Johnston v. Wolf

LANGDON, J.

A petition for hearing in this court after decision by the District Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Two, was granted in this case to permit of further consideration of the questions involved upon the appeal, because there was' presented a new problem in interpretation of a recent constitutional amendment. After careful consideration, we are in accord with the opinion of the' District Court of Appeal, written by Justice Ira F. Thompson, and adopt the same as and for the opinion of this court as follows:

“This is a motion to dismiss an appeal on the ground that this court has no jurisdiction to entertain it. The facts are as follows: The respondent commenced an action in the municipal court of Los Angeles in which he sought to recover from the defendants the sum of $680.75. Judgment was rendered in his favor on the 21st day of June, 1928, in the amount prayed for and on July 19, 1928, the defendants and appellants took an appeal therefrom to the superior

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court. On November 28, 1928, the last-named court rendered its decision affirming the judgment of the municipal court. On December 12, 1928, appellants filed a notice of appeal from the judgment of the superior court to this court (the District Court of Appeal).

“At the last general election, held November 6, 1928, the people ratified a constitutional amendment proposed by the legislature (see Stats. 1927, p. 2386), containing, among other things, an amendment to section 4b of article VI, which so far as pertinent to the question here involved reads: ‘The district courts of appeal shall have appellate jurisdiction on appeal from the superior courts except in cases in which appellate jurisdiction is given to the supreme court in all cases at law in which the superior courts are given original jurisdiction; . . .’ Section 5 of the same article of the Constitution amended at the same time now states in part as follows: ‘The superior courts shall have original jurisdiction in all civil cases and proceedings except as in this article otherwise provided, and except, also cases and proceedings in which jurisdiction is or shall be given by law to municipal or to justices’ or other inferior courts; . . . The superior courts shall have appellate jurisdiction in such cases arising in municipal and in justices’ and other inferior courts in their respective counties or cities and counties as may be prescribed by law.’ Sections 983, 984, 985 (Stats. 1925, p. 942, and amended by Stats. 1927, p. 118, secs. 1-3), and sections 986, 987 and 988 and 988a-988h of the Code of Civil Procedure (Stats. 1927, p. 118, secs. 4-14), provide for appeals from the municipal to the superior courts and a comprehensive mode of procedure for the hearing and disposition thereof. Section 29 of the act authorizing the establishment of municipal courts, etc. (Deering’s Gen. Laws, Consol. Supp. 1925-1927, p. 1607), provides that municipal courts shall have exclusive original jurisdiction of all cases at law in which the demand exclusive of interest amounts to $1,000 or less arising in the city where the court exists, and concurrent jurisdiction with the superior and justices’ courts of causes of like amount arising outside the city but within the county in which the court is situated. Finally section 13 of article VI of the Constitution, also amended at the last election, gives to the legislature the right to fix by law the jurisdiction of the