158 P. 1050 | Cal. Ct. App. | 1916
The petitioner is held in custody by the sheriff of Los Angeles County under a commitment issued out of the superior court. The commitment has been issued pursuant to a judgment pronounced against petitioner in a criminal action, and requiring that he be punished by imprisonment in the state prison. Petitioner's claim that the commitment is illegal and void is based upon the proposition that the information in the action does not charge a public offense.
The accusation set forth in the information was that the defendant committed the crime of presenting false proofs in support of a claim upon a policy of insurance; the policy in question being one of insurance against accident. If any offense is charged against the petitioner by that information, it must be an offense coming within the terms of section
Reading together the chapter title and the headnotes, together with the text of sections 548 and 549, we find that the offenses therein described have reference to cases in which property has been destroyed or injured, or where false or fraudulent claims or proofs of claim are presented upon contracts of insurance against losses incident to injury to property or destruction thereof. The failure of the legislature to give to this chapter a broader scope so as to include accident insurance, may be attributed to the fact that insurance contracts of that kind are of modern origin, and in the year 1872 casualty insurance was not yet a common or well-known class of business. Being of the opinion that the information does not state or describe a criminal offense, we conclude that the petitioner is entitled to be released, and it is therefore ordered that he be discharged from custody.
James, J., and Shaw, J., concurred. *570