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nicipal funds, they will restrict themselves to what may be established in the ordinances to be made by the Departmental Legislature.

ART. 4. These Justices of the Peace, as well as those of places which do not contain one thousand inhabitants; those of the suburbs and rancherias at a distance from towns, and those of the quarters and wards of every populous town, shall have the faculties and obligations granted to and imposed on the Alcaldes in Section VI, Art. 1-6.

ART. 5. In the suburbs and rancherias distant from towns, and in such towns where only a Justice of the Peace is established, a substitute shall also be named in the same manner as the real one, to take his place in case of temporary absence. In other places where there are several Justi ces of the Peace, they shall during the present year 1837 mutually supply the places of each other. In future this shall be done by the former Justices of the Peace, according to the order of their ap pointment, beginning with those of the last year.

ART. 6. The Justices of the Peace of those places in which the Ayuntamientos are to cease, will receive, by means of correct inventory, all the documents, books of acts, and whatever may belong to those corporations, and they will remit a copy of it to the Governor that he may send it to the Departmental Legislature.

ART. 7. The Governor, in concert with the Departmental Legislature, will dictate convenient regulations relative to securing the municipal funds until the ordinances fix the rules for their good management and expenditure.

ART. 8. The situation of the Justices of the Peace is a Municipal office which cannot be refused except for a legal cause approved by the Governor or Prefect, after hearing the opinion of the authority that named or proposed him, or in the case of re-election, if two years have not transpired, or if an equal time has not passed since he served as Sub-Prefect.

ART. 9. The Justices of the Peace on entering into office will make the same oath as the other authorities, at the hands of the Sub-Prefect, or in default of him, before the last Justice of the Peace or before the first one appointed, should there be several.

SECTION VIII.

General Observations.

ART. 1. The channels of communication established by this law cannot be deviated from except in extraordinary circumstances, or in case of complaint against some functionary through whose hands the communications ought to be forwarded.

ART. 2. The fines imposed by the functionaries mentioned in this law shall not be collected by themselves, but they shall order them to be delivered to the Treasurer or depository of the municipal funds, who will give the corresponding receipt, so that the person fined may satisfy the authority by which he was fined.

ART. 3. If those elected for Governors, Members of the Departmental Legislature, Prefects, and persons employed in their Secretaries' offices, should receive a higher salary or pension from the public funds than the salary designated by this law, they shall continue to enjoy it, and to that end the excess shall be credited to them.

ART. 4. The laws which organized the economic-political government of the Department are abolished.

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PART SECOND.

JUDICIAL

LAW OF MAY 23d, 1837.

SECTION I.

Of the Superior Court-(Tribunal.,

ART. 1. The Superior Tribunal of California shall consist of four Judges, (ministros,) and one Attorney General, (fiscal ;) of which Judges the three senior ones shall compose the first bench, (sala,) and the junior one the second.

ART. 2. The Tribunal shall have a President, who will remain in office two years, and may be re-elected; he shall be appointed by the Tribunal itself, from its own magistrates. In defect of the President, the senior Judge shall preside.

ART. 3. The Judges and Attorney General shall each receive a salary of four thousand dollars per annum.

ART. 4. The superior Tribunals in a body shall be addressed with the title of "Your Excellency." The same title shall be given to each of the benches thereof, and the President, Judges, and Attorney General shall officially be styled "Your Honor," (Senoria.)

ART. 5. Whenever the number of Judges necessary to complete the benches shall be defective, through absence, recusation, vacancy or any other cause, such deficiencies shall be supplied with primary Judges, (Jueces de primera instancia.)

ART. 6. Within the three first months after the installation of the superior Tribunal, it shall form a tariff of the fees and dues to be collected in the Department by the primary Judges, Alcaldes, Advocates, Clerks, and other judicial officers.

ART. 7. The second bench of the superior Tribunal (1) shall take cognizance of the first appeals (en segunda instancia) in the civil and criminal causes of the Territory mentioned in the first attribution of Art. 22d, 5th Constitutional Law; and the first bench shall take cognizance of the second appeals, (en tercera instancia.) (2.)

ART. 8. In the same manner shall causes instituted against Magistrates and Subalterns as mentioned in the second attribution (3) be dispatched; and the second appeal mentioned in said attribution shall belong to the first bench. This bench shall also take cognizance of the right of appeal (recurso) mentioned in the 3d and 4th attributions. (4.) In order to carry out the objects comprehended in the 7th, 8th, and 9th attributions, (5) a full tribunal of all the Judges shall sit, in which the Attorney General shall also have a vote.

ART. 9. The superior Tribunal, including the President, all the Judges and the Attorney General, shall, in the capital of the Department, perform a general examination of prisons, including all places where prisoners may be detained subject to the ordinary jurisdiction, and make a report of said examination to government, that it may publish the same and take the necessary measures in virtue of its powers. At these examinations two members of the Ayuntamiento shall attend (without any vote) with the Magistrates of the Tribunals, next to the senior one; and the Ayuntamiento shall be previously informed of the appointed hour, in order that it may appoint those who are to attend.

ART. 10. Public examinations shall likewise be made by two of the Judges, acting by turns, and commencing with the junior ones. The President shall not be included; the Attorney Gene

(1) The powers of the superior Tribunals, as originally organized, are given in Law 5th, Art. 22d, of the Constitution of Mexico, but the transfer of this Territory to the United States has annulled or limited some of the powers so conferred.

(2) The causes referred to in the latter part of this Article are those against the superior Magistrates of the Territory.

(3) This has reference to causes against inferior Magistrates and the Subalterns and dependents of the Tribunal.

(4) These have reference to appeals from the Judges of first instance, and the adjustment of competences of jurisdiction arising between subaltern Judges.

(5) These have reference to the nomination of Judges, subalterns and dependents of the Courte.

ral and Secretaries shall attend, and likewise the Judges of first instance in criminal cases, with their respective clerks.

ART. 11. At both of these examinations all the prisoners shall present themselves. The Magistrates, besides the customary examination, shall personally inspect the habitations and scrupulously inquire into the treatment given to the prisoners, the food and attention bestowed upon them, and if they are loved with more irons than the Judge has commanded, or are kept in solitary confinement (incomunados) without orders. But if there should be prisoners of another jus risdiction in the public pris, they shall confine themselves to examining how they are treated, correct the abuses and defe of the jailors, and report to the respective Magistrates whatever fur

ther they may observe.
ART. 12. Whenever a

soner shall ask to be heard, one of the Judges having cognizance of

the cause shall go and hear what he has to say, and report to the corresponding bench. ART. 13. The reports or notices of the institution of suits or causes, which the inferior Judges have to address to the superior Tribunal, shall be presented to the bench of second instance, for it to take the necessary measures for the speedy conclusion of the same, according as the nature and enormity of the crimes may require.

ART. 14. The superior Tribunal shall see that the primary Judges in criminal cases remit to it, quarterly, circumstantial lists of the causes finished during that period, and of those still pending, expressing the dates on which they commenced and their actual state of forwardness; which shall be submitted to the bench of second instance, in order that in view thereof, and after hearing the Attorney General, the necessary steps may be taken towards the speedy and exact administration of justice.

ART. 15. The Attorney General shall be heard in all criminal and civil causes in which the public interests or the ordinary jurisdiction are concerned. When he acts as plaintiff, (actor,) or pleads his own rights (coadyuvare sus derechos,) he shall speak in Court before the attorney of the criminal, and may be constrained (apremiado) at the instance of the parties the same as any of them. His replies, whether in civil or criminal cases, shall never be concealed so that the parties interested cannot see them, and he cannot be recused, (recusado.)

ART. 16. To constitute a sentence in a bench of three judges, two perfectly coinciding votes are requisite.

SECTION II.

Of the Courts of First Instance-(Primeria Instancia.)

ART. 1. The Governor and Legislature, on the recommendation of the superior Tribunal, shall designate the number of Judges of this Court in the chief town (cabecera) of each district, in conformity with the laws.

ART. 2. Where there is but one Judge of first instance to a district, he shall have both civil and criminal jurisdiction; if more than one, these are separate.

ART. 3. Each Court shall have a Clerk and Recorder, (Escribano y Escribiente,) and an Executive officer, (Comisario.).

ART. 4. The salaries of the Judges and subalterns of this court is fixed by the Governor and superior Tribunal, in concert with the Departmental Legislature, to be afterwards approved of by the General Government. (1.)

ART. 5. The Clerks or Notaries (Escribanos) of this Court are appointed by the superior Tribunal, on the recommendation of the Judges of the Court; the other subalterns are named by the Judges themselves, due notice of those appointments being given both to the Governor and superior Tribunal.

ART. 6. These, Judges, on entering upon their duties, must take the usual oath of office. In case of sickness, absence, death, &c., their places may be supplied ad interim by persons appointed by the superior Tribunal, with the approbation of the Governor.

ART. 7. No Judge of first instance can act in a civil or criminal case without the Clerk of the Court, (Escribano,) except in case there be no such Clerk, or where the case is too urgent to wait for his presence, in which case two witnesses must be called in, and the papers so witnessed must be afterwards turned over to the custody of the Clerk.

ART. 8. The cognizance and jurisdiction of these Judges are limited to the judicial subjects of their territory.

ART. 9. All law suits and civil or criminal causes, of whatever description, shall be brought forward and carried on before the respective Magistrate of first instance, excepting in cases wherein clergymen and military persons are privileged by the constitutional or other laws in force..

(1). The salary of the Judge of Civil Courts was fixed at $1,500, with the stipulated fees of ffice. Governor Riley, in his Proclamation, has signified his intention to pay this salary to the, Judge of first instance in each political district of California.

ART. 10. No complaint, either civil or criminal, involving simply personal injuries, can be admitted without proving, with a competent certificate, that conciliatory measures have been attempted, (viz: by means of arbitrators or hombres buenos.)

ART. 11. From the preceding Art. are to be excepted, verbal processes; those of contest respecting chaplaincies, (capellanias colativas,) and other ecclesiastical causes of the same description, in which the parties interested cannot come to a previous arrangement; the causes which interest the public revenue, the municipal funds of towns, public establishments, minors, those deprived of the administration of their property, and vacant inheritances. In the same manner, no conciliation is to be attempted for the recovery of any kind of contributions or taxes, whether national or municipal ones, nor for the recovery of debts which have the same origin. Neither is it necessary in the trial of summary and very summary interdictions of possession, the denouncement of a new work, or a retraction; nor in promoting the faculty of inventories and distribution of inheritances, nor in other urgent cases of the same nature; but should a formal complaint have to be afterwards made which would cause a litigious process, then conciliation ought first to be attempted, but it must not take place in cases of bankruptcy where creditors sue for their dues; but it shall take place when any citizen has to demand judicially the payment of a debt, although it may arise from a public writing.

Note.-The translator cannot vouch for the correctness of the translation of the foregoing Art., as he does not himself fully understand the original, on account of the many law terms used therein.-W. E. P. H.

ART. 12. In the trial of causes which exceed one hundred dollars but do not exceed two hundred dollars, the Judges will take cognizance by means of a written process according to law, but without appeal; nevertheless the parties may take advantage of the appeal of necessity before the superior Tribunal, should the laws have been violated which regulate the mode of proceeding. This appeal shall be referred to the same Judge, in the terms and for the purpose mentioned in Art. 20 of Sec. iv.

ART. 13. Any person who may be despoiled of or disturbed in his possessions, whether the aggressor be an ecclesiastic, a layman, or a military character, will apply to the legal Judge for testitution and protection; and cognizance of these matters are to be taken by means of the corresponding very summary process, or even by means of the plenary one of possession if the parties should desire it, with appeal to the respective superior Tribunal; the judgment of property (juicio de pro priedad) being reserved to the competent Judges.

ART. 14. The Judges of the first instance, in their respective districts, will take cognizance, by way of precaution, with the Alcaldes, in the formation of inventories, justifications, ad perpetuam, and other judicial matters of this kind, in which the parties have yet made no opposition. ART. 15. They will likewise take cognizance of such civil and criminal causes respecting common crimes as may arise against the Alcaldes of their district.

ART. 16. Every sentence of first instance in criminal causes must be immediately notified to the person who entered the suit and to the culprit, and if either of them shall appeal, said causes must, without delay, be remitted to the superior tribunal, the parties being previously summoned. ART. 17. If both the accused and culprit agree to the sentence, and the suit should be respecting trivial crimes for which the law imposes no corporeal punishment, the judge will execute the sentence. But if the cause should be one respecting crimes which have such a punishment assigned to them. the process shall be remitted to the superior tribunal, the time for appealing having passed, although the parties themselves should not appeal, they being previously cited.

ART. 18. In all civil causes, in which according to law the appeal should take place in both effects, and be clearly admitted, the original acts of the process shall be remitted to the superior tribunal at the costs of the appellant, the parties being previously cited, that they may make use of their rights. But if said appeal be merely admitted in the devolutive effect and not in the suspensive one (efecto devolutivo y (no en el) suspensivo) [the former of which means, the cognizance which a superior judge takes of the determinations of an inferior one without suspending the execution of them; and the latter, the same thing together with the suspension of the execution-the Translator,] the remission must not take place until after the execution of the determination, whatever practice there may be to the contrary.

ART. 19. The Judges of first instance, in the place of their residence, if there be no superior tribunal there, will in public make the prision examinations required by law; two members of the Ayuntamiento will also be present at the general ones, but without a vote; and every month a report of said examinations will be rendered to the superior tribunal. They will likewise go to the prison when any culprit asks for audience, and they will hear whatever he may have to say.

ART. 20. The inferior magistrate will also report to the superior tribunal, at furthest within the three days after commencing the causes, all such as they may be forming for crimes committed in the respective jurisdictions. They will likewise send to said tribunal quarterly, a general list of those that they may have concluded in that time, and of such as still remain unfinished in their respective courts, expressing the state in which they may be and the dates of their commencement.

1

SECTION III.

Of Alcaldes and Justices of the Peace.

ART. 1. It belongs exclusively to the Alcaldes of the Ayuntamientos and to the Justices of the Peace, in places whose population consists of one thousand or more inhabitants, to exercise in their jurisdiction, with respect to all classes of persons, the office of conciliators.

ART. 2. It likewise belongs to such Alcaldes and Justices of the Peace to take cognizance of, and decide in their respective towns, all verbal processes which may occur, except those in which ecclesiastics and military persons are sued.

ART. 3. It belongs likewise to them, to dictate in litigious cases the very urgent measures that will not admit being taken before the primary judges; and to take, under similar circumstances, the first steps in criminal causes, and also such others as they may be commissioned to do by the respective tribunals and primary courts.

ART. 4. Of the attributions comprehended in the three foregoing articles, the Justices of Peace of such places as do not contain one thousand inhabitants shall only exercise that of taking (whether in civil or criminal cases) such steps as from their urgency do not give time to apply to the nearest respective authorities.

ART. 5. In order to verify the judgment of conciliation, whosoever may have to institute any civil suit, the value of which does not exceed one hundred dollars, or any criminal one respecting serious injuries, purely personal, shall make his complaint to the Alcalde or competent Justice of the Peace, demanding verbally to have the accused party summoned in order to commence the trial of conciliation, and said Alcalde or Justice of Peace will immediately have the summons made out, which must mention the object of the complaint, and fix the day, hour, and place, in which the parties have to appear, and both the accuser and the accused are to be told to bring each his arbitrator (hombre-bueno), who must be a citizen in the exercise of his rights, and completed his 25th year of age-[with us 21 years is the legal age.]

ART. 6. The accused party is bound to concur in obedience to the summons of the Alcalde or ✓ Justice of Peace, but should he not do so, a second summons must be sent to him to appear at some newly appointed time, under a penalty of from two to ten dollars fine; and should he still not come forward, it shall be considered that the means of conciliation have been attempted, and that the trial is at an end, (i. e. the trial of conciliation,) and the fine imposed upon the accused party shall be irremissibly exacted.

ART. 7. It shall likewise be considered that the means of conciliation have been tried, and that the trial is concluded, if the person summoned appear before the Alcade or Justice of Peace in obedience to the first or second summons, and say that he renounces the benefit of conciliation.

ART. 8. In the two cases treated of in the two foregoing articles, the corresponding record must be made in the respective book, and be signed in the first case by the Alcalde or Justice of Peace, the Plaintiff and Clerk, (Escribano,) if there be one, and it not by two assisting witnesses; and in the second case, by the Alcalde or Justice of Peace, the Plaintiff and Defendant; and whenever the latter does not make his appearance, but renounces the aforesaid benefit, he must necessarily do it in writing.

ART. 9. When the parties do come forward, either personally or by means of their lawful representatives, to proceed with the trial of Conciliation, the Alcalde or Justice of Peace and the Arbitrators will make themselves acquainted with what the parties have to expose respecting the matter in dispute, and when the said parties retire, the Alcalde or Justice of Peace will hear the opinion of the Arbitrators, and will immediately, or within eight days at farthest, give the sentence which he may consider most fitting to avoid a law suit, and to bring about the mutual conformity of the parties.

ART. 10. Each Alcalde or Justice of Peace shall have a book entitled "BOOK OF CONCILIATIONS," in which he shall note down a concise account of what occurs in the trials of Conciliation, agreeably to what is ordered in the preceding article and in continuation of the Con ciliatory Sentence dictated by the Alcalde or Justice of Peace, which must be notified to the parties interested in presence of the Arbitrators, in order that they may say whether they agree to it or not, which must also be noted down and be signed by the Alcalde or Justice, the Arbitrators, and parties interested.

ART. 11. When the parties agree to the Sentence, the certified copies of the proceedings which they may ask for shall be given to them in order that the corresponding authority_may carry it into effect, and if either of the parties should not agree, the Alcalde or Justice of Peace will give him a certificate that the means of Conciliation have been attempted, but without suc cess; the parties interested merely paying the costs of said certificates in the accustomed form.

ART. 12. In the same Book of Conciliations must be entered the record mentioned in Art. 8, and this Book must remain in the archives when the Alcalde or Justice of Peace conclude the time of their appointment.

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