In Re Cox

TYLER, P. J.

Petition for writ of habeas corpus.

The application recites that petitioner is imprisoned and restrained of his liberty by the sheriff of Alameda County, and that such restraint and imprisonment are illegal, the

alleged

illegality consisting in this, to wit, that on the sixth day of March, petitioner was charged by a complaint filed in the police court of Alameda County with having unlawfully and feloniously engaged in the business of selling, offering for sale and negotiating for the sale of stocks issued by others without first having obtained from the commissioner of corporations of the state of California a broker’s license, in violation of the Corporate Securities Act; that said petitioner was preliminarily examined in the police court upon said charge and was held to answer to the superior court in Alameda County.

It is claimed that the evidence adduced at the preliminary hearing fails to show that petitioner was guilty of the charge or any other public offense.

Under certain provisions of the Corporate Securities Act which were designed to prevent fraud in the sale of securities a broker is required to procure a license in order to conduct his business, and his failure so to do is made a felony (Codes and General Laws 1917-21, p. 1449). The information filed by the district attorney is based upon a violation of this provision, and it charges that the petitioner on the sixteenth day of November, 1922, willfully and feloniously acted as a broker and agent in the negotiation and sale of an irrigation district bond and also certain shares of'the common capital stock in the California Ink Company without first

having

obtained a permit from the commissioner of corporations. Petitioner had prior to the commission of

[611]

the alleged offense been a duly licensed broker but his license had been revoked for having transacted business in the name of a company with which he had severed his connection (C

ox