Ex Parte State Ex Rel. Shirley

103 So. 68, 20 Ala. App. 473, 1925 Ala. App. LEXIS 28
CourtAlabama Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 3, 1925
Docket6 Div. 718.
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 103 So. 68 (Ex Parte State Ex Rel. Shirley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alabama Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ex Parte State Ex Rel. Shirley, 103 So. 68, 20 Ala. App. 473, 1925 Ala. App. LEXIS 28 (Ala. Ct. App. 1925).

Opinion

SAMFORD, J.

It is insisted on the part of appellee that this court is without jurisdiction to issue the writ in this case, because the prisoner who is the subject of the writ stands charged with murder in the first degree. A sufficient answer to this contention would be that the jurisdiction of this court in felony cases is fixed by the “punishment fixed” by judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction and not by the charge being made, either by affidavit or indictment. Code 1923, § 7309. This court has consistently taken jurisdiction in habeas corpus cases where prisoners confined on charges of murder in the first degree have applied for and been denied or granted bail. This is no longer an open question. Montgomery v. Hughes, 4 Ala. App. 245, 58 So. 113; Phelps v. McLeod, 17 Ala. App. 480, 86 So. 150; Ex parte Robertson, post, p. 514, 104 So. 561.

The petition in this case is for a writ to compel Hon. J. C. B. Gwin, judge of the Tenth judicial circuit, Bessemer division, to vacate and annul an order issued by him on December 11, 1924, directed to T. J. Shirley as sheriff of Jefferson county, and J. I. Reed-er as his deputy, and commanding the return of the person of George E. Edwards, a prisoner charged with murder within the jurisdiction of the Bessemer division of the circuit court of Jefferson county, from the county jail of the county located at Birmingham to the county jail at Bessemer. .

The order sought here to be annulled was entered on December 11, 1924, after hearing on a petition for habeas corpus instituted by the prisoner Edwards alleging his illegal removal from the Bessemer jail and his confinement by Shirley as sheriff in the Birmingham jail. On the same day of the entering of the order, Shirley, as sheriff, complied with the order and returned Edwards to the Bessemer jail, where he now is. It is admitted that no formal demand or request has been *475 made on Judge Gwin to set aside or annul the order above referred to.

The remedy by appeal is purely statutory, and if an appeal from an order entered in a habeas corpus case is not so provided, appeal will not lie. In section 6245, Code 1907, it was provided:

“Any party aggrieved by the judgment on the trial of a habeas corpus may appeal to the Supreme Court” (or Court of Appeals).

In the Code of 1923, § 3238, this clause is now omitted, and the remedy by appeal is limited to the state in certain cases therein specified. Nor does the statute Code 1923, § 8980, granting appeals from final judgments in proceedings for extraordinary remedies, give the right of appeal from an order of a judge in granting or denying the writ in habeas corpus. Ex parte Montgomery City Council, 64 Ala. 463; 29 Corpus Juris, p. 183.

Shirley as sheriff, etc., was the party to whom the writ was addressed, and as such was to all intents and purposes the defendant in the proceeding. 29 Corpus Juris, 139 (152). But, the order being an order of the circuit judge and not the judgment of a court of record, writ of error will not lie. Taylor v. Powers, 3 Ala. 285. And the common-law writ of certiorari being limited to errors appearing on the record, neither involving'conclusions of facts or the manner in which discretion has been exercised, is not considered an adequate remedy in this case. Stanfill v. Court of Co. Rev., etc., 80 Ala. 287.

Relator therefore pursued the proper remedy in applying for the writ of mandamus. Ex parte Tower Mfg. Co. et al., 103 Ala. 415, 15 So. 836; Brazel v. New So. Coal Co., 131 Ala. 416, 30 So. 832; Ex parte Garland, 42 Ala. 559.

However, to entitle a relator to a writ of mandamus to compel a judge to set aside an order, it must be made to appear that application had -first been made to the trial judge to vacate the order, which is sought to be vacated by the writ of mandamus, or to show such a state of facts from which a refusal can be conclusively implied. This rule is thoroughly discussed and many authorities are cited and quoted from in Mosely v. Collins et al., 133 Ala. 326, 32 So. 131. See, also, Ex parte Edwards, 123 Ala. 102, 26 So. 643; Herbert v. Board of Education, 197 Ala. 617, 73 So. 321. In this case it appears that this whole question had been presented and tested on pleadings and proof before the respondent and the making of the order resisted by this relator, all of which is fully set forth in the petition. It would therefore appear that further application to respondent for an annulment of the order would have been vain and useless.

While it is undoubtedly true that, when a party is confined in jail under a criminal charge, a petition for habeas corpus must be addressed to the nearest circuit judge or to the probate judge of the county (Code 1923, § 4310), all circuit judges within the state have the power to issue writs of habeas corpus, and when a respondent to a writ appears in answer to the writ and submits himself and his defense without raising the question, he waives the question of the proximity of the judge issuing the writ.

The main question at issue is the authority of the sheriff of Jefferson county, respecting the custody and control of prisoners held by him as sheriff. To determine this we must first consider an act of the Legislature approved September 16, 1915 (Acts 1915, p. 549), providing for separate county officers and making a division of territory as to certain public business in counties of more than 150,000 population. The pertinent parts of said act are herein set out:

“Sec. 2. That all business pertaining to the respective county offices and officers of such counties, that arises within the territory within which the cases arising therein may be tried in the circuit court or court of like jurisdiction, held at a place other than at the county site of such counties, shall be transacted at such offices by such officers at such place of holding the court, and all records made thereat shall be kept there, and not elsewhere.”

Section 5 of the act provides for the appointment of a chief deputy sheriff in charge of the sheriff’s office, requiring him to be a resident of the Bessemer jurisdiction and requiring him to make bond, and giving him authority to perform all acts that the sheriff could perform except such as are “strictly and exclusively nondelegable.”

That the Legislature intended that all business arising within the jurisdiction of the Bessemer court should be transacted at the Bessemer offices is further shown by the positive and explicit declarations of section 8 of the same act, which section reads as follows:

“See. 8. The purpose of this act is declared to be to provide fully for the transaction of all business pertaining to the respective county offices and officers of such counties that arises within the territory within which the cases arising therein may be tried in such circuit court or court of like jurisdiction held at such place other than at the county site to be transacted at such place of holding court, and not at the county site of such counties.

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Bluebook (online)
103 So. 68, 20 Ala. App. 473, 1925 Ala. App. LEXIS 28, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ex-parte-state-ex-rel-shirley-alactapp-1925.