In Re Lewis

On the twenty-sixth day of February, 1909, John R. Robinson was adjudged insane by the judge of the superior court in and for the county of Solano and ordered committed to the State Hospital for the Insane at Napa. Said Robinson has ever since been and is now detained in said hospital under said commitment, and it is now claimed by the petitioner, on behalf of said Robinson, that said insane patient is illegally restrained of his liberty for the alleged reason that the court by which he was committed never acquired jurisdiction to hear and determine the charge of insanity preferred against him. The only point urged by the petitioner in support of his claim is that Robinson was not, prior to the trial resulting in his commitment to the hospital, accorded by the court the opportunity to prepare himself to meet and resist the charge to which he was entitled under the law.

The commitment upon which the authorities of the state hospital detain Robinson shows that a verified complaint in due form was, on the 25th of February, 1909, filed in the justice’s court of Suisun township, Solano county, charging Robinson with being insane, and that a warrant was , thereupon issued and, on said…