Reports of Cases Determined in the Courts of Appeal of the State of California

ORGANIZATION AND JURISDICTION OF DISTRICT COURTS OF APPEAL.

[Constitution, Article VI, Section 4.]

Adopted, November 8, 1904.

The state is hereby divided into three appellate districts, in each of which there shall be a district court of appeal consisting of three justices. The first district shall embrace the following counties: San Francisco, Marin, Contra Costa, Alameda, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Fresno, Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Benito.

The second district shall embrace the following counties: Tulare, Kings, San Luis Obispo, Kern, Inyo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, and San Diego.

The third district shall embrace the following counties: Del Norte, Siskiyou, Modoc, Humboldt, Trinity, Shasta, Lassen, Tehama, Plumas, Mendocino, Lake, Colusa, Glenn, Butte, Sierra, Sutter, Yuba, Nevada, Sonoma, Napa, Yolo, Placer, Solano, Sacramento, El Dorado, San Joaquin, Amador. Calaveras, Stanislaus, Mariposa, Madera, Merced, Tuolumne, Alpine, and Mono.

The supreme court, by orders entered in its minutes, may from time to time remove one or more counties from one appellate district to another, but no county not contiguous to another county of a district shall be added to such district.

Said district courts of appeal shall hold their regular seg sions respectively at San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Sacramento, and they shall always be open for the transaction of business.

The district courts of appeal shall have appellate jurisdiction on appeal from the superior courts in all cases at law in which the demand, exclusive of interest, or the value of the property in controversy, amounts to three hundred dollars, and does not amount to two thousand dollars; also, in all cases of forcible and unlawful entry and detainer (except such as arise in justices' courts), in proceedings in insolvency,

(v)

and in actions to prevent or abate a nuisance; in proceedings of mandamus, certiorari, and prohibition, usurpation of office, contesting elections and eminent domain, and in such other special proceedings as may be provided by law (excepting cases in which appellate jurisdiction is given to the supreme court); also, on questions of law alone, in all criminal cases prosecuted by indictment or information in a court of record, excepting criminal cases where judgment of death has been rendered. The said courts shall also have appellate jurisdiction in all cases, matters, and proceedings pending before the supreme court which shall be ordered by the supreme court to be transferred to a district court of appeal for hearing and decision. The said court shall also have power to issue writs of mandamus, certiorari, prohibition, and habeas corpus, and all other writs necessary or proper to the complete exercise of their appellate jurisdiction. Each of the justices thereof shall have power to issue writs of habeas corpus to any part of his appellate district upon petition by or on behalf of any person held in actual custody, and may make such writs returnable before himself or the district court of appeal of his district, or before any superior court within his district, or before any judge thereof.

The supreme court shall have power to order any cause pending before the supreme court to be heard and determined by a district court of appeal, and to order any cause pending before a district court of appeal to be heard and determined by the supreme court. The order last mentioned may be made before judgment has been pronounced by a district court of appeal, or within thirty days after such judgment shall have become final therein. The judgments of the district courts of appeal shall become final therein upon the expiration of thirty days after the same shall have been pronounced.

The supreme court shall have power to order causes pending before a district court of appeal for one district to be transferred to the district court of appeal of another district for hearing and decision.

The justices of the district courts of appeal shall be elected by the qualified electors within their respective districts at the general state elections at the times and places at which justices of the supreme court are elected. Their terms of

office and salaries shall be the same as those of justices of the supreme court, and their salaries shall be paid by the state. Upon the ratification by the people of this amendment the governor shall appoint nine persons to serve as justices of the district courts of appeal until the first Monday after the first day of January in the year nineteen hundred and seven, provided, that not more than six of said persons shall be members of the same political party. At the election in the year nineteen hundred and six nine of such justices shall be elected as above provided, and the justices of each distric court of appeal shall so classify themselves by lot that one of them shall go out of office at the end of four years, one of them at the end of eight years, and one of them at the end of twelve years; an entry of such classification shall be made in the minutes of the court, signed by the three justices thereof, and a duplicate thereof filed in the office of the secretary of state. If any vacancy occur in the office of a justice of the district courts of appeal, the governor shall appoint a person to hold office until the election and qualification of a justice to fill the vacancy; such election shall take place at the next succeeding general state election as aforesaid; the justice then elected shall hold the office for the unexpired term.

One of the justices of each of the district courts of appeal shall be the presiding justice thereof, and as such shall be appointed or elected as the case may be. The presence of three justices shall be necessary for the transaction of any business by such court, except such as may be done at chambers, and the concurrence of three justices shall be necessary to pronounce a judgment.

Whenever any justice of the supreme court is for any reason disqualified or unable to act in a cause pending before it, the remaining justices may select one of the justices of a district court of appeal to act pro tempore in the place of the justice so disqualified or unable to act.

Whenever any justice of a district court of appeal is for any reason disqualified or unable to act in any cause pending before it, the supreme court may appoint a justice of the district court of appeal of another district, or a judge of a superior court who has not acted in the cause in the court below, to act pro tempore in the place of the justice so dis qualified or unable to act.

No appeal taken to the supreme court or to a district court of appeal shall be dismissed for the reason only that the same was not taken to the proper court, but the cause shall be transferred to the proper court upon such terms as to costs or otherwise as may be just, and shall be proceeded with therein as if regularly appealed thereto.

All statutes now in force allowing, providing for, or regulating appeals to the supreme court shall apply to appeals to the district courts of appeal so far as such statutes are not inconsistent with this article and until the legislature shall otherwise provide.

The supreme court shall make and adopt rules not inconsistent with law for the government of the supreme court and of the district courts of appeal and of the officers thereof, and for regulating the practice in said courts. [Amendment adopted November 8, 1904.]