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103 Cal. 397

In re Jones

California Supreme Court

Decided July 23, 1894

California Supreme Court · decided 1894-07-23

<p>Hearing in the Supreme Court upon writ of habeas corpus.</p> <p>The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.</p>

Relies on People v. Williams · McCauley v. Weller · People v. Shuler

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1894-07-23

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently February 1941

1 federal appellate · 7 state decisions

30189419001910192019301940decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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McFarland, J.

¶1The petitioner, David Jones, asks to be discharged from the custody of the sheriff of the *398county of Mendocino, and alleges that he is illegally imprisoned under an order of the superior court of said county adjudging him guilty of contempt of court.

¶2It appears that upon the hearing in said court, of a motion made by petitioner Jones for the change of the place of trial of a certain civil action to which said petitioner was a party, the petitioner filed, presented, and read a certain affidavit, and that he was adjudged guilty of contempt for and on account of certain language and statements used and made in said affidavit. It is not necessary to set forth the affidavit here, but it is quite clear that it is of such a character that the act of petitioner in presenting it was disorderly, contemptuous, and insolent behavior toward the judge of said court while holding the same, and, as such, was a contempt of said court. If the matter of the affidavit had been material and relevant, and pertinent to any issue before the court, a different question might be presented. If bias, prejudice, or partiality on the part of a judge was a ground for a change of venue, a party seeking such change upon such ground would have the right to state in an affidavit the facts upon which he based his charges of such bias. But the only ground for a change of venue which has any relation to the judge of a court of record is found in subdivision 4 of section 397 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which is as follows: “When from any cause the judge is disqualified from acting,” and the only disqualifications of a judge are those stated in section 170, by which he is disqualified when he is a party to, or interested in, the action pending, when he is related to either party or his attorney within the third degree, and when he has been an attorney for either party in the action. “ These are the only causes which work a disqualification of a judicial officer.” (McCauley v. Weller, 12 Cal. 524.) Bias or prejudie on the part of a judge is not a ground for a change of the place of trial. (McCauley v. Weller, 12 Cal. 500; People v. Williams, 24 Cal. 31; People v. Mahoney, 18 Cal. 186; People v. Shuler, 28 Cal. 495; Hibberd v. Smith, 39 Cal. 148.) The affidavit, *399therefore, was entirely irrelevant and immaterial, and there is no excuse for, or justification of, its presentation.

¶3The petitioner is remanded to the custody of the said sheriff, and the proceeding is dismissed.

¶4Garoutte, J., Beatty, C. J., and Van Fleet, J., concurred.

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