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202 F.2d 949

Docket Misc. No. 297.

Dunbar v. Cranor

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Decided March 23, 1953.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 1953-03-23

2 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“The person having the physical custody of the prisoner, who is capable of bringing him into court, is the only person who may properly be named respondent in a petition for habeas corpus.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Blango v. Thornburgh

Relies on Jones v. Biddle · 31 Wash. 2d 52 - In Re Pierce v. Smith · Sanford v. Missouri

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1953-03-23

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently July 2002

3 federal appellate · 1 district · 3 state decisions

20195319601970198019902000decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1Norman Dunbar, in pro. per.

¶2No other appearances here entered.

¶3*950DENMAN, Chief Judge.

¶4Dunbar petitions for a second’ rehearing on his motion to me for a certificate of probable causé for appeal, which has twice previously been denied because of thfe failure to comply with certain procedural requirements. These requirements now having been met, I will proceed to consider the motion on its merits.

¶5The appeal is from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, Southern Division, dismissing Dunbar’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The record indicates that the district court relied upon two grounds in dismissing the petition: (1) That Dunbar’s complaint'was against the Washington State Board of Prisons and Paroles and not against the Superintendent of the Washington State Penitentiary, respondent below, and that the district court had no power of supervision and control over the former; and (2) that the petition does not state facts sufficient to entitle Dunbar to relief.

¶6 The first ground relied upon by the district court was erroneous. Dunbar alleges directly that he is in the custody of the Superintendent and this allegation is not controverted by any thing in the record. The person having the physical custody of the prisoner, who is capable of bringing him into court, is the only person who may properly be named respondent in a petition for habeas corpus. Jones v. Biddle, 8 Cir., 131 F.2d 853, certiorari denied, 318 U.S. 784, 63 S.Ct. 856, 87 L.Ed. 1152, Id.,319 U. S. 780, 784, 63 S.Ct. 1027, 87 L.Ed. 1725; United States ex rel. Goodman v. Roberts, 2 Cir., 152 F.2d 841, certiorari denied, 328 U.S. 873, 66 S.Ct. 1377, 90 L.Ed. 1642.

¶7The district court was correct in holding that the petition does'not state facts sufficient to entitle .Dunbar to relief. The petition alleges that Dunbar was convicted and sentenced by a Washington Superior Court and that the Board of Prison Terms and Paroles had set his sentence at seven years; that after serving that time, less good time credits, he was released; that he was subsequently arrested for violation of his parole without warrant and was remanded to the custody of the Superintendent by the Board without being given a hearing. For-the parole violation the Board raised his term of imprisonment to ten years.

¶8It is Dunbar’s contention that, when the Board has once fixed the duration of a prisoner’s sentence, the period thus fixed becomes the maximum term, and the Board is without authority to alter that term or to authorize the prisoner’s detention beyond the expiration date of such period. This contention is without merit. In re Pierce v. Smith, 31 Wash.2d 52, 55, 195 P.2d 112. Under Washington law, while the-Board may discharge a prisoner from the confines of the prison prior to the expiration of the maximum term set by law, it does not have the authority to discharge a prisoner from custodia legis before the expiration of the maximum term so fixed. In re Scott v. Callahan, 39 Wash.2d 801, 239 P.2d 333.

¶9Further inquiry by the federal-, courts into Dunbar’s detention under the-facts alleged is presented by the terms of‘ Section 9.95.110 of the Revised Code of' Washington. That section provides in. part:

“The board of prison terms and paroles may establish rules and regulations under which a convicted person may be allowed to leave the confines of ■the penitentiary or the reformatory on parole, and may return such person to the confines of the institution • from which he was paroled, at its discretion." (Emphasis supplied.)

¶10It was in the exercise of this discretion that Dunbar was returned to confinement.

¶11The certificate of probable cause is denied.

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