Cherry v. Brown

1920 OK 251, 192 P. 227, 79 Okla. 215, 13 A.L.R. 92, 1920 Okla. LEXIS 75
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 29, 1920
Docket9733
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 1920 OK 251 (Cherry v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cherry v. Brown, 1920 OK 251, 192 P. 227, 79 Okla. 215, 13 A.L.R. 92, 1920 Okla. LEXIS 75 (Okla. 1920).

Opinion

RAMSEY, J.

(after stating the case). 1. Plaintiff’s counsel contends that the failure, refusal, or inability of the court reporter to make a transcript of the evidence within the time allowed by law or by the court within which to make and serve a case-made, although not based on any fault or negligence of the plaintiff in error, is not suflicient to sustain a petition for a new trial under the ninth subdivision of section 5033, Rev. Laws 1910, authorizing the trial court to grant a new trial “when, without fault of- complaining party, it becomes impossible to make case-made.” Plaintiff’s counsel say that the statutes do not require the case-made to contain a transcript of the stenographer’s notes by question and answer; that the evidence may be incorporated in the case-made in narrative form; that neither party is entitled as a matter of absolute right to have a transcript of the court reporter’s notes of the evidence, and he cites in support of this contention State ex rel. Wigal v. Wilson, 43 Okla. 112, in which this court granted a writ of mandamus directing the trial judge to settle a case-made not containing a transcript of the court reporter’s stenographic notes of the evidence. It is true that the statute does not require the case-made to contain a transcript -of the court reporter’s notes of the evidence. The evidence may be reproduced in narrative form from the memory of the court, and counsel, and if the plaintiff in error elects to make up his case-made in narrative form, he may compel the trial judge to settle it, so long as he confines the case-made to a truthful record of the proceedings. But this is far from holding that the plaintiff in error has no right to a transcript of the court reporter’s notes i of the evidence, either for use in putting the evidence in narrative form or incorporating the transcript in haec verba in the case-made. Court reporters in this state are officers ; they are put under oath and are paid by the state or county. Section 1785. Rev. Laws 1910. directs the district judge, “whenever in his judgment it will expedite public business and tend to the more economical administration of justice.” to appoint “a shorthand reporter who shall be well skilled in *217 the art of stenography and competent to perform the duties required of him.” Section 1786 makes it “the duty of the court reporter to take down in shorthand and to correctly transcribe, when required, all the proceedings upon the trial of any cause, as well as all statements of counsel, the witnesses, or the court, made during the trial of any cause or with reference to any cause pending for trial, when required by a party or attorneys interested therein, and all other matters that might properly be a part of a case-made for appeal or proceeding in error;” provides that an attorney in any case pending “shall have the right to request of the court or stenographer that all such statements or proceedings occurring in the presence of the stenographer, or when his presence is required by such attorney, shall be taken and transcribed,” and provides that “a refusal of the court to permit, or, when requested, to require, any statement to be taken down by the stenographer, or transcribed after being taken down, upon the same being shown by affidavit, or other direct and competent evidence, to the Supreme Court, shall he deemed prejudicial error, without regard to the merits thereof.” Section 1787 fixes the annual salary, and in addition thereto authorizes the reporter to make certn in charges for writing transcripts. Section 1788 empowers the judge to direct the court reporter to transcribe his notes at the expense of the county where the defendant in a criminal case is unable to Pay for the same, and makes an affidavit that he “intends in good faith to take an appeal in the case.” Sections 1833 to 1836, inclusive, provide for court reporters in the county courts. See, also, Session Laws of 1919, page 244. The various acts creating superior courts authorize the judges thereof to appoint reporters, sometimes the county court reporter acting as superior court reporter in counties of certain population. See, also, Session Laws of 1919, page 194. It is unnecessary to review the various acts of the Legislature in regard to court reporters, but see Session Laws of 1919, page 194, and Session Laws of 1915, page 41. Section 1836, Rev. Laws 1910, makes the provisions of section 1786, Rev. Laws 1910, applicable to the county courts. Section 1786 confers upon a party the absolute right to a transcript of the stenographer’s notes of the evidence and other proceedings, and makes it the mandatory duty of the trial judge, upon request, to require the stenographer to take down in shorthand the evidence and transcribe the same after being taken down. Tudor v. State, 14 Okla. Or. 67, 167 Pac. 341; Dabney v. Hathaway, 51 Okla. 658, 152 Pac. 77. It would be one of the curiosities of the law to hold that a party had the absolute right to demand and obtain a transcript of the court reporter’s notes of the evidence and proceedings “and all matters that might properly be a part of a ease-made for appeal or proceeding in error,” as provided by section 1786, Rev. Laws 1910, and then hold him guilty of negligence because he and his counsel relied upon the court reporter to m¿ke a transcript of his stenographic notes of the evidence and proceedings for the purpose of incorporating same in the case-made. This court knows that it is now, and has been for years, a well-established custom and usage among lawyers to rely upon the court reporter to transcribe his notes of the evidence and proceedings for the purpose of incorporating the same in a case-made, and while it is true that a plaintiff in error may make and serve a proper case-made containing the evidence in narrative form, without a transcript of the court reporter’s notes of the evidence and proceedings, nevertheless it is neither slight, ordinary, nor gross negligence on the part of plaintiff in7 error and his counsel to rely upon the court reporter to furnish them with a transcript of his notes of the evidence and oral proceedings within the time allowed by law or by the court within which to make and serve a case-made, and if said court reporter fails, refuses, or neglects to make such transcript, ana the appealing party and his counsel are without fault in respect thereto, the complaining party is presumptively entitled to a new trial under the ninth subdivision of section 5033, Rev. Laws 1910. The spirit of this ruling is sustained in Laclede Oil Co. v. Miller, 69 Oklahoma, 172 Pac. 84; Watt v. State, 16 Okla. Or. 352, 183 Pac. 512; Peck v. McClelland, 65 Oklahoma, 166 Pac. 78.

It is unnecessary for the complaining party to show that he requested the judge to direct the court reporter to transcribe and furnish him a transcript of his notes of the evidence and proceedings. That positive duty is imposed upon the court reporter upon the request of counsel or a party, provided, of course, the court reporter’s fees are tendered or arranged, except in criminal eases mentioned in section 1788, Rev. Laws 1910. Upon the complaining party showing these facts, nothing else appearing, he has made a case entitling him to a new trial. There may arise exceptions to this general rule.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1920 OK 251, 192 P. 227, 79 Okla. 215, 13 A.L.R. 92, 1920 Okla. LEXIS 75, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cherry-v-brown-okla-1920.