Ex parte Overend

Citations

• 122 Cal. 201
• 54 P. 740
• 1898 Cal. LEXIS 556

Syllabus

<p>Contempt op Court—Refusal op Witness to Answer—Power op Court.—The court may punish a witness for past contempt for refusing to answer questions at a trial, under section 1218 of the Code of Civil Procedure, but cannot indefinitely imprison the witness for such refusal, until he shall have answered the questions, under section 1219 of that code, excepting while it is within the power of the witness to testify at that trial.</p> <p>Id.—Discontinuance op Trial—Habeas Corpus.—Where it appears that it is no longer possible for a witness, who was committed until he should answer questions put to him upon a trial, to purge his alleged contempt by answering, by reason of the discharge of the jury, and discontinuance of the trial, at which he was called as a witness, and that the period of his punishment for his past contempt has expired, he will be discharged from custody upon hateas corpus.</p>