City of Sioux Falls v. Marshall

204 N.W. 999, 48 S.D. 378, 45 A.L.R. 447, 1925 S.D. LEXIS 73
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 14, 1925
DocketFile No. 6002
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 204 N.W. 999 (City of Sioux Falls v. Marshall) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Sioux Falls v. Marshall, 204 N.W. 999, 48 S.D. 378, 45 A.L.R. 447, 1925 S.D. LEXIS 73 (S.D. 1925).

Opinion

CAMPBELL, J.

The applicant was convicted in municipal court in Sioux Falls of .a misdemeanor, to wit, violation of a city ordinance prohibiting' the possession of intoxicating liquor for sale, trade, barter, or gift. He was sentenced on June 19, 1925, to serve six months in the count}'' jail, and pay a fine of $500. After such conviction and sentence defendant immediately perfected an appeal, which is now pending in this court. Applicant sought to. be admitted to. bail by the trial judge, and was refused, and he now seeks to be admitted to. bail by one of the judges of this court, and at the direction and request of the presiding judge of this court his application has been made to me. The application was first made here ex parte, and, being unwilling to pass upon the matter without giving the city an opportunity to be heard, an order was entered denying' the application pro forma with leave to> renew upon the same filings upon five days’ notice to the city attorney of the city of Sioux Falls. The application was so renewed upon notice to the city attorney, who has appeared and filed a showing in opposition, and the matter is now for disposal upon the merits.

Bail after conviction pending appeal may be granted in a proper case by the trial judge or any judge of this court. Section 5039, Code 1919. The cases, however, are uniform in holding' that the application in the first instance should be made to the trial judge, both upon principles of comity and also because he is in a superior position to' possess full information as to all relevant matters in each particular instance. A judge of this court should not consider such an application in the first instance except in case [381]*381•of the absence or disqualification of the trial judge, or his inability or refusal to act.

The application having been addressed in the first instance to the discretion of the trial judge, and having been refused by him, the decisions are also uniform that the action of the trial judge will have grea,t weight with the judges of the Supreme Court, and they will not thereafter grant bail upon the same state of facts, unless it clearly appears that the trial judge has abused his discretion. That rule has been frequently declared by the judges of this court. State v. Molseed, 46 S. D. 57, 190 N. W. 554; State v. Rosander, 46 S. D. 516, 194 N. W. 837; State v. Cooley, 46 S. D. 518, 194 N. W. 838; State v. Peifer, 47 S. D. 226, 197 N. W. 203.

This doctrine as expressed in these cases is sound. The cases, however, presuppose an actual exercise of discretion by the trial judge with reference to each application in the light of the particular facts and circumstances of that application.

In the instant case it appears from the showing of the applicant, which does not seem in this particular to be controverted by the city, that, when the application was before the trial judge, he stated that he had been on the bench for over two years, and had never granted a stay of commitment or permitted bail to be given pending appeal in a criminal case, and that “as long as God gives me breath I will never grant a stay in these cases.” I have considerable misgivings whether these words do not indicate the establishment of an arbitrary rule for all cases rather than the result of the application of sound judicial discretion to the case at bar. The maximum sentence that can be imposed in the court in question is six months in jail and a fine of $500. In the congested condition of the calendar in this court it is highly probable that an appeal from conviction of a criminal offense in that court ,even where a maximum sentence had been imposed, could not be reached and disposed of here before the serving of the sentence had been practically completed. Certainly that would likely be the case where the sentence was appreciably less than the maximum. The resulting" injustice and hardship in the event of a reversal readily appears. To hold that a judge of this court should be precluded from acting in the matter by the ruling of the trial judge undei the circumstances indicated by the record here would [382]*382come very near to holding, as a practical matter, that the judge of the court in question had the power, in contravention of the statutes and Constitution of this state, arbitrarily to declare and successfully to maintain that no appeal from conviction in that court should be of any substantial value .to the appellant. It would almost appear in the light of the statements made by the trial judge that, in substance, he refused to consider the particular application upon its merits. In that, event the doctrine of the South Dakota cases above cited has no application. I deem it my duty, therefore, to consider this application in like manner as though made here in the first instance by reason of the absence of the tidal judge or his inability to act, and free from any presumptions or restrictions that would have arisen had the record affirmatively indicated that the trial judge in fact had applied his judicial discretion to the merits of the particular case.

It becomes necessary, therefore, to consider somewhat of the nature of bail and the principles which should govern the granting or refusal thereof in the first instance in such cases as may be discretionary.

By virtue of our constitutionál provision (article 6, § 8), and since the abolition of capital punishment, bail before conviction is a matter of absolute right in all cases. This constitutional guaranty, however, does not appty to bail after conviction. That is the rule laid down by a judge of this court (State v. Molseed, supra), and seems to be the uniform holding in other states having the same or similar constitutional provisions. See Ex parte Voll, 41 Cal. 29; State v. McFarlin, 41 Nev. 105, 167 P. 1011; Re Schirber, 19 Idaho 531, 114 P. 29, 37 L. R. A. (N. S.) 693; Ex parte Dyson, 25 Miss. 356; Ex parte Heath, 227 Mo. 393, 126 S. W. 1031; State v. Ward, 9 N. C. (2 Hawks) 443; Re Boulter, 5 Wyo. 263, 39 P. 875; Ex parte Ezell, 40 Tex. 451, 19 Am. Rep. 32.

The matter of bail after conviction in this state is governed by statute. The first Territorial Legislature of Dakota passed a law relating thereto (Laws Dakota Territory 1862, p. 209), and the territorial Code Commission of 1877 (section 554, Code Crim. Proc. 1S77) adopted almost verbatim the provision of the California statute of 1850 (Statutes Cal. 1850, p. 315), which had [383]*383been, re-enacted as section 1272, California Penal Code 1872, as follows:

“After conviction of an offense not punishable with death, a defendant who sues out a writ of error for the revision of a judgment may be admitted to bail:

“1. As a matter of right when the writ of error is from a judgment imposing a fine only.

“2. As a matter of discretion in all other cases.”

This section was re-enacted without change as section 7606, Compiled Laws of Dakota 1887, and as section 587, Rev. Code of Criminal Procedure 1903. The wording was very slightly changed by the Code Commission of 1919, and the law now appears as section 4597, Rev. Code 1919, as follows:

“After conviction in any case other than for a capital offense, where the defendant appeals from the judgment, bail by sufficient sureties is allowable:

“1. As a matter of right when the judgment imposes a fine only.

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Bluebook (online)
204 N.W. 999, 48 S.D. 378, 45 A.L.R. 447, 1925 S.D. LEXIS 73, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-sioux-falls-v-marshall-sd-1925.