Welch

The question: Is a misdemeanor charge filed in a municipal court barred from retrial where the appellate department of the superior court upon an appeal from a judgment of conviction reverses and the cause is remanded to the municipal court with just the words, “Judgment reversed”?

Defendant Douglas Frank Welch was convicted in the Municipal Court of the South Bay Judicial District, County of Los Angeles, for a misdemeanor battery (Pen. Code, § 242). Motion for a new trial was denied and he was sentenced. He thereupon appealed from his judgment of conviction to the Appellate Department of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County which reversed the judgment upon the ground that the trial court erred in refusing “to order the sheriff’s office to produce the photograph of the defendant taken at the time of his arrest or at least to grant a short continuance to obtain such photograph.” It concluded its opinion and decision with the words, “Judgment reversed.”

Upon remand to the municipal court, that court granted defendant’s motion to dismiss the case upon the ground that the appellate court “did not order a new Trial under . . . Penal Code § 1469” and “Under the provisions…