Cochran v. Los Angeles County

Belcher, C. This is an action brought by the trustees of the Whittier State School against the county of Los Angeles to recover the sum of three thousand and sixty-four dollars and five cents, with interest thereon, being one-half of the cost of keeping and taking care of certain minors committed to said school under the provisions of the Whittier State School act.

The defendant demurred to the complaint, and, the demurrer being overruled, answered. The case was then tried and judgment rendered in favor of the plaintiffs according to the prayer of the complaint. From that judgment defendant appealed upon the judgment-roll; and its only contention is that the complaint did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, and hence its demurrer should have been sustained.

It is alleged in the complaint “that at the instance and under and pursuant to the judgments and -orders, duly made and given, of the superior court of said Los Angeles county, there were committed to said Whittier State School the following minors, hereinafter named, who were inmates of said school under the commitments of said court, and were received at the dates and cared for during the times and periods set opposite their names respectively,” and “that none of said minors were committed at the instance or on complaint of any of their [536]parents or guardians or protectors respectively, but were committed by said superior court of defendant county, in each case, after complaint or information or pending investigation by the grand jury of said Los. Angeles county, and while criminal charges were made against said minors respectively, and each of them was committed other than under section 20 of said acts herein-before mentioned.”

In 1889 an act was passed by the legislature to establish in Los Angeles county an institution to be known as the “ Reform School for Juvenile Offenders.” (Stats. 1889, p. 111.) Sections 16,17, and 18 of the act provide that any hoy or girl, between the ages of ten and sixteen years, convicted or charged with the commission of a crime, may be committed to the institution. And section 20 provides that the board of trustees may, under such rules as they may prescribe, receive into the institution, whenever it may be convenient so to do, infants, between the ages of ten and eighteen years, committed to its custody by any judge of a superior court, on the written complaint of the parents or guardian of the infant, for reasons stated.