In Re Baxter

The petitioner is held in custody by the sheriff of San Bernardino county, under a warrant of commitment issued under a judgment for misdemeanor in a case lately pending against him, entitled “In the Recorder’s Court of the City of San Bernardino,” etc., and signed by W. L. Vestal, “City Recorder.”

A similar application, and upon the same grounds, was made to Judge Bledsoe of the superior court of San Bernardino county, by whom the writ was discharged and the prisoner remanded. The facts in the ease, with the questions involved and the provisions of the charter and statutory provisions and authorities bearing upon the case are fully stated in the opinion of the judge, which is appended, and to which reference is made for a more specific statement of the case.

We concur in the conclusion reached in the opinion referred to and in much of the reasoning. But we are of the opinion that the charter is to be construed, not as continuing in existence the recorder’s court previously existing, but as simply designating the “recorder” or “police judge” in office when the charter took effect as judge ad interim of the police court provided for in section 95 et seq. It follows that upon the…