People v. Johnson

By the Court, Sanderson, J.: This is a criminal action for an alleged misdemeanor in ‘which no question as to the jurisdiction of the Court below is made. In such a case this Court has no jurisdiction either on appeal or writ of error or certiorari. That our appellate jurisdiction in criminal cases is confined to felonies and does not embrace offenses of a lesser grade is not an open question. It has been so held from the commencement without a dissenting voice. (People v. Applegate, 5 Cal. 295; People v. Vick, 7 Cal. 165; People v. Shear, 7 Cal. 139; People v. Fowler, 9 Cal. 86; People v. Cornell, 16 Cal. 187; People v. War, 20 Cal. 117; People v. Burney, 29 Cal. 459.)

Our jurisdiction, under the amended Constitution, to review the proceedings of inferior Courts, Boards and officers upon certiorari is limited, by the very nature of the writ, to cases where the jurisdiction of the inferior Court, Board or officer is impeached. Hence, in no respect have we jurisdiction in the present case.

Jurisdiction of Supreme Court in cases of misdemeanor.

In all cases of misdemeanor the Constitution has prescribed that the judgment of the County Court, whether erroneous or not, shall be final except where there has been an excess of jurisdiction, in which case only it can be reviewed. With the wisdom of this provision we have nothing to do. It was so construed at an early day, and the people seem to have been satisfied with the construction, for no change was made in this respect when the Constitution was amended in 1863.

A municipal fine.

The position assumed by counsel, to the effect that the fine imposed as a punishment for the alleged offense is a municipal fine, within the meaning of Section 4 of Article VI of the Constitution, and that its legality is involved in this case, is not tenable. In the first place, it is not a municipal fine within [102]the meaning of the Constitution; and, in the second place, its legality is not involved in the action. As to the first point, the argument turns upon the meaning of the word “ municipal,” as used in the Constitution, and it is insisted that the word is used in its broadest and most enlarged sense, and therefore includes all fines imposed by the laws of the State, and is not limited to such as are imposed by the local laws of particular places, such as towns or cities. Such, however, cannot be the case. To give it the broad meaning contended for, would be to strip it of all meaning in the place where we find it, for the meaning of the sentence would be the same without it as with it. Under the definition of counsel, the word “ fine ” would mean precisely the same thing as if the qualifying word “municipal” had been omitted, which in effect strips the latter word of all meaning in the connection in which it is used. The word “ municipal ” is obviously used in its strictest sense, as indicating an inferior power or jurisdiction. There would seem to be no occasion for using the word in the Constitution or organic law of a State or Government, except for the purpose of indicating an inferior or local jurisdiction, and it was undoubtedly used in that sense here. It qualifies and limits the word “fine,” and thus serves to distinguish the fine intended from all other fines.