In re Receivership of Wisser & Gabler

214 N.E.2d 92, 5 Ohio St. 2d 89, 34 Ohio Op. 2d 217, 1966 Ohio LEXIS 392
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 9, 1966
DocketNo. 39458
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 214 N.E.2d 92 (In re Receivership of Wisser & Gabler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Receivership of Wisser & Gabler, 214 N.E.2d 92, 5 Ohio St. 2d 89, 34 Ohio Op. 2d 217, 1966 Ohio LEXIS 392 (Ohio 1966).

Opinion

Wasserman, J.

Sections 2501.02 and 2505.21, Bevised Code, are the sections of our Code which vest the Courts of Appeals in Ohio with jurisdiction to hear appeals on questions of law and fact.

Section 2501.02, Bevised Code, reads in part as follows:

* * ln addition to the original jurisdiction conferred by Section 6 of Article IV, Ohio Constitution, the court shall have jurisdiction:

“(A) Upon an appeal upon questions of law to review, affirm, modify, set aside or reverse judgments or final orders of courts of record inferior to the Court of Appeals within the district, including the finding, order or judgment of a Juvenile Court that a child is delinquent, neglected or dependent, for prejudicial error committed by such lower court;

“(B) Upon an appeal on questions of law and fact the Court of Appeals, in cases arising in courts of record inferior to the Court of Appeals within the district, shall weigh the evidence and render such judgment or decree as the trial court could and should have rendered upon the original trial of the case, in the following classes of actions, seeking as a primary and paramount relief:

“* * [Ten classes of actions, all equitable in nature, [92]*92are then listed from which an appeal on questions of law and fact may be taken.] ”

Section 2505.21, Revised Code, reads in part as follows :

“An appeal taken on questions of law and fact entitles the party to a hearing and determination of the facts de novo which shall be upon the same or amended pleadings. The court shall review the final order, judgment or decree upon such part of the record made in the trial court as any party may present to the court and such additional evidence as upon application in the interest of justice the court may authorize to be taken, such evidence to be presented in the maimer and form prescribed by the court.”

The 1944 amendment to Section 6, Article IV of the Ohio Constitution, under which the above statutes were passed, reads in part:

‘ ‘ The Courts of Appeals shall have # * * such jurisdiction as may be provided by law to review, affirm, modify, set aside, or reverse judgments or final orders * *

Ever since the statutes in question were made a part of Ohio law, a continuing argument has existed as to their validity and constitutionality.

We are now asked to determine whether Sections 2501.02 and 2505.21, Revised Code, are constitutional enactments of the General Assembly. A complete reiteration of the historical development of Section 6, Article IV of the Ohio Constitution, including the various amendments and proposed changes, would serve no purpose here. A detailed and enlightening discussion of such developments is in Weiss v. Kearns, 117 Ohio App. 393.

The argument against constitutionality of the statutes in question rests on a historical analysis of the words, “review, affirm, modify, set aside or reverse.” It is argued that these words as used prior to the 1944 amendment to our Constitution refer only to “error proceedings,” i. e., appeals on questions of law. See Skeel’s Ohio Appellate Law, 1964 Cumulative Service 24 et seq., Section 200-1; also, Some Aspects of Appellate Procedure in Ohio, 12 Western Reserve Law Review 645.

It is elementary that a statute must be accorded the presumption of constitutionality. With this thought foremost in mind, we will proceed,

[93]*93In the last analysis, the question now before ns must be decided according to what was logically intended by those responsible for the drafting and passage of the amendment in question. As to what was actually intended we cannot say without reservation. Any holding by this court after some 21 years have elapsed since the inception of the amendment of 1944 must necessarily be founded on subjective reasoning.

In 1946, this court, speaking through Chief Justice Weygandt, had this to say about the 1944 amendment with which we are concerned:

“It is the contention of the defendants that the effect of this amendment is to abolish completely the jurisdiction of the Courts of Appeals except as to the enumerated original actions, and that those courts will have no appellate jurisdiction unless and until provision therefor is made by legislative enactment by the General Assembly of Ohio.

“To so construe the amendment would imply an intention on the part of its proponents to precipitate chaos in the appellate courts of this state at a time when there could be no relief therefrom unless the General Assembly might see fit to take action. There would be no possibility of taking a case from the trial court to either the Court of Appeals or this court. It seems highly improbable that so fantastic a result was intended; and a careful study of the amendment in its entirety, as there must be, so discloses. The expressed intention is to accomplish the simple result of empowering the General Assembly to change the appellate jurisdiction of the Courts of Appeals if it should desire so to do; and unless and until there is such legislative action, the appellate jurisdiction of the Courts of Appeals remains as it was at the time the amendment was adopted. Apparently this was the construction likewise placed upon this language by the General Assembly itself when by its joint resolution it submitted the amendment to the people more than two years ago, because no legislative action has been taken in the meantime with reference thereto. Then, too, the sponsors of the amendment issued a statement to the people explaining, as quoted in the briefs, that ‘this amendment does not eliminate the trial de novo.’ ” Youngstown Municipal Ry. Co. v. City of Youngstown, 147 Ohio St. 221. See, also, Schotten[94]*94stein v. Newburger, 148 Ohio St. 71; Westerhaus v. City of Cincinnati, 165 Ohio St. 327; Price v. McCoy Sales & Service, Inc., 2 Ohio St. 2d 131.

The decision in the Youngstown Railway case, supra, is not determinative of the case at bar. The case did not hold, ipso facto, that the Court of Appeals had retained jurisdiction of appeals on questions of law and fact. Neither did it hold that the Court of Appeals had lost that jurisdiction.

It is the hope of this court that what was intended by the proponents of the amendment has become a realization. The best expression of these intentions and realizations is suggested in Weiss v. Kearns, supra, when the Court of Appeals for Cuyahoga County said, at page 409:

“The statutes enacted by the General Assembly strike at the very heart of the unsatisfactory conditions that prevailed in law and fact appeals by providing that the cause in the Court of Appeals be tried on the record made in the trial court and that only such additional evidence as may be authorized by the Court of Appeals in the interest of justice may be produced in that court. These sections make a trial with witnesses testifying on the appeal impossible and require that the parties in an appeal on questions of law and fact have a full and complete trial in the original forum intended for such proceedings. Moreover, they provide for a ‘review’ with power to ‘weigh the evidence and render such judgment or decree as the trial court could and should have rendered upon the original trial of the case * * *’

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Bluebook (online)
214 N.E.2d 92, 5 Ohio St. 2d 89, 34 Ohio Op. 2d 217, 1966 Ohio LEXIS 392, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-receivership-of-wisser-gabler-ohio-1966.