Hoffman v. People

212 P. 848, 72 Colo. 552, 1923 Colo. LEXIS 271
Supreme Court of Colorado·Decided February 5, 1923·No. No. 10,401·Published·Cited by 24 cases

Opinion

Mr. Justice Campbell

delivered the opinion of the court.

The defendants were convicted under an information charging them with manufacturing for sale and gift intoxicating liquors. Each of them was sentenced to pay a fine of $300.00. Of the numerous errors assigned only four are argued, and these only are determined.

1. It is said that the jury which tried the case was, over defendants’ objection, unlawfully impaneled. Six days before the time set for trial, counsel for defendants, to whom, at his request, the clerk had, as our statute requires, furnished the list of the regular jury panel summoned for the term, said to the court'that if, because of its depletion, which then was apparent by reason of the failure to serve some jurors, and the order of the court excusing others, it became necessary to issue an open venire to supplement the regular panel, he would object to the service of the same by the sheriff and his deputies on the ground of disqualification, these officers being witnesses for the State and against the defendants. Whereupon the court asked if there were any objections to Mr. Watson, the court bailiff, serving thát venire, to which question defendants’ counsel said that there would be no objection. In other words, the defendants consented that Watson might serve it. During the time between this colloquy and the trial day, several open venires were issued and directed to the sheriff, some of which were served by that officer, and some by Watson. On the trial day, and after the case was called and the jurors, including about six brought in by these open venires, were ordered into the jury box, and before they were sworn, the objection was made by defendants to these [554] open venire jurors on the ground that they were unlawfully summoned by the sheriff and Watson and not by the coroner on whom the statute devolves the power when the sheriff is properly disqualified.

It is said in defendants’ brief, and it seems to be true, that it was not until the jurors were directed to take their seats in the box, that their counsel discovered, from the list which the clerk had previously given him, that about six of them were not on the regular panel, but had been thus summoned by open venire. It was at this juncture, and not before, that a disqualifying affidavit on the ground stated was made by one of the defendants and filed with the clerk. The contention is, in light of the foregoing that the court grievously erred in overruling defendants’ motion to disqualify the sheriff and to substitute the coroner. If the facts were as defendants wrongly assume them to be, the denial might have been error. There is in the record what purports to be an order overruling in its entirety the motion. A supplementary certificate of the clerk, and one by the trial judge incorporated in the record, show that the entry of the order was the result of a mistake by the clerk, he supposing that the court had actually made it. Both supplementary certificates, however, show that the court, in denying the motion, specifically restricted application of the order to the venires previously issued and served, but as to any further open venires that might be issued, the process would run to the coroner and not to the sheriff. This ruling was upon the ground that jurors already brought in by open venires served by the sheriff, or by a person agreed upon by the parties, were not subject to the disqualifying affidavit which was not made until after the jurors alleged to have been improperly served were in the box.

For several reasons we think there was no error in this ruling. Section 1299 R. S. 1908, provides that when a party makes and files with the clerk an affidavit stating that he believes that the sheriff will not by reason of partiality, prejudice, consanguinity or interest, faithfully [555] perform his duties in any suit commenced or about to be commenced, the clerk shall direct all process therein to the coroner, who shall execute the same in like manner as the sheriff might have done. The very words of the statute suggest that the disqualifying affidavit should be made promptly. It may be made even before the suit is commenced. It should be made at the earliest practicable opportunity, certainly before an open venire is issued and served, if, as was the case here, the party then knew of the disqualification. In no event may a sheriff be set aside as disqualified, unless and until, such an affidavit is made and filed with the clerk. After such an affidavit is filed, and not before, the sheriff is disqualified. The statute is mandatory. Litch v. People, 19 Colo. App. 433, 75 Pac. 1083; General Film Co. v. McAfee, 58 Colo. 344, 145 Pac. 707; Kelliher v. People, 71 Colo. 202, 205 Pac. 274. It is, however, not self-executing. It is not set'in motion until the prescribed affidavit is made. The syllabus of the Kelliher case in the Pacific Reporter supra correctly states the pith of Judge Allen’s opinion in this language: “It was error, in view of the mandatory character of the statute, to permit the sheriff to serve process after accused had filed an affidavit of partiality.” In Peck v. Farnham, 24 Colo. 141, 49 Pac. 364, one of the errors assigned was that the court denied the application of the defendants that the special venire issued for jurors be served by the coroner. One of the reasons for holding the order not erroneous was, that the affidavit in support of the defendant’s application to set aside the sheriff, was not made until after the venire was served by him. It is not decisive of this assignment, but it is pertinent further to observe that no complaint is made that any of the jurors summoned upon open venire were objectionable, and the defendants did not exercise all of their peremptory challenges.

Even if the disqualifying application had seasonably been made, it is doubtful if it operated as such. In the motion for a new trial, the objection to the sheriff was said [556] to be the fact that he and his deputies were witnesses for the State. It has been decided that this fact does not bring the case within the principle of a disqualifying statute like ours. 24 Cyc. p. 227; People v. Lowhone, 296 Ill. 391, 402, 129 N. E. 781; People v. Ponsford, 181 Mich. 659, 148 N. W. 236; State v. Jeffries, 210 Mo. 302, 323, 109 S. W. 614, 14 Ann. Cas. 524; Jackson v. State, 167 Ala. 44, 55, 52 So. 835.

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Hoffman v. People, 212 P. 848, 72 Colo. 552, 1923 Colo. LEXIS 271 (Colo. 1923).

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