In Re Edwards

HOUSER, J.

From the files herein it appears that in the month of September, 1926, under the provisions of the Juvenile Court Law (Stats. 1915, p. 1225, as variously amended), a petition was presented to the Superior Court in Imperial County, sitting as a juvenile court, pursuant to which Damon Edwards, a minor, was adjudged free from the custody and control of his parents. More than two years thereafter, while said minor was residing with petitioner herein in Imperial County, a petition was filed in the Superior Court in Fresno County, sitting as a juvenile court, by which it was sought to have it judicially declared that said Damon Edwards was a ward of the juvenile court. Notwithstanding the fact (as shown by the petition therein) that at the time the petition was filed in Fresno County the minor in question was neither a resident of nor within said county, a citation was issued and an order made by such court, under the purported authority of which the minor was taken from Im

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perial County to Fresno County, and on a hearing of the petition in the juvenile court of the latter county, temporary custody of the minor was awarded, not to the probation officer of said court, but to the then husband of the mother of the minor. Thereupon, on application to this court, a writ of

habeas corpus

was issued. Six days thereafter a second petition was filed in the juvenile court of Fresno County which, among other things, contained the allegation that said Damon Edwards “is now within and now residing within the county of Fresno”; and by which second petition the petitioner again sought to have said minor declared a ward of the juvenile court of Fresno County.

The question presented for determination by this court is whether, after the juvenile court of one county has acquired and retains jurisdiction of a minor, the juvenile court of another county may by its order seize the minor in the county first exercising jurisdiction over him, carry him into the second county and there, by virtue of the fact that he is

then

within said second county, acquire jurisdiction over him.

At the outset, it is conceded that, generally speaking, and without reference to the commission of criminal offenses by a minor, in order that the. juvenile court of a given county have jurisdiction over a minor it is necessary either that the minor be or reside within such county (sec. 3, Juvenile Court Law, Stats. 1915, p. 1225); from which it follows that, since by the allegations of the first petition filed in the juvenile court of Fresno County it appears that at the time the petition was filed therein the minor was neither a resident of nor within the county of Fresno, the juvenile court of that county was without jurisdiction in the premises. But it is claimed that, even though the minor was unlawfully seized in the county of his residence and transported into another county and there detained in custody, by thereafter being “within” the county the juvenile court thereof might acquire jurisdiction over him; and it is further contended that because the second petition filed in the juvenile court of Fresno County contained the allegation that at the time of its filing the minor was “within” the county of Fresno, the fact of the actual residence of the minor is beyond inquiry by this court in this proceeding—which latter point might be disposed of by the fact that the second petition in Fresno County was not filed until after the instant pro