Case ID: cal-unrep_2/html/0313-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "By the COURT.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

PEOPLE ex rel. BUCKNER v. VEUVE.
    No. 9124;
    May 17, 1884.
    3 Pac. 862.
    Courts.—There is No Such Office as “Police Justice of the city of San Jose,” and therefore such office cannot be usurped, intruded into, or unlawfully held or exercised.
    Courts.—The Exercise by a Justice of the Peace of Jurisdiction Outside of that conferred by the constitution is not the exercise of an office, and the result thereof would be to render acts done outside of such jurisdiction void.
    APPEAL from the Superior Court of Santa Clara County.
    This was a proceeding against the defendant for usurpation of the office of “police justice of the city of San Jose.” The defendant answered that there was no such office existing, •and that the jurisdiction which he exercised was that conferred on a justice of the peace, which office he held, and which included the powers of a police judge; and the trial court so found. Plaintiff appealed.
    Attorney General Marshall and W. B. Hardy for appellant; D. W. Harrington for respondent.
   By the COURT.

There is no such office as “police justice of the city of San Jose”; therefore, the defendant could not have usurped, intruded into, or unlawfully held or exercised that office. Conceding the act to be unconstitutional which in terms confers jurisdiction on justices of the peace in cities of more than ten thousand inhabitants which other justices of the peace do not possess, the exercise of such additional jurisdiction would not be the exercise of an office, but the exercise of jurisdiction outside of the office of justice of the peace; the result of which would be to render acts done outside of such jurisdiction void.

Judgment affirmed.