People v. Shell Oil Co.

This is a motion to dismiss an appeal from an order of the Superior Court of Fresno County sustaining a demurrer to, and entering a judgment of dismissal of, a criminal complaint which charged the Shell Oil Company, a corporation, with the crime of forgery.

The transcript shows that the order was made on November 14, 1931, and that at the time it was made no appeal was taken, but that on November 18, 1931, or four days thereafter, a written notice of appeal was filed. The grounds of the motion are that the appeal was not taken within the time allowed by law and that the appellate court has no jurisdiction of the appeal.

Section 1240 of the Penal Code, which governs this sort of an appeal, is as follows:

This section is exceedingly plain and requires no interpretation by this court. It would be hard to imagine a clearer statement of the law. Naturally it has been before the courts but very few times. A quotation from the case of People v. Barnett, 68 Cal. App. 632, at 633 [ 230 Pac. 22, 23 ], which is in all respects similar to the instant case, is sufficient. There it is said:

Section 2 of rule V, adopted by the Judicial Council of the state of California, governing the…