DocketNumber: No. 21086
Citation Numbers: 104 Cal. 205, 37 P. 863, 1894 Cal. LEXIS 879
Judges: Beatty, Being, Fitzgerald, Fleet, Garoutte, Harrison, Haven, Haynes, McFarland, Searls, Vancliee
Filed Date: 9/25/1894
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 10/19/2024
Petitioners were found guilty by a justice’s court, in the county of Humboldt, of a misdemeanor, and were sentenced to pay a fine of one hundred dollars each, or be imprisoned, etc.
The offense charged was for the violation of an ordinance passed by the board of supervisors of that county for the protection of game.
The charging part of the complaint upon which they were tried is as follows: “That said [naming the defendants] on the twentieth day of December, 1893, at Cooper’s ranch in the said county of Humboldt, state of California, did willfully and unlawfully have in their possession deerskins.”
The judgment followed the language above quoted. The defendants refused to pay the fine imposed, and were committed to jail, and now petition this court to be discharged on habeas corpus.
The complaint was made under section 10 of the ordinance, but a proper construction of that section requires the light of other sections. Sections 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10 are as follows:
“ 5. Every person who, in the county of Humboldt, shall within the two years next (except from July 15th to October 15th, in each year) after the passage of this ordinance, hunt, pursue, take, kill, or destroy any male deer, elk, antelope, mountain sheep, or buck shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
“ 6. Every person who, in the county of Humboldt, shall at any time hunt, pursue, kill, take, or destroy any female deer, antelope, elk, mountain sheep, or doe shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
“ 7. Every person who shall at any time hunt, pursue, take, kill, or destroy any spotted fawn shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
“ 9. Every person who, in the county of Humboldt, shall at any time sell, or offer for sale, the hide or meat of any deer, elk, antelope, or mountain sheep shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
“ 10. Every person who, in the county of Humboldt, shall buy, sell, or offer for sale, transport or carry, or have in his possession, any deer, or deerskins, or any hide or pelt from which the evidence of sex has been removed, or any of the aforesaid game at a time when it is unlawful to kill the same, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.”
The construction given to section 10 by the justice before whom the petitioners were tried and convicted, and now insisted upon by respondent, is that it is unlawful to have in one’s possession at any time when it is unlawful to kill deer any deerskin, whether the evidence of sex has been removed or not. The open season being from July 15th to October 15th, it would necessarily follow, if that construction is correct, that
For the reasons given in the foregoing opinion, it is ordered that the said petitioners be and they are hereby discharged.