Disobedience to a subpoena, or a refusal to be sworn or to testify as a witness, may be punished by the Court or magistrate as a contempt. A witness disobeying a subpoena issued on the part of the defendant, unless he show good cause for his nonattendance, is liable to the defendant in the sum of one hundred dollars, which may be recovered in a civil action.
Cal. Penal Code § 1331
Compelling the Attendance of Witnesses
Applied in 6 court decisions — leading case 176 Cal. App. 3d 1059 - Sullivan v. State Board of Control (1985)
Most recently applied in 180 Cal. App. 4th 1012 - Kemps v. Beshwate (December 2009)
Enacted 1872.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.