Ex parte Giambonini

Petitioner -was convicted in the police court of the city of Stockton of the crime of selling intoxicating liquors to a minor under the age of eighteen years. He was sentenced to pay a fine of one hundred dollars, and in default of payment to be imprisoned for one hundred days in the city jail. C. P. Rendon, who acted as judge of the police court, was at all times a justice of tLv peace of the city of Stockton.

Petitioner contends that the judgment against him is void because the police court of the city of Stockton has no legal existence. Against this it is insisted that Rendon, as justice of the peace, had jurisdiction of the offense and of the person of the offender, and the proceedings will be regarded as having taken place in the justice court before a justice of the peace, and the designation of the court as a police court, and of the justice as police judge, will be held nonessential errors.

The law for the creation of the police court of the city of Stockton is found in the statutes of 1891, at page 433. It is entitled “An act to provide for police courts in cities having fifteen thousand and under eighteen thousand inhabitants.” This law does not conform to the…

dissenting. I dissent. I consider the decision in Ex parte Reilly a correct statement of the law.