Keener v. Municipal Court for Fremont-Newark-Union City Judicial District

Opinion

NEWSOM, J. This case presents the issue — apparently one of first impression in California — whether an alternative felony-misdemeanor, when reduced to misdemeanor status more than a year after the date of the alleged crime, is barred by the one-year misdemeanor statute of limitations.

The incident in question occurred on February 6, 1975, and led to the filing of a Penal Code section 243 charge (battery upon a police officer), (a so-called “wobbler”) on March 18, 1976, beyond the one-year misdemeanor, but well within the three-year felony statute of limitations.

[215]On April 21, 1977, after a preliminary examination, the court reduced the charge to a misdemeanor pursuant to Penal Code section 17, subdivision (b)(5), and on September 1, 1977, respondents’ motion to dismiss was denied in the municipal court. Thereafter, on Qptober 25, 1977, the superior court granted a peremptory writ of prohibition ordering the municipal court to refrain permanently from any further proceedings with the case. The People, real party in interest (hereinafter appellant), filed timely notice of appeal.

The single question before us is whether under these circumstances the applicable statute of limitations is found in Penal Code section 800 or in Penal Code section 801. Its resolution requires a consideration of the legislative background of Penal Code section 17.

■ Prior to the enactment of section 17, subdivision (b)(5), section 17 permitted the trial court to determine whether designated offenses would be punished as felonies or misdemeanors only after conviction. In permitting prejudgment reduction, the Legislature had in view, as was said in a leading case on the subject, “. . . the unburdening of the superior courts from cases that were likely to result in no more than misdemeanor penalties, the consequent more expeditious handling of such cases, the encouragement of guilty pleas by defendants who could know in advance that no penalty could be imposed more severe than a jail sentence or a fine, and the consequent saving of time to municipal courts by the elimination of some preliminary hearings.” (Henry v. Department of Motor Vehicles (1972) 25 Cal.App.3d 649, 653 [102 Cal.Rptr. 36]; People v. Ayala (1973) 34 Cal.App.3d 360, 365 [109 Cal.Rptr. 193]; see also Esteybar v. Municipal Court (1971) 5 Cal.3d 119, 126, fn. 3 [95 Cal.Rptr. 524, 485 P.2d 1140].)