State ex rel. Murphy v. Taylor

Citations

• 101 Wash. 148
• 172 P. 217

Syllabus

<p>Courts—Appellate Courts—Jurisdiction—Prohibition. The supreme court has original jurisdiction to issue a writ of prohibition to the superior court where it is proceeding in a matter without or in excess of its jurisdiction; Const., art. 4, § 4, granting original jurisdiction to the supreme court, not being limited to matters in aid of its appellate jurisdiction.</p> <p>Prohibition—To Court—Judge Acting as Magistrate. Where a judge of the superior court acts as a committing magistrate in the ease of a person accused of crime, he acts as a judge in the performance of a judicial function, and hence is subject to be restrained by an original writ of prohibition from the supreme court, under Const., art. 4, § 4, authorizing an original writ of prohibition against all state officers.</p> <p>Criminal. Law — Preliminary Complaint — Committing Magistrate—Powers oe Judge. A superior court judge, sitting as a committing magistrate, has no authority, over objection, to inquire into a charge of gross misdemeanor; in view of Rem. Code, § 46, giving justices of the peace concurrent jurisdiction with superior courts of all gross misdemeanors; and Id., §§ 1925-1928, providing that, when a complaint on such an offense is made before a justice of the peace, the justice shall issue a warrant and proceed to a trial, that the accused is entitled to a trial by a jury which shall determine whether the acts of the accused can be sufficiently punished by the penalties the justice court is empowered to inflict, and that a judge or justice is empowered to issue a ^arrant for arrest and examination only when the crime charged is in the exclusive jurisdiction of the superior court.</p>