In Re Raymo's Petition

154 A.2d 487, 121 Vt. 246, 1959 Vt. LEXIS 114
CourtSupreme Court of Vermont
DecidedSeptember 1, 1959
Docket729
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 154 A.2d 487 (In Re Raymo's Petition) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Vermont primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Raymo's Petition, 154 A.2d 487, 121 Vt. 246, 1959 Vt. LEXIS 114 (Vt. 1959).

Opinion

Barney, J.

The petitioner in this ease seeks a writ of prohibition from this Court to bar permanently further proceedings in a certain criminal action now pending before the Lamoille County Court. He is one of two respondents charged by information in that court with breaking and entering a dwelling house in the daytime with intent to commit larceny therein. At the arraignment petitioner stood mute, a plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf by the court, and upon the furnishing of bail he was set at liberty. While awaiting trial petitioner filed two motions which may be summarized as (1) a request to quash and suppress certain evidence alleged *248 to have been obtained by means of illegal searches and seizures made by a state trooper without a search warrant, and as (2) a request to have this same property restored to petitioner’s possession.

Upon hearing before the Lamoille County Court these motions were denied and the petitioner was granted exceptions. The petitioner then sought to have the court’s ruling passed to this Court for determination before trial. This request was denied by the court whereupon petitioner brought these proceedings.

The relief he seeks is to have this criminal complaint against him quashed, to have the goods and chattels involved returned to him, to have his bail discharged, and to be released himself. He also asks to have any and all evidence based on these goods and chattels suppressed with respect to any criminal proceedings which may be brought against him concerning these goods and chattels.

The petitioner states in his brief that the purpose of the writ here sought is to prevent the court below from denying him rights guaranteed under our Constitution.- He further states that the two constitutional questions involved relate to illegal search and seizure (Const. Chap. I, Art. 11) and self incrimination (Const. Chap. I, Art. 10).

The burden is on one who seeks prohibition to demonstrate the presence of the elements necessary to sustain the issuance of the writ. This requirement is not altered by the presence of a constitutional question in the case. Petition of Green Mountain Post, 116 Vt 256, 260, 73 A2d 309.

The writ does not lie to prevent errors or irregularities in judicial proceedings, if the matter is within the jurisdiction of the tribunal. Its function is to prevent the unlawful assumption of jurisdiction, either of the entire subject matter or of something collateral or incidental thereto, contrary to common law or statutory provisions. Leonard v. Willcox, 101 Vt 195, 203, 142 A 762; Bullard v. Thorpe, 66 Vt 599, 601, 30 A 36, 25 LRA 605. As a prerogative or extraordinary writ, it does not ordinarily he for grievances which may be redressed in the ordinary course of judicial proceedings by the remedies pro *249 vided by law, such as appeal, writ of error, writ of review, certiorari, motion for a change of venue, injunction or mandamus. Petition of Green Mountain Post, supra, 116 Vt at page 259. Prohibition proceedings do not pass upon exceptions saved at the trial below in the manner of an appeal, but rather, in appropriate cases, act as a means to an extraordinary remedy where the operation of usual appellate procedures are absent or do not give complete and adequate relief in the particular circumstances. Reed v. Allen, 121 Vt 202, 153 A2d 74. If the available relief by appeal or writ of error is not adequate in the sense that it is not plain, speedy and is not potentially productive of substantially the samé' relief afforded by the writ if granted, or if the public interest requires a settling of the question involved at the- earliest possible moment, it is within the discretion of this Court to grant the writ. Emerson v. Hughes, 117 Vt 270, 284, 90 A2d 910, 34 ALR2d 539; see also 42 Am Jur, Prohibition, §8, pp. 144-145. Prohibition enforces the same substantive law that is determinative in any of our judicial proceedings. Its function is to provide a means to the discovery and correction of errors or irregularities in judicial proceedings which would otherwise go unreviewed because they were outside the scope of regular appellate procedures.

The first and principal ground for relief through a writ of prohibition advanced in the petition before us may be summarized as follows: The refusal of the trial court to certify to this Court the constitutional questions raised by petitioner’s motions relating to illegal search and seizure and return of the property involved had the effect of denying petitioner the peotection of an adequate appeal, since effective protection of the petitioner’s constitutional rights required determination of these questions before trial and before the evidence in question was presented in court against him.

Under the provisions of 12 VSA §2428 the trial court has the discretionary power to pass to this Court for hearing and determination before final judgment exceptions taken to rulings below. Exercise of this discretion, authorized by statute, is obviously not an assumption of unauthorized judicial power. With the denial of this motion there still remained to petitioner *250 all of the regular appellate review of proper exceptions, including the exceptions granted on denial of petitioner’s motions.

The petitioner here interjects the argument that the doctrine set out in State v. Stacy, 104 Vt 379, 160 A 257, 747, has the effect of making his right of appellate review merely an empty formality without meaning or substance. The Court held in that case that the rule in this jurisdiction permitting illegally obtained evidence to be admitted in trial against a respondent does not contravene the provisions of Articles 10 and 11 of our Constitution. The fourth and fifth amendments to the federal Constitution were held to be operative solely upon the federal government and not restrictive of state powers. State v. Stacy, supra, 104 Vt at 401, 160 A at 266. The petitioner says that since such evidence will be admissible against him he must forestall that admission by resort to the writ of prohibition. Otherwise, he says, unless he gets an affirmative ruling on his motions when made, he will lose the benefit of his exceptions. This amounts to a contention that his rights are not protected by our appellate procedure. With this we cannot agree.

On analysis, it is apparent that the basic contention of the petitioner here is that the rule of law represented by the Stacy case infringes upon his constitutional rights. First, he seeks to invoke these constitutional guarantees to foreclose, permanently, prosecution for the crime with which he is charged because an officer of the law allegedly wronged him by an illegal search. This goes far beyond a mere challenge to the Stacy doctrine. The proposition here advanced is to have the blunder of a constable forever exempt the wrongdoer from prosecution for his crime. No right of a respondent so fundamental as to justify setting at naught the legislative enactments for the protection of society is jeopardized by our present rule.

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Bluebook (online)
154 A.2d 487, 121 Vt. 246, 1959 Vt. LEXIS 114, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-raymos-petition-vt-1959.