Title: Ex Parte Dalton

State: new-mexico

Issuer: New Mexico Supreme Court

Document:

244 P.2d 790 (1952) 56 N.M. 407 EX PARTE DALTON. No. 5500. Supreme Court of New Mexico. May 17, 1952. G. T. Watts, Roswell, for applicant. Joe. L. Martinez, Atty. Gen., W.F. Kitts, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent. SADLER, Justice. We are asked to determine the constitutionality of section 6 of the Uniform Criminal Extradition Act, 1941 Comp. § 42-1906 and, if sustained as against the challenges urged touching its validity, its applicability to the grounds for petitioner's detention. The facts are simple and not in dispute. The petitioner is held in custody by the sheriff of Chaves County, New Mexico, on a warrant of extradition issued by the Governor of New Mexico at the request of the Governor of California seeking the prisoner's return to that state to answer the charge of "Failure to Provide for Minor Children," pending against him in the Municipal Court of the City and County of San Diego, State of California, pursuant to Penal Code, §§ 270 and 1549.1. Prior to date of the offense charged an interlocutory degree of divorce had been entered in that state dissolving the marriage of the parties. Under its terms the petitioner was ordered to pay his former wife, the prosecuting witness, $30 per month for the *791 support of the three minor children of the marriage. At the time of petitioner's departure from California for New Mexico he was not in default in the payments ordered by the interlocutory decree. The requisition papers themselves disclose petitioner was in New Mexico when commission of the offense charged was set in motion by his default in making payment of the support money ordered for his minor children which later and as intended by him resulted in the consummation of the offense and its commission in the State of California. It is because the Act in question permits his extradition for the commission of an offense set in motion by him in New Mexico while physically present there, even though completed in California, that petitioner says the Act is bad from a constitutional standpoint. This challenge presents the first question for decision. The pertinent section of the Act in question, being § 6 of the Uniform Act but our 1941 Comp. § 42-1906, reads as follows: Since the enactment of the Uniform Criminal Extradition Act, L. 1937, c. 65, by more than thirty of the several states its constitutionality has been sustained against the challenges here urged against it by so many decided cases, that we shall do no more than cite only a few of the leading decisions. Ex parte Morgan, D.C., 78 F. Supp. 756, affirmed Morgan v. Horrall, 9 Cir., 175 F.2d 404; Ex parte Morgan, 86 Cal. App. 2d 217, 194 P.2d 800; Taylor v. Smith, 213 Ind. 640, 13 N.E.2d 954; Culbertson v. Sweeney, 70 Ohio App. 344, 44 N.E.2d 807; English v. Matowitz, 148 Ohio St. 39, 72 N.E.2d 898; Cassis v. Fair, 126 W. Va. 557, 29 S.E.2d 245, anno. 151 A.L.R. 239. Notwithstanding this imposing array of authorities supporting constitutionality of section 6, 1941 Comp. § 42-1906 of the Act in question, the petitioner still insists even if valid as to other types of crime that it has no application to an offense of the type here involved, namely, "Failure to Provide for Minor Children." As already shown the offense named has been made a misdemeanor in the state of California, P.C. 270, and under certain conditions here charged a felony. This challenge to application of the questioned Act to the offense involved has in several cases been squarely met and denied. McLarnan v. Hasson, Iowa, 49 N.W.2d 887; People ex rel. Faulds v. Herberich, 276 App.Div. 852, 93 N.Y.S.2d 272; In re Roma, 82 Ohio App. 414, 81 N.E.2d 612; Ex parte Coleman, Tex.Cr.App., 245 S.W.2d 712. In People v. Herberich, supra, [276 App.Div. 852, 93 N.Y.S. 273] the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York disposed of the main contention here urged against the validity of the Act, that it permits extradition of persons not present in the demanding state at the time of commission of the crime charged, in the following language, to-wit: The Court of Appeals of Ohio in the case, In re Roma, supra, [82 Ohio App. 414, 81 N.E.2d 613] had this to say touching the matter, namely: The cases cited and relied upon by petitioner appear to have been decided prior to 1932, seemingly the earliest date on which any of the states had adopted the Uniform Criminal Extradition Act. No attack is made on the sufficiency of the warrant or extradition papers nor is it claimed that a crime has not been properly charged. The identity of the prisoner is admitted. He has failed to show ground for his discharge. Accordingly, he will be remanded to the custody of the sheriff of Chaves County, New Mexico. It is so ordered. LUJAN, C.J., and COMPTON and COORS, JJ., concur. McGHEE, J., not participating.