In re Gannon

Citations

• 69 Cal. 541
• 11 P. 240
• 1886 Cal. LEXIS 684

Syllabus

<p>Grand Jury—Collateral Attack on Validity— Contempt. — The validity of a grand jury cannot be drawn in question in a proceeding of contempt to punish a person for refusing to testify before it.</p> <p>Id. — Jurisdiction. —A grand jury is part of the court by which it is convened, and the court has jurisdiction to adjudge a witness who defies the authority of the grand jury, by refusing to testify before it, guilty of contempt, and to punish him therefor.</p> <p>Id.—Term op Service.—A grand jury legally constituted may continue to act until dissolved by operation of law or an order of court.</p> <p>Id. -—Grand Jury op 1885. —The grand jury organized on the 14th of July, 1885, in the city and county of San Francisco, was not dissolved by operation of law during or at the expiration of that year, and was a valid body on the 26th of March, 1886, notwithstanding the names of grand jurors were selected and returned in January, 1886, for that year, from which a new grand jury might have been drawn. Section 241 of the Code of Civil Procedure prescribes no specific time for the drawing of the grand jury, or for its official existence. These matters have been left to the discretion of the court.</p> <p>Id.—Terms of Court.—The constitution of 1879 abolished the-system of terms and final adjournments under which judicial business was transacted by the former courts. The word “sessions,” as used in sections 73 and 74 of the Code of Civil Procedure, means the time during which the court is in fact held at the place appointed and engaged in business; and the word “recesses” means the times in which the court is not actually engaged in business. There is no division of time into certain periods of the year known as terms of court at which a court may sit to hear and determine causes.</p>