In re Byers

In In re Byers (1933) 219 Cal. 446, a newspaper, the Peninsula News, had, in 1915, been adjudicated a newspaper of general circulation for the City of San Bruno. At that time (1915) the newspaper was printed and published in the City of San Bruno. The Peninsula News later consolidated with the San Bruno Herald. The newspaper was then published as the consolidated San Bruno Herald and Peninsula News. (Id. at p. 447.) In 1931, E.E. Bramble petitioned the trial court to vacate the 1915 adjudication on the ground that for one year prior to the filing of the petition, the mechanical work of printing of the newspaper had not been done in the City of San Bruno. The proprietors of the San Bruno Herald and Peninsula News conceded the mechanical work of printing the merged newspaper was not conducted in San Bruno. Bramble lost in the trial court. (Byers, supra, 219 Cal. at pp. 447-448.) The Supreme Court noted that prior to 1923, in McDonald, the court had held "a newspaper was printed and published in a city or locality if it was issued and circulated there, although the mechanical work of producing the paper was done in some other city or locality." (Byers, supra, 219 Cal. at pp. 448-449.) The court also explained the Legislature changed the law in 1923 so that "printed" came to mean "that the mechanical work of producing a newspaper of general circulation shall be performed at the place of its issue and circulation." (Id. at p. 449.) At the Supreme Court, Bramble argued that the San Bruno Herald and Peninsula News lost its standing as a newspaper of general circulation because it did not meet the legal requirements to be a newspaper of general circulation. (Byers, supra, 219 Cal. at p. 449.) The Supreme Court found Bramble's argument to be unpersuasive because the Legislature had passed a law providing, "'Nothing in this title shall be construed to alter the standing of any newspaper which, prior to the passage of this act, was an established newspaper of general circulation, irrespective of whether it has been printed in the place where it is published for a period of one year ... .'" (Ibid.) The Supreme Court explained that newspapers already established as newspapers of general circulation prior to 1923 were unaffected by the 1923 change in the law requiring printing to take place in the city relevant to the legal notices. (Id. at pp. 449-450.) Since the Peninsula News had already been adjudicated a newspaper of general circulation, it was unaffected by the 1923 change in the law. The Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's denial of Bramble's petition. (Id. at p. 451.)