People v. Phalen

• Decision Date: 31 October 1882
• Citation: 13 N.W. 830,49 Mich. 492
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: PEOPLE v. PHALEN and another.

13 N.W. 830

49 Mich. 492

PEOPLE v. PHALEN and another.

Supreme Court of Michigan

October 31, 1882

The police court of the city of Grand Rapids has jurisdiction in bastardy cases.

Bastardy proceedings are not criminal in the proper sense of the term. They are not strictly criminal or civil in their nature, but partake somewhat of the elements of both; but, in so far as their aim is to protect the public by providing for the support of the child, they are quasi criminal.

The recognizance in a bastardy case requires the party to appear from day to day, as may be necessary, until trial, and is not discharged by an appearance on the first day of a term of court and no appearance afterwards.

Error to Kent.

J.J Van Riper and Fred. A. Maynard, for plaintiff and appellant.

Godwin & Earle, for defendant.

MARSTON J.

This was an action brought on a recognizance in a bastardy case. The declaration was demurred to and the demurrer sustained. Two positions are taken in this court in support of the judgment which we will consider in their order.

First that the police court of the city of Grand Rapids has no jurisdiction in bastardy cases.

In support of this position it is said that the act conferring jurisdiction upon that court gives the police justice power to hear, try and determine all cases of misdemeanor and of a quasi criminal nature, and also to hear and examine and hold to bail persons charged with the commission of felonies, and that the offense charged in this case was not a felony.

Proceedings under the bastardy act are special, and unlike criminal examinations for felonies. They are not even criminal in the proper sense of the term. The primary object is to protect the public against the danger of being obliged to support the child. The proceedings are carried on in the name of the people and the expense of enforcing obedience falls upon the people and not upon the complaining witness while the rules applicable to civil cases, as to the weight of testimony, govern. Semon v. People, 42 Mich. 141; [S.C. 3 N.W. 304;] Sutfin v. People, 43 Mich. 37; [S.C. 4 N.W. 509;] White v. Washington, 44 Mich. 389; [S.C. 6 N.W. 874.] The proceedings therefore cannot be classed as strictly criminal or civil in their nature but partake somewhat of the elements of both. They are quasi criminal in so far as the aim is to protect the public. They partake somewhat of the nature of criminal cases. A complaint is made and a warrant issued thereon which may be executed in any part of the state, and the defendant may be committed until he shall enter into a recognizance, and he may be relieved under the statute applicable to the relief of poor prisoners committed on execution for debt. 1 Comp.Laws, c. 54, pp. 647-649. The police court of Grand Rapids is given jurisdiction to hear, try and determine all cases of misdemeanors and of a quasi criminal nature committed within the corporate limits of the city, formerly within the jurisdiction of justices, and the police justice may issue process on, hear, examine and...