104 Wash. 648 | Wash. | 1919
Appellants sought a writ of prohibition in the superior court of Clarke county, to prohibit the police judge of Camas, Washington, a city
On April 29, 1918, appellants’ attorney obtained a default, and a permanent writ of prohibition issued and was served the same day. Respondent’s attorney appeared a few minutes after the default had been entered. Some hours later, on the same day, respondent moved the court for the vacation of the default, and filed a demurrer to the affidavit in support of appellants’ motion for writ of prohibition. Appellants demurred to the affidavit in support of the motion for vacation of default judgment, which demurrer was overruled. The motion to vacate was
Appellants assign that the court erred in vacating the permanent writ of prohibition, sustaining respondent’s demurrer to relators’ application for the writ, and overruling relators’ demurrer to respondent’s motion and affidavit to vacate the permanent writ of prohibition.
If the police justice had jurisdiction of the action, the granting of the writ of prohibition would have been erroneous. The vacating of default judgments rests within the sound discretion of the court, which here does not manifestly appear to have been abused. If the police justice had lost jurisdiction, the judgment denying the peremptory writ of prohibition by the superior court is wrong.
Appellants’ first contention, that all civil actions commenced in a justice court against a defendant or defendants residing in a city or town of more than 3,000 inhabitants shall be brought in the justice court in the city or town in which one or more of such defendants reside, as provided in Rem. Code, § 1756, is untenable in this case. We may concede that this is the law in civil actions commenced in justice courts, but the action at bar was one for a violation of a city ordinance, a penal and quasi criminal action, the exclusive jurisdiction of which is conferred by § 7671-29, in cities of the third class, on the police judge of such city.
Appellants ’ other contentions are that a justice court cannot continue an action exceeding sixty days, and that, when a justice of the peace continues a case indefinitely, he loses jurisdiction. In support of these contentions, appellants refer us to Rem. Code, § 1817. The statute relied upon was construed by this court
But the section applies only to civil actions, while, as heretofore stated, this is a penal action. Camas is a third class city and, as we pointed out in the former mandamus proceeding before us, cited supra, the law formerly in force, giving to justices jurisdiction of criminal cases arising under ordinances of third class cities, was expressly repealed. Rem. Code, § 46. And Rem. & Bal. Code, § 7700, relating to proceedings before police justices, and providing that same should be governed by the general laws relating to justices of the peace and to their practices and jurisdiction, was also expressly repealed by Laws of 1915, p. 666, §35 (Rem. Code, §7671-35), and, by the same act, police judges in such cities were given exclusive jurisdiction in the cases therein specified, including such as this. As the law now stands, police justices in cities of the third and higher classes are something more than justices of the peace and are not bound by the general laws regulating proceedings in justices’ courts. The police court did not, therefore, lose jurisdiction of the cause by failing to bring the case to trial within the sixty-day period, and the trial court was correct in dismissing the application for the writ of prohibition.
Affirmed.