64 Cal. 434
Decided January 15, 1884
California Supreme Court · decided 1884-01-15
<p>Contempt—Threatening and Insulting Letter to Grand Jury. — Writing and sending an accusatory, threatening, and insulting letter to a grand jury in relation to matters which are the subject of their investigations, is a contempt of court.</p> <p>Id. — Punishment by Fine—Imprisonment to Enforce Payment—Jurisdiction. —The court has power to punish such contempts by fine, and to enforce the payment thereof by imprisonment at the rate of two dollars per day.</p>
Relies on City & County of San Francisco v. Spring Valley Water Works
Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know
Decided 1884-01-15
Cited by 20 later decisions — most recently May 2011
20 state decisions
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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¶1We are of opinion that the petitioner, in sending the letter set forth in the return (containing as it did threatening and insulting language), was guilty of contempt, and that he thereby subjected himself to punishment. We are also of opinion that the court had power to enforce the payment of the fine imposed, by the method adopted by it. (Ex parte Crittenden, 63 Cal. 534.)
¶2We therefore concur in the judgment.