AN ACT

CONCERNING THE COURTS OF JUSTICE OF THIS STATE AND JUDICIAL OFFICERS.

PASSED MAY 19th, 1853.

The People of the State of California represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

CHAPTER I.

COURTS OF JUSTICE IN GENERAL.

1. The following shall be the courts of justice of this State: 1st. The supreme court. 2d. The district courts. 4th. The county courts. 5th. The courts of sessions. 6th. The probate courts. 7th. The justices' courts. 8th. The recorders' courts. 9th. The mayors' courts.

CHAPTER II.

THE SUPREME COURT.

2. The supreme court of this state shall consist of a chief justice and two associate justices. Each justice hereafter elected or appointed,

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shall be commissioned by the governor, and before entering upon his duties, shall take the constitutional oath of office.

3. The justices of the supreme court shall be chosen at general elections by the qualified voters of the state. One of the justices shall be chosen at the general election of the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, and at the general election every second year thereafter, and shall hold his office for the term of six years from the first day of January next after his election. The senior justice in commission shall be the chief justice.

4. When from any cause a vacancy shall occur in the office of a justice of the supreme court, the governor shall fill the same by granting a commission, which shall continue until the election and qualification of a justice. A justice to fill a vacancy shall be chosen at the first general election subsequent to the occurrence of the vacancy.

1. The absence of a judge from the state is not such a vacancy as can be supplied by the executive People v. Wells, 2 Cal., 610.

5. The supreme court shall have appellate jurisdiction in all cases where the matter in dispute exceeds two hundred dollars; when the legality of any tax, toll or impost, or municipal fine is in question, and in all criminal cases amounting to felony, on questions of law alone.

1. This jurisdiction does not apply in cases of misdemeanor or crimes of a less degree than felony. People v. Applegate, 5 Cal., 295.

6. [1854.] The supreme court shall have jurisdiction to review upon appeal:

1st. A judgment in an action or proceeding commenced in or removed from another court to the district courts, or county courts, when the matter in dispute exceeds two hundred dollars; or when the possession or title of land or tenements is in controversy; or when the legality of any tax, toll or impost, or municipal fine is in question, and to review upon the appeal from such judgment, any intermediate order or decision, involving the merits and necessarily affecting the judgment.

2d. An order granting or refusing a new trial, or refusing to change the place of trial of an action or proceeding, after a motion is made therefor in the cases provided by law, or on the ground that a judge is disqualified from hearing or trying the same, or sustaining or overruling