Court Opinion

ID: 9633883
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 12:05:08.283488+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:08:44.739278
License: Public Domain

TRAYNOR, Concurring and Dissenting.
I concur in the holding of the court insofar as it constitutes a rule of decision for the disposition of cases arising in the future. It is clear, however, from the authorities cited in both the majority and the dissenting opinion that the question of the availability of habeas corpus to attack subject, matter jurisdiction by proof of facts outside the record has been clouded in uncertainty in this state. (See also Edmonds, J., concurring, In re Bell, 19 Cal.2d 488, 506-507 [122 P.2d 22] ; In re Wyatt, 114 Cal.App. 557, 562 [300 P. 132]; 1 Witkin, California Procedure, Jurisdiction, § 162, pp. 429-430.) The United States Supreme Court appears to have recognized a similar uncertainty with respect to the federal rule. (See. Rice v. Olson, 324 U.S. 786, 791 [65 S.Ct. 989, 89 L.Ed. 1367].) In Phelan v. Superior Court, 35 Cal.2d 363 [217 P.2d 951], this court considered the effect of uncertainty in the'law as to the adequacy of the remedy by appeal on the right to attack an order of the trial court by writ of mandate.. It stated: “In view of the uncertainty which has existed in the law with respect to the appealability of the order in question and also in view of the holdings of this court that an appeal is not adequate in a case of this type, petitioner should not be denied the use of the writ because of his failure to appeal. It would obviously *888be a hardship upon a litigant who has been misled by such uncertainty in the law if we were to resolve the uncertainty and in the same proceeding deny his petition for a writ on the ground that he in fact did have an adequate remedy by appeal.” (35 Cal.2d at 371-372; see also In re Bine, 47 Cal.2d 814, 818 [306 P.2d 445].) Similarly, the uncertainty that has existed as to the availability of the writ of habeas corpus to attack the jurisdiction of the trial court in a case of this sort should preclude holding concurrently with the resolution of that uncertainty that such an attack can only be made in the trial court, at least when, as in this ease, petitioner’s attempt to raise the issue on appeal makes clear that he has not sought to abuse the remedy by delaying the attack until conviction in the federal courts would become difficult or impossible.
I concur in the conclusion of Justice Carter that the evidence taken before the referee establishes that the Superior Court in and for the County of Madera, State of California, was without jurisdiction to try petitioner for the crimes with which he was charged, and accordingly, I would discharge the prisoner.