Edington v. Superior Court

This is an application for a writ of prohibition to restrain the superior court of Yolo county and Honorable N. A. Hawkins, the judge thereof, from trying petitioner on a charge of "causing, encouraging and contributing to the delinquency of a dependent and delinquent child." A preliminary examination of the charge was held in the justice court of Woodland township in said county and the defendant was held to answer to the superior court. Therein an information was afterward filed by the district attorney and a motion to set it aside and a demurrer were interposed by defendant. In both these matters the ruling of the court was in favor of the people and the case was set down for trial; hence this application.

There are two points made by petitioner that we deem worthy of consideration. The first is that the information is totally insufficient as a basis for the prosecution, in that it does not appear therein that the complaining witness had *Page 741 been previously adjudged a dependent child. The prosecution, it may be said, is under section 26 of what is known as the juvenile court law (Stats. 1911, p. 672), providing that "In all cases where any child shall be dependent or delinquent under the terms of this act, the parent or parents, legal guardian or person having the custody of such person or any other person who shall, by any act or omission, encourage, cause or contribute to the dependency or delinquency of such person, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year or both such fine and imprisonment and the juvenile court shall have jurisdiction of all such misdemeanors." Section 1 of said act defines "a dependent person," and therein is found a catalogue of sixteen different conditions according to which a person may be classified as "dependent." As far as is necessary to quote herein, the said section provides that "The words 'dependent person' shall mean any person under the age of twenty-one years . . . 5. Who has no parent or guardian; or who has no parent or guardian willing to exercise or capable of exercising proper parental control . . . or 16. Who from any cause is in danger of growing up to lead an idle, dissolute, or immoral life." Turning to the information herein, we find the allegation in reference to the complaining witness that, at the time the offense was committed, she being "then and there a female child, under the age of eighteen years, to wit, of the age of sixteen years or thereabouts, was then and there a female dependent minor child in this, that the said Hazel Douglass had no parents or guardians, willing and capable of exercising proper parental control over the said Hazel Douglass, and that the home of said Hazel Douglass was and is, by reason of neglect on the part of her guardian, an unfit place for the said Hazel Douglass and that the said Hazel Douglass was and is in danger of growing up to lead an idle, dissolute and immoral life." It is thus to be seen that from the facts alleged the conclusion necessarily follows, under the definition given by the said statute, that the said Hazel Douglass was a "dependent person." We have found nothing in the law which requires that her status as such should be adjudicated prior to the prosecution of another person for contributing to her dependency, *Page 742 and we see no reason why, if properly alleged, the facts bringing her within said class may not be established at the trial of the defendant as other facts are shown tending to prove the charge. The principle would be the same if the defendant were accused of a crime against a minor or insane person. In such case no prior adjudication of the minority or insanity would be required, but, of course, the burden would be on the prosecution to establish this as other material averments of the crime. This view is entirely consistent with and is supported by the decision in People v. Pierro, 17 Cal.App. 741, [121 P. 689]. In that case the information was fatally defective, for the reason that facts were not alleged bringing the child within the definition of a "dependent," the district attorney contenting himself with the averment that she "was a minor female child under the age of eighteen years, and was then and there a dependent child within the meaning of that certain act," etc. The second district court of appeal very properly held, as stated by Mr. Justice James, that "Defendant was entitled to have the information show the particulars in this regard, for he was called upon to meet the issue, first, as to whether the child had in fact become a delinquent. . . . Had the child against whom the offense is alleged to have been committed been adjudicated to be a dependent child, then it would have been sufficient to plead such adjudication; but when no adjudication is relied upon as showing a legal determination made of the character of the minor, the facts which make such minor a dependent must be pleaded in the information."