People v. City of San Bernardino

Plaintiff sued to recover seventy-five per cent of certain fines imposed upon defendants in the police court of the city of San Bernardino after conviction of violations of the state Poison Act. Judgment was entered agreeable to the prayer of the complaint and defendant appealed therefrom. The appeal is presented on the judgment-roll.

[1] The main contention of appellant is that by reason of provisions of the freeholders’ charter, under which defendant city is organized, all fines collected in the police court are required to be paid into the city treasury for the benefit of the city; that the provisions of the state Poison Act in conflict therewith are null and void. This argument is based upon the assumption that, in the prosecutions mentioned, the collection of fines and the disposition thereof is a municipal affair, and that the charter provisions affecting the matter are, therefore, of conclusive effect. (Sees. 6 and 8, art. XI, Const.) The Poison Act is a general statute, enacted by the legislature (see Act 2724, DBering’s Gen. Laws), and the offenses defined therein may be designated as state offenses—in other words, offenses which, in their commission, are not limited to…