People ex rel. Lamby v. Dwinelle

By the Court, Currey, C. J. Certiorari for the purpose of reviewing the proceedings had in the District Court of the Fifteenth Judicial District in and for the County of Contra Costa, and the order of conviction by said Court rendered against the relator for contempt.

In June, 1864, M. S. Chase obtained judgment in said Court against Mathew Lamby as defendant, who soon thereafter was ejected from the premises under an execution issued on the judgment, and Chase was put in possession thereof. In March, 1865, while Chase was in the actual possession of the premises, Lamby re-entered into and upon the same, and against the will of Chase took possession thereof, and ousted Chase therefrom, and thereupon committed divers acts of trespass by felling timber growing on the premises, and particularly in cutting, girdling and felling ornamental and shade trees of great and essential value to the premises. Subsequently, in April, 1865, upon proceedings in the ejectment suit, duly instituted, Lamby was brought before the District Court to show cause why he should not be punished for the commission of the acts above mentioned as for contempt of Court. Lamby having appeared, made answer. After hearing and trying the matter in issue, the Court found and adjudged Lamby to be guilty of a contempt of Court and of its judgment and process by reason of the acts complained of, and rendered in due form a judgment or order of conviction against him, that he be fined for committing such contempt in the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars.

The proceedings against Lamby as for contempt were insti[634]tuted under and by authority of the Act entitled “ an Act for the punishment of contempts and trespasses,” passed in 1862. (Laws 1862, p. 115.) That Act provides that “ every person who shall have been or who shall be hereafter dispossessed or ejected from or out of any piece, parcel, lot or tract of land by judgment, decree or process of any Court of competent-jurisdiction, and who, not having legal right so to do, shall re-enter into or upon, or take possession, of any such land or any part thereof,” etc., “ shall be deemed guilty of a contempt of the Court by which such judgment or decree was rendered, or from which such process issued, and shall be tried and punished therefor in the same manner and form as now provided by law in case of a contempt not committed in presence of the Court.” The defense which Lamby made did not satisfy the District Court that his re-entry after he had been dispossessed under the judgment in the action of ejectment was by legal right. Whether the Court was right or wrong upon the merits of the issue joined upon these proceedings is not the question before us, but whether the Court exceeded its jurisdiction is the subject of inquiry.