on the first day of January next after his election, and shall hold his office for a full term. 1275. SEC. 44. The probate court shall have power to open and receive the proof Powers. of last wills and testaments, and to admit them to probate; to grant letters testamentary, of administration, and of guardianship, and to revoke the same for cause shown, according to law; to compel executors, administrators, and guardians, to render an account, when required, or at the period fixed by law; to order the sale of property of estates, or belonging to minors; to order the payment of debts due by estates; to order and regulate all partitions of property or estates of deceased persons; to compel the attendance of witnesses; to appoint appraisers or arbitrators; to compel the production of title-deeds, papers, or other property of an estate or of a minor; and to make such other orders as may be necessary and proper in the exer cise of the jurisdiction conferred upon the probate court. vacation. 1276. SEC. 45. The probate judge shall have power, in vacation, to appoint ap- Powers in praisers, to receive inventories and accounts to be filed in the probate court; to suspend the powers of executors, administrators, or guardians, in the cases allowed by law; to grant special letters of administration or guardianship; to approve claims and bonds; and to direct the issuance from the probate courts of all writs and process necessary in the exercise of his powers as probate judge. 1277. SEC. 46. The probate courts shall hold a term at the county-seats of their Terms. respective counties at such times as may be provided by law. The proceedings of the probate courts, within the jurisdiction conferred on them by law, shall be construed in the same manner, and with like intendments, as the proceedings of courts of general jurisdiction; and the records, orders, judgments, and decrees, of said Effect of courts, shall have accorded to them like force and effect, and legal presumptions, as the records, orders, judgments, and decrees, of the district courts. CHAPTER VII. JUSTICES' COURTS. 1278. SEO. 47. The courts held by justices of the peace shall be denominated justices' courts. orders, &c. 1279. SEC. 48. These courts shall have jurisdiction, within their respective town- Jurisdiction. ships or cities, of the following actions and proceedings: First. Of an action arising on contract, for the recovery of money only, if the Less than $800. sum claimed, exclusive of interest, is less than three hundred dollars. detain Second. Of an action for damages for injury to the person, or for taking or ing personal property, or for injury to real or personal property, if the damages claimed are less than three hundred dollars. 5 Cal. 230. 5 Cal. 881. 16 Cal. 372. 22 Cal. 169. 22 Cal. 465. Fine, penalty, or forfeiture. bond. Third. Of an action for a fine, penalty, or forfeiture, in a sum less than three hundred dollars, given by statute or the ordinance of an incorporated city or town. Fourth. Of an action on a bond or undertaking conditioned for the payment of Action on a money, in a sum less than three hundred dollars, though the penalty exceed three hundred dollars; the judgment to be given for the sum actually due. When the payments are to be made by instalments, an action may be brought for each instalment as it becomes due. Fifth. Of an action for the foreclosure of any mortgage, or the enforcement of Foreclosure of any lien on personal property, when the debt secured is less than three hundred dol- mortgage. lars, exclusive of interest. erty. Sixth. Of an action to recover possession of personal property, when the value of Possession of personal propsuch property is less than three hundred dollars. Seventh. To take and enter judgment on the confession of a defendant, when the Confession of amount confessed is less than three hundred dollars, exclusive of interest. judgment. Eighth. Of an action to determine the right to a mining claim, when the value Right to a of the claim is less than three hundred dollars, and for damages for injury to the 3 Cal. 219. mining claim. same, when the damages claimed are less than three hundred dollars. 6 Cal. 19. Ninth. Of proceedings respecting vagrancy and disorderly persons.(") [Amendment, Vagrancy approved February 10, 1864; 1863-4, 67; took effect from passage; repealed all conflicting acts. (*) The original section differed from the amendment in using the words "injuring instead of "injury to" in the second subdivision; and in using the words "do not exceed" instead of "are less than" in the second, third, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth subdivisions. In the fourth subdivision the words were "not exceeding" instead of "in sum less than," and "exceed that sum" instead of "exceed three hundred dollars." In the ninth subdivision the word "vagrants" was used instead of "vagrancy." COURTS OF JUSTICE AND JUDICIAL OFFICERS. 1280. SEC. 49. The jurisdiction conferred by the last section shall not extend, how ever First. To a civil action in which the title or possession of real property shall necessarily come in question. Second. Nor to an action or proceeding against ships, vessels, or boats, or against the owners or masters thereof, when the suit or proceeding is for the recovery of seamen's wages for a voyage performed in whole or in part without the waters of this State. 1281. SEC. 50. The jurisdiction of justices' courts, within an incorporated city, shall extend to the limits of such city, or township in which the city is situated. Mesne and final process of justices' courts may be issued to any part of the county in which they are held. 1282. SEC. 51. These courts shall have jurisdiction of the following public offenses committed within the respective counties in which such courts are established: First. Petit larceny. Second. Assault and battery, not charged to have been committed upon a public officer in the discharge of his duties, or with intent to kill. Third. Breaches of the peace, riots, affrays, committing a wilful injury to property, and all misdemeanors punishable by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or inprisonment not exceeding six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment. 1283. SEC. 52. There shall be no terms in justices' courts. These courts shall always be open. 1284. SEC. 53. Justices of the peace shall be elected by the electors of their respective townships or cities, at the special elections to be held for the election of justices of the supreme court, and shall hold their offices for two years from the first day of January next following their election. Whenever a vacancy shall occur in the office of a justice, by death, resignation, or otherwise, it shall be filled by appointment by the board of supervisors of the county. The person appointed shall hold his office for the unexpired term of his predecessor. Each justice, before entering upon the discharge of his duties, shall take the constitutional oath of office, and shall exécute a bond to the State, in a sum to be fixed by the board of supervisors of the county, conditioned for the faithful performance of his duties, and file the same with the county clerk. Jurisdiction. Criminal Places of holding Election of Proviso. Compensation. CHAPTER VIII. RECORDERS' AND OTHER INFERIOR MUNICIPAL COURTS. 1285. SEC. 54. The recorders' and other inferior municipal courts established in any incorporated city or town of this State shall have jurisdiction First. Of an action or proceeding for the violation of any ordinance of their respective cities or towns. Second. Of proceedings respecting vagrants and disorderly persons. 1286. SEC. 55. They shall also have jurisdiction of the following public offenses, committed in their respective cities or towns: First. Petit larceny. Second. Assault and battery, not charged to have been committed upon a public officer in the discharge of his duty, or with intent to kill. Third. Breaches of the peace, riots, affrays, committing wilful injury to property, and all misdemeanors punishable by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding three months, or by both such fine and imprisonment. 1287. SEC. 56. Said court shall be held at such place in the city or town in which they are established, as the government of such city or town may, by ordinance, direct. 1288. SEC. 57. The recorders, police judges, and other inferior municipal judicial officers, shall be elected by the electors of their respective cities or towns at the special judicial elections to be held for the election of justices of the supreme court, and shall hold their offices for two years from the first day of January next following their election; provided, that nothing in this section shall be so construed as to change the time for the election of the mayor of any city, who may be judge of a municipal court. 1289. SEC. 58. They shall receive a compensation to be fixed by the charter, or, when not so fixed, by the government of their respective cities or towns, to be paid by such cities or towns, monthly, in equal proportions. Such compensation shall not be increased or diminished during the period for which they are elected. duties. 1290. SEC. 59. They shall possess the powers and exercise the duties of commit- Powers and ting magistrates in the criminal cases in which the courts held by them have no jurisdiction by this act; and as such magistrates they may examine, commit, or discharge, all persons brought before them, as the justice of the case may require. 1291. SEC. 60. These courts and the judges thereof may issue all process, writs, and warrants, and may make any and all orders necessary and proper to the complete exercise of their powers. 1292. SEO. 61. There shall be no terms in said courts. These courts shall always be open. CHAPTER IX. GENERAL PROVISIONS RESPECTING THE COURTS OF JUSTICE AND JUDICIAL OFFICERS. ARTICLE 1.-Courts of Record; Publicity of the Proceedings of the Courts, and their incidental Powers. 1293. SEC. 62. The supreme court, the several district courts, the several county Courts of record. courts, and the several probate courts of this State, shall be courts of record. 1294. SEC. 63. The sittings of every court of justice shall be public, except as is Sittings. provided in the next session [section]. 1295. SEC. 64. In an action for divorce, the court may direct the trial of any issue Divorce cases. of fact joined therein to be private; and upon such directions all persons may be excluded except the officers of the court, the parties, their witnesses, and counsel. 1296. SEC. 65. Every court shall have power— First. To preserve and enforce order in its immediate presence. Second. To enforce order in the proceedings before it, or before a person or persons empowered to conduct a judicial investigation under its authority. Third. To compel obedience to its lawful judgments, orders and process, and to the lawful orders of its judge out of court, in an action or proceeding pending therein. Fourth. To control, in furtherance of justice, the conduct of its ministerial officers. ARTICLE 2.-Particular Disqualification of Judges. Powers as to order, obedience, &c. Disqualifica12 Cal. 523. 1297. SEC. 66. A judge shall not act as such in any of the following cases: First. In an action or proceeding to which he is a party, or in which he is inter- tions. ested. Second. When he is related to either party, by consanguinity or affinity within the third degree. Third. When he has been attorney or counsel for either party in the action or proceeding. But this section shall not apply to the arrangement of the calendar or the regulation of the order of business, nor to the power of transferring the cause to another county. as attorney in 1298. SEO. 67. A judge shall not act as attorney or counsel in a court, in which he is Judge not to net judge, or in an action or proceeding removed therefrom to another court for review, his own court. or in an action or proceeding from which an appeal may lie to his own court. 1299. SEC. 68. A judge of the supreme court, or of the district court shall not act Judge not to act as attorney or counsel in any court of this State, except in an action or proceeding to as attorney. which he is a party on the record. 1300. SEC. 69. No judge or other elective judicial officer, or district court commis- Leave of absence. sioner, shall have a partner acting as attorney or counsel in any court of this State. The legislature shall have no power to grant leave of absence to a judicial officer; and any such officer who shall wilfully absent himself from the State for upwards of thirty consecutive days, shall be deemed to have forfeited his office. ARTICLE 3.-Judicial Days, and Places of holding Courts. 1301. SEC. 70. The courts of justice may be held, and judicial business may be transacted, on any day, except as provided in the next section. courts shall not 1302. SEC. 71. No court shall be opened, nor shall any judicial business be trans- Days on which acted, on Sunday; on New Year's Day; on the Fourth of July; on Christmas Day; on be opened. Thanksgiving Day; or on a day on which the general election or special judicial election is held, except for the following purposes: Exceptions. Place of holding courts. Proviso. Absence of Judge may remove court. Parties held. Bales of courts. Inscriptions. Private seal. Clerk custodian of seal. Proceedings First. To give, upon their request, instructions to a jury when deliberating on their verdict. Second. To receive a verdict, or discharge a jury. Third. For the exercise of the powers of a magistrate in a criminal action, or in a proceeding of a criminal nature. 1303. SEC. 72. Every court of justice except a justice's, recorder's, or other inferior municipal courts, shall sit at the county-seat of the county in which it is held, except in the cases provided in this article. Justices' courts shall be held in their respective townships or cities, and recorders' and other inferior municipal courts in their respective cities or towns; provided, justices of the peace for townships of the City and County of San Francisco, within the corporate limits of the City and County of San Francisco, shall not hold a court in any other township of said county or city than the one for which they shall have been respectively elected. 1304. SEC. 73. If no judge attend on the day appointed for holding the court, before noon, the sheriff, or clerk, shall adjourn the court until the next day, at teu o'clock; and if no judge attend on that day before noon, the sheriff, or clerk, shall adjourn the court until the following day; and so on, from day to day, for one week. If no judge attend for one week, the sheriff, or clerk, shall adjourn the court for the term. 1305. SEC. 74. A judge authorized to hold or preside at a court appointed to be held in a county, city, or town, may, by an order filed with the county clerk, and published as he may prescribe, direct that the court be held or continued at any other place in the city, town, or county, than that appointed, when war, insurrection, pestilence, or other public calamity, or the dangers thereof, or the destruction of the building appointed for holding the court, may render it necessary; and may, in the same manner, revoke the order, and, in his discretion, appoint another place in the same city, town, or county, for holding the court. 1306. SEC. 75. When the court is held at a place appointed, as provided in the last section, every person held to appear at the court, shall appear at the place so appointed. ARTICLE. 4.-Seals of the Courts of Justice. 1307. SEC. 76. Each of the following courts, and no other, shall have a seal: First. The supreme court. Second. The district courts. Third. The county courts. Fourth. The probate courts. And Fifth. The police judge's court of the City and County of San Francisco. 1308. SEC. 77. The seal now used by the supreme court shall be the seal of the said court; and where seals have been provided for the district, county, and probate courts, and the police judge's court of the City and County of San Francisco, such seals shall continue to be used as the seals of said courts. 1309. SEC. 78. The several district, county, and probate courts, for which separate seals have not been heretofore provided, shall direct their respective clerks to procure seals, which shall be devised by the respective judges of such courts, and shall have the following inscriptions surrounding the same: First. For the district courts: "District Court, serting the name of the county.) Second. For the county courts: "County Court, ing the name of the county.) Third. For the probate courts: "Probate Court, serting the name of the county.) County, California." (In County, California." (Insert County, California.” (In 1310. SEC. 79. Until the seals devised, as provided in the last section, are procured, the clerk of each court may use his private seal, whenever a seal is required. 1311. SEC. 80. The clerk of the court shall keep the seal thereof. 1312. SEC. 81. The seal of the court need not be affixed to any proceedings therein, requiring a seal. except Manner of affixing seal. First. To a summons, or writ. Second. To the proof of a will, or the appointment of an executor, administrator, or guardian. Third. To the authentication of a copy of a record, or other proceeding of the court, or an officer thereof, for the purpose of evidence in another court. 1313. SEC. 82. The seal may be affixed by impressing it on the paper or on a substance attached to the paper and capable of receiving the impression. order. ARTICLE 5.—Miscellaneous Provisions respecting Courts and Judicial Officers. 1314. SEC. 83. If an application for an order, made to a judge of a court in which Application for the action or proceeding is pending, be refused in whole or in part, or be granted conditionally, no subsequent application for the same order shall be made to any other judge, except of a higher court, or to any court commissioner; provided, that nothing Proviso. in this section shall be so construed as to apply to motions refused for any informality in the papers or proceedings necessary to obtain the order. 1315. SEC. 84. A violation of the last section may be punished as a contempt, and Violation. an order made contrary thereto may be revoked by the judge who made it, or vacated by a judge of the court in which the action or proceeding is pending. 1316. SEC. 85. The judges of the supreme court, of the district courts, and of the Powers of judges. county courts, shall have power in any part of the State, and justices of the peace, within their respective counties, and recorders, and other inferior municipal judicial officers, within their respective cities or towns, to take and certify- First. The acknowledgment of a satisfaction of a judgment of any court. Second. An affidavit to be used in any court of justice in this State. 1317. SEC. 86. No action or proceeding in a court of justice shall be affected by a Absence of judges. vacancy in the office of all or any of the judges, or by the failure of a term thereof. Failure of terms. 1318. SEC. 87. Every written proceeding in a court of justice in this State, or before Proceedings in English a judicial officer, shall be in the English language; but such abbreviations as are now language. commonly used in that language may be used, and numbers may be expressed by figures, or numerals, in the customary manner. In the counties of San Luis Obispo, Exception. Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and San Diego, the proceedings may be in the English or Spanish language. 1319. SEC. 88. If rooms for holding the district courts, county courts, and probate Rooms, &c. courts, and the chambers of the judges of the said courts, be not provided in any county by the supervisors thereof, together with attendants, furniture, fuel, lights, and stationery, suitable and sufficient for the transaction of business, the said courts may direct the sheriff of such county to provide such rooms, attendants, furniture, fuel, lights, and stationery, and the expenses thereof shall be a charge against such county. 1320. SEC. 89. The act entitled an act concerning the courts of justice of this State, and judicial officers, passed May nineteenth, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, and the several acts amendatory thereof, are hereby repealed. This act shall take effect on the first day of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, except so much thereof as relates to the election and qualification of judicial officers, which shall take effect immediately. No judicial officer entitled to office by virtue of any election heretofore held under existing laws, shall be superseded by the provisions of this act; but every such officer shall remain in office until the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, and until the qualification of his successor, elected in accordance with the provisions of this act. II. COURT COMMISSIONERS. An Act respecting the fees of court commissioners. Approved April 27, 1863, 761. 1321. SECTION 1. Said court commissioners shall be entitled to charge and receive Fees. for their services the following fees, viz: For hearing and determining every ex parte motion for any order or writ, three dollars. For hearing and determining such contested motions or issues of law or fact as may be referred to them, or for taking proof upon or determining any matter of fact upon which information may be required by the court, five dollars. For every day spent in the business of the reference in such case, for examining into the qualifications of sureties on bonds or undertakings, when an exception has been taken to their sufficiency, five dollars. For taking and certifying every affidavit, and for the approval of every bond or undertaking, fifty cents. And for taking and certifying depositions, twenty-five cents per folio. Said fees to be paid by the party by whom or at whose instance the matter may be Payment of fees. brought before said commissioner, or if referred by the court without motion from |