People ex rel. Campbell v. Clark

(dissenting.) Where a question arises as to when an act of the legislature takes effect, the day should be held to be indivisible, and where an act is declared to take effect from and after its passage, it does not take effect until *409 the next day after its passage, A new trial should not be granted, but judgment final should be rendered in favor of the defendant. <

New trial granted.

By the Court,

Such is the unorganized condition of the county court of the county of San Francisco that the immediate action of this court is required, and nc opinion therefore has been prepared reviewing the numerous and conflicting authorities cited, and the arguments of counsel

*407 The right to the office claimed by the appellant by virtue of an election by the people, ought to be viewed favorably and not to be thwarted by any implication or fiction in the computation of time. The doctrine that a statute, by relation, was in force from the first day of parliament, and that the entire term of a court was but one day, and that judgments were to be considered as rendered on the first natural day of the term, has never been permitted to obtain in the courts of the United States, to the prejudice of the rights of the citizen or the public. If no time be specified when a statute shall be in force, it ought to go into effect from and after its passage, that is, from and after the point of time when its existence is perfected. This “ rule is deemed to be fixed beyond the power of judicial “ control, and no time is allowed for the publication of the law “ before it operates, when the…