Jasnowski v. Connolly

163 N.W. 910, 197 Mich. 257, 1917 Mich. LEXIS 581
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 26, 1917
DocketCalendar No. 27,940
StatusPublished

This text of 163 N.W. 910 (Jasnowski v. Connolly) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jasnowski v. Connolly, 163 N.W. 910, 197 Mich. 257, 1917 Mich. LEXIS 581 (Mich. 1917).

Opinion

Stone, J.

On the 2d day of March, 1917, a resident of the city of Detroit filed in the recorder’s court of that city a petition requesting said court to enter an order calling a grand jury to sit in and for said court. On the day following an order was made by respondent directing the board of jury commissioners of Wayne county to file with the clerk of said court on or before the 8th day • of March, 1917, a list of 50 suitable persons from whom a grand jury in and for said recorder’s court should be selected. On said 8th day of March, the jury commission filed with the clerk of said court said list, as ordered by the said recorder; the drawing of the names from said list being at that time postponed.

On the 14th day of March, 1917, the relator filed with said recorder a motion praying that an order might be made vacating the order of March 3, 1917. After arguments, and on April 17, 1917, the respondent filed his decision overruling the motion of relator to vacate said original order, but amending his original order to the effect that he ordered the said jury commission to prepare a list of 150 qualified jurymen. instead of the 50 originally called for, and directing the said jury commission to draw from said list the names of 23 persons to serve as grand jurors in and for said court, which said persons were to be summoned to be and appear before the said recorder’s court on May 10, 1917, which was the date named for the sitting of said grand jury. Later an order [259]*259was made by the respondent extending the time for the calling of said grand jury, and setting the date whereon said grand jury should assemble for its first sitting as the 20th day of May, 1917.

In the meantime this petition for a writ of prohibition to prohibit the said respondent from taking any further action, or making any further order looking toward the calling of said grand jury in and for said recorder’s court was filed, and an order to show cause was granted. The proceeding 'was brought on the theory that there is no authority in law, either statutory or otherwise, for the calling of a grand jury by or for said recorder’s court, and that the only court in the county of Wayne having authority to call a grand jury is the circuit court in and for said county.

Without going into the history of the grand jury, which would be more interesting than profitable here, it is sufficient to say that in this country the manner of selecting and procuring the attendance of grand jurors is now wholly regulated by local statutes in the various States, Edwards on the Grand Jury, p. 47.

The relevant provisions of the general statute and the charter of the city of Detroit are as follows:

By Act No. 204, Pub. Acts of 1893, there was created a board of jury commissioners in the county of Wayne. This act has from time to time been amended in some of its provisions, but section 22 has remained unchanged. It provides as follows:

“Said board of jury commissioners shall, when ordered by the circuit court for the county of Wayne, make a list of suitable persons having the qualifications of petit jurors to serve as grand jurors. Such list shall contain one hundred and fifty names, and shall be made up from the county at large, without reference to any division into wards or townships; and when a grand jury shall be ordered to be drawn, the jury commissioners shall give the same notice and [260]*260take the same proceedings as is provided in the case of drawing petit jurors, for drawing the names of twenty-three persons from said list of grand jurors to serve as grand jurors, and the same shall be summoned and serve in like manner and with like pay as petit jurors.”

The present power of the recorder’s court is governed by the provisions of the charter of the city of Detroit of 1904, which at paragraph 290 provides:

“The said recorder’s court shall have original and exclusive jurisdiction of all prosecutions and proceedings in behalf of the people of this State for crimes, misdemeanors and offenses arising under the laws of this State, and committed within the corporate limits of the city of Detroit, except in cases cognizable by the police court of the city of Detroit or by the justices of the peace of said city; and shall have power to issue all lawful writs and process and to do all lawful acts which may be necessary and proper to carry into complete effect the powers and jurisdiction given by this act, and especially to issue all writs and process and to do all acts which the circuit courts of this State within their respective jurisdictions may in like cases issue and do by the laws of this State: Provided, That this section shall not be construed to prevent the grand jury for the county of Wayne from inquiring into and presenting indictments as heretofore, for crimes and offenses committed within the limits of said city.”

Paragraph 291 of said charter is as follows:

“All indictments for all offenses committed within the limits of the city of Detroit which may be found and presented to the circuit court for the county of Wayne by the grand jury of said county shall be forthwith certified and transmitted by the clerk of the said circuit court to said recorder’s court, and thereupon said recorder’s court shall have as full and complete jurisdiction of said indictments as if the same had been originally presented to said recorder’s court, and shall have full power to take all further proceedings thereon.”

[261]*261Paragraph 292 of the charter provides:

“Except as provided in the preceding section, prosecutions in the recorder’s court for crimes, misdemeanors and offenses arising under the laws of this ■ State, and within the jurisdiction of said court, shall be by-information, as provided for in chapter 261 of the Compiled Laws of 1871.”

Chapter 261 of the Compiled Laws of 1871, above referred to, is to be found at section 11933 and following of the Compiled Laws of 1897 (3 Comp. Laws 1915, § 15760 et seq.). Section 11934 provides:

“All informations shall be filed during term, in the court having jurisdiction of the offense specified-therein, by the prosecuting attorney of the proper county as informant; he shall subscribe his name thereto, and indorse thereon the names of the witnesses known to him at the time of the filing the same; and at such time before the trial of any case as the court may, by rule or otherwise, prescribe, he shall also indorse thereon the names of such other witnesses as shall be then known to him.”

It is therefore manifest that the only statutory methods whereby one may be prosecuted in the recorder’s court of the city of Detroit are the following:

(1) Upon an indictment returned by a grand jury sitting in the circuit court for the county of Wayne and duly certified and transmitted by the clerk of the circuit court to the recorder’s court.
(2) Upon an information signed by the prosecuting attorney of the county of Wayne, upon which shall be indorsed the names of witnesses known to him, and which shall be filed during term in the said recorder’s court.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

People ex rel. Robison v. Swift
59 Mich. 529 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1886)
Swift v. Judges of the Circuit Court
31 N.W. 434 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1887)
People v. Reigel
78 N.W. 1017 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1899)
Dickson v. Judge of Recorder's Court
99 N.W. 405 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1904)
Attorney General ex rel. Danhof v. Renihan
151 N.W. 324 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1915)
Murtha v. Lindsay
153 N.W. 245 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1915)
Civil Service Commission v. Engel
153 N.W. 358 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1915)
Dunham v. Tilma
158 N.W. 216 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1916)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
163 N.W. 910, 197 Mich. 257, 1917 Mich. LEXIS 581, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jasnowski-v-connolly-mich-1917.