California Code of Civil Procedure Section 262.1

Governmental immunity is a proper ground for summary judgment. (Cruz v. Briseno (2000) 22 Cal.4th 568, 574, 994 P.2d 986.) Code of Civil Procedure section 262.1 provides: "A sheriff or other ministerial officer is justified in the execution of, and shall execute, all process and orders regular on their face and issued by competent authority, whatever may be the defect in the proceedings upon which they were issued." Under section 262.1, "peace officers must execute all process and orders which are apparently regular on their face and issued by competent authority, even if there were defects in the proceedings upon which they were issued." ( Lopez v. City of Oxnard (1989) 207 Cal. App. 3d 1, 8, 254 Cal. Rptr. 556, ) Immunity for executing apparently regular process and orders applies not only to officers on the street, but also to those in charge of jails. "Jail personnel may not be similarly situated to police officers on the street, but they, too, are entitled to rely on process and orders apparently valid on their face." ( Lopez v. City of Oxnard, supra, 207 Cal. App. 3d 1, 9.) Thus, pursuant to section 262.1, "a sheriff, as a ministerial officer of the court, may safely proceed to incarcerate an individual on a warrant apparently valid on its face which comes from a court with subject matter jurisdiction." ( Lopez, supra, at p. 11.)