City of Santa Barbara v. Eldred

Garoutte, J. Action brought in the police court to recover city taxes assessed against the property of appellant. A demurrer to the complaint was overruled, whereupon appellant answered, setting forth, among •other matters, that the common council had no power to levy the tax, that the same was illegal and void, and asking that the action be transferred to the superior court for trial, under the provisions of section 838 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The application for a transfer was denied, and the court proceeded to hear the cause upon its merits, whereupon judgment was rendered for plaintiff for the sum demanded and costs. Appellant took an appeal to the superior court from the judgment on questions of both law and fact, and judgment was again rendered in favor of respondent. A motion for a new trial, based upon a statement of the case, was denied, and this appeal is prosecuted from the judgment and order denying a new trial.

If the answer of appellant, filed in the police court, did not raise an issue as to the legality of the tax sought to be recovered, it follows that the judgment of the superior court was final, and this appeal should be dismissed, but upon an examination of the pleadings, it is apparent that such an issue is presented. In the case of Santa Cruz v. Santa Cruz R. R. Co., 56 Cal. 143, it was incidentally said that there was no provision of law authorizing a transfer of a cause from a police court to a district court, but we cannot subscribe to such doctrine. Section 933 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides: “ All proceedings in civil actions in police courts must, except as in this title otherwise provided, be conducted in the same manner as civil actions in justices’ courts.” In the case of City of Santa Barbara v. Stearns, 51 Cal. 499, the transfer of a cause from the police court to the district court was expressly approved as being authorized under the foregoing section of the code, and there can be no doubt but that the section is sufficiently broad to furnish authority for such a course.

The verified answer of appellant having disclosed facts [381]which required a transfer of the cause to the superior court, from the time of the filing of such answer the police court was ousted of its jurisdiction to proceed further upon the merits presented by the pleadings. (People v. Mier, 24 Cal. 61; City of Santa Barbara v. Stearns, 51 Cal. 499.) Such being the fact, the judgment of the police court was void, and if it possessed sufficient value to entitle it to the dignity of an attack, could have been successfully assailed by defendant in various ways. But entirely disregarding the action of the lower court upon the jurisdictional question, appellant carried the case to the superior court by appeal upon questions of both law and fact, and proceeded to trial upon the merits. The proper procedure certainly would have been for the superior court to have set aside the judgment, and ordered the police court to remand the cause, in accordance with section 838, heretofore cited. Under such a course, the superior court would have obtained jurisdiction of the cause in the regular and orderly way, and upon the right to appeal to this court, there could be no question. The police court had no jurisdiction to try the cause upon the merits, and it necessarily follows that the superior court had no appellate jurisdiction to try the case at all. But the superior court had original jurisdiction of the subject-matter, and the fact that the case gained ingress to it by way other than the front door in no manner affects its jurisdiction to hear and determine the cause. Having jurisdiction over the subject-matter, the court obtained jurisdiction over the parties, when, without objection, they proceeded to trial upon the main issue, and then its jurisdiction became complete.