Arnsman v. State

20 Ohio C.C. Dec. 445, 11 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 113, 1908 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 162
Lucas Circuit Court·Decided March 28, 1908·Published

Opinion

WILDMAN, J.

This ease has been twice orally argued before this court, once prior to the death of Judge Haynes, and again since Judge Kinkade succeeded to the vacancy. The ease is one which has involved so many parties in interest, and has been deemed so important as involving some constructions- of the statutes known as the Valentine anti-trust law, that we have given it our most careful consideration.

The indictment was drawn under Lan. Rev. Stat. 7586 (B. 4427-1) et seq., and charges the defendants with a trust said to affect the price of lumber. Numerous defendants in the court below, without attack[446] ing tbe indictment by motions or demurrer, entered pleas of guilty,, and were thereupon sentenced by the trial judge to imprisonment in the workhouse of the county for a period of six months, the minimum term of imprisonment prescribed by the statute, where imprisonment, is, a part of the sentence.

In this proceeding in error, the indictment is attacked upon several grounds, but mainly that it is fatally defective in not alleging-facts constituting an offense against the laws of the state. Some consideration has been given to the question whether the indictment charges numerous offenses in one count and is thereby obnoxious; to the charge of duplicity. This matter may perhaps be disposed of by reference to the case of Jones v. State, 7 Circ. Dec. 716 (14 R. 363), decided by the circuit court of Clinton county, Judges Cox, Smith and Swing, in 1897. The fifth paragraph of the syllabus indicates; the point applicable to the indictment before us. I read:

“A demurrer to an indictment for blackmail’is a waiver of such an objection as that 'it charged different, distinct and repugnant crimes,, and was bad for duplicity. Such irregularity can only be reached by motion to quash.”

In Hughes v. State, not reported, decided by this court in Erie county, we had an indictment similar in form, charging an offense as committed upon a certain day and during an entire period to a later day; and in that case we held that the indictment was not bad for duplicity. There is no particular discussion of that question in the opinion, but as nearly as my memory serves me, we arrived at the conclusion that the indictment charged at least one offense, and that really there was no purpose-on the part of the grand jury to charge any more than that. The case was treated as charging but one offense by the trial court in that case; and I might say that the accusation in the case at bar has been so treated. There has been, in other words, no assertion of the right, under a provision of the Valentine law, to treat every day’s violation of the act as an independent offense. The whole of the indictment, so-far as it alleged the time of the commission of the offense, beyond the assertion of one particular time, might be treated as surplusage- and the indictment in this regard still be deemed sufficient.

There is no question under the decisions of this state, however,, that different offenses, misdemeanors of the same class or character,, may be joined in one indictment. The question is not whether they may or may not be so joined; but whether they may be blended in one count. Without going farther than to recognize the doctrine asserted in. Jones v State supra, we are content to rest our decision, so far as [447] the question of duplicity is concerned, upon that case. We believe-that the position of the circuit court of Clinton county that duplicity was waived by failure to file a motion to quash was well taken.

The same thing may be said as to any criticism. that the indictment does not definitely apprise the defendant of the offense of which he is accused. This, of course, does not touch the question, whether the indictment is or is not fatally defective in omitting to charge a crime; it relates only to indefiniteness. Not only the statutory law, but the constitution requires that defendants must be charged so definitely as to be apprised of the precise nature of the offense that they are claimed to have committed against the law of the state. The statute provides means by which, if the indictment is not sufficiently precise, the accused may assert their right and obtain the protection of the court; and the same statute provides that failure to file a motion to quash will waive all matters which might be objected to by such motion. A motion to quash is peculiarly adapted to point out the defects in an indictment, which make it merely indefinite. That is the object of the motion, and if a party does not see fit to avail himself of such procedure, the statute perrpits the courts to infer that he did not care to do it, — that the indictment had sufficiently apprised him of the charge which he was to meet.

In State v. Gage, 72 Ohio St. 210 [73 N. E. Rep. 1078], decided by the Supreme Court, the indictment alleged the infraction of the law during a continuous period from one day to another, as in Hughes v. State, supra, and the case at bar. No attack was made upon the indictment by any motion to quash. A demurrer was filed and overruled. What would have been the effect of a motion to quash is not indicated.

It is urged upon us that from the language of the indictment it does not definitely appear whether the pleader is attempting to charge' an infraction of Lan. Rev. Stat. 7595 (B. 4427-10) or some other section of the Valentine law; or, to state the position of counsel a little-more precisely, it is contended, without conceding that the indictment, charges any offense under the law, that if it does charge such, it charges, only an infraction of Lan. Rev. Stat. 7595 (B. 4427-10), which defines, offenses punishable by fine only.

It is also said, in substance, that the indictment ought not to be-so drawn as that the court may, at its option, impose a penalty under either section of the statute, Lan. Rev. Stat. 7595 (B. 4427-10) or Lan. Rev. Stat. 7589 (B. 4427-4), which provides a penalty of fine or imprisonment, or both.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Arnsman v. State, 20 Ohio C.C. Dec. 445, 11 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 113, 1908 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 162 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1908).

20 Ohio C.C. Dec. 445 (Arnsman v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.