In Re Bridwell

This is an application for a writ of habeas corpus. The petitioner was tried in the justice’s court of Santa Ana township, county of Orange, upon a complaint charging him with failure to support his minor children, a misdemeanor; the complaint charging that this offense was committed within the county of Orange, state of California. He was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment in the county jail for the term of one year. It fully appears that the petitioner and his said minor children were not residents of Santa Ana township, but that they were, and for more than five years had been, residents of the township of La Brea, in the county of Orange. Petitioner attacks the jurisdiction of the justice’s court of Santa Ana township over the offense charged. This township has a population in excess of thirty thousand, and the question presented is whether or not a justice’s court in such a township has county-wide jurisdiction over such a misdemeanor.

While section 1425 of the Penal Code formerly gave to justices’ courts jurisdiction over offenses committed within the respective counties in which such courts are established, this section was amended in 1929 (Stats. 1929, p. 861),…