In re Mitchell

The petitioner, George Mitchell, was on the twenty-sixth day of February, 1898, convicted of a misde- ' meanor by the police court of the city of Los Angeles, and judgment was therein rendered that he pay a fine of thirty dollars, or to be confined in the city jail one day for each one dollar of the fine. Hnder this judgment he is held in custody by John M. Glass, chief of police of said city. The prosecution under which petitioner was convicted was commenced on February 17, 1898, and the offense of which he was found guilty is alleged to have been commited on February 16, 1898, and the sole ground upon which petitioner seeks to be discharged is that the said police court was not on either of said dates a legally existing court.

The police court of the city of Los Angeles was organized under an act of the legislature approved March 18, 1885, entitled, “An act to provide for police courts in cities having thirty thousand and under one hundred thousand inhabitants, and to provide for officers therof,” generally known as the “Whitney act.” (Stats. 1885, p. 213.) This act provides specifically, and in detail, for the organization, jurisdiction, powers, and duties of the courts to be…

concur in the judgment. I do not, however, understand that it is contended that the Whitney act is repealed, either directly or impliedhq by the census act of 1897, hut rather (as I follow petitioner’s argument) that the Whitney act by express language applies only to cities of a *391 specified population; that if a city once possessing that population shall outgrow the maximum limit fixed by the act, then ipso facto it has outgrown the act which is not thereby repealed, but merely ceases to apply to that particular municipality. The question of population thus becomes a fact to be judicially ascertained, and when so ascertained is the determinative factor in the problem. The act of 1897 declares that the census when taken shall be the official state census of the city, and this at least means that it affords evidence of controlling weight in determining the question of population.

Such I understand to be petitioner’s argument. The facts are unquestioned. The Whitney act declares that a police court is created in cities “having thirty thousand and under one hundred thousand inhabitants.” Los Angeles was such a city. By census taken under the act of 1897 it is found to have a…