74 S.E. 580 | N.C. | 1912
The facts are sufficiently stated in the opinion of the Court by MR. JUSTICE WALKER. The defendant was charged in the Municipal Court of Greensboro with the common-law offense of keeping a disorderly house, and was convicted. She appealed, and was again convicted in the Superior *380 Court, but the judgment was arrested upon the ground that the crime was not committed within the corporate limits of Greensboro, although it was committed within one mile of the same. Appeal by the State.
The contention is that the Legislature could not confer jurisdiction upon the Municipal Court of Greensboro to hear and determine criminal cases where the offenses are committed, not in the city, but within one mile thereof, and that she should have been indicted originally in the Superior Court.
The acts establishing the court expressly give the jurisdiction where the crime is committed in the city or within one mile of its corporate limits. Public Laws 1909 chap. 651, as amended by Private Laws 1911. chap. 430. Counsel for the defendant argued that this jurisdiction was not authorized by the Constitution, as it conflicted with the jurisdiction of justices of the peace under that instrument; but we think the question has been decided against this contention in several cases. It is only necessary to reproduce what was said in S. v. Collins,
It is not necessary to decide whether the provision as to the exclusiveness of the court's jurisdiction is valid, as, if it can only be concurrent with a court of a justice of the peace in certain cases, it has assumed and exercised, in this case, its rightful jurisdiction, and the question as to the extent of the jurisdiction is not presented, nor was it presented in S. v. Collins.
The only question here is, and so it was in that case as to the recorder's court, whether the statutory court or the Superior Court had the jurisdiction. S. v. Doster,
Error.
Cited: S. v. Rice,