County of Sonoma v. City of Santa Rosa

This is an action brought by the county of Sonoma against the city of Santa Rosa to recover three hundred and seventy-one dollars and seventy cents, alleged to have been paid by the county to the sheriff for boarding prisoners committed to the county jail by the city recorder for violations of the ordinances of the city.

A general demurrer to the complaint was sustained, and this appeal is from a judgment entered thereon against the plaintiff.

The respondent, in support of its demurrer, contends that under the city charter it has the right to commit to the county jail all persons found guilty in the recorder’s court of violations of the city ordinances, and that the county is compelled to support such prisoners at its own expense, and that the city is therefore not liable.

The charter gives the recorder a dual jurisdiction: 1. The same jurisdiction over crimes and offenses committed against the state law, within the city limits, as is conferred on justices of the peace, and makes applicable to this jurisdiction of the recorder all the statutes of the state relating to the jurisdiction of justices of the peace in criminal cases, including “the processes issued by them, the trial…