sufficiently charges said offense. All that is required is to follow substantially the language of the statute.