Morse v. State

47 S.W. 645, 39 Tex. Crim. 566, 1898 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 179
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 2, 1898
DocketNo. 1762.
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 47 S.W. 645 (Morse v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Morse v. State, 47 S.W. 645, 39 Tex. Crim. 566, 1898 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 179 (Tex. 1898).

Opinions

HEhTDERSOH, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment final on a forfeited bail bond, the appeal being prosecuted by Mrs. Rosa Morse, ope of the sureties on said appeal bond.

At the Austin term of this court, a motion was filed by the Assistant Attorney-General to dismiss this appeal, because no brief of appellant was filed in the court below, as required by law. In answer to that motion, appellant brings before this court the certificate of the clerk, showing that a copy of her brief was filed in said court within the time authorized by law.

What purports to be a statement of facts is not certified as such by the judge. It is merely signed by him, without any certificate whatever. The rule is that, if the parties agree to a statement of facts, the judge shall certify to same as a correct statement of facts. If they do not agree, the statute requires that the judge shall make up a statement of facts, and properly certify to same. And it has been held, following the statute on this subject, that, unless the statement of facts is certified in one or the other of these modes, it will not be considered. See Hess v. State, 30 Texas Crim. App., 478; Wilson v. State, 34 Texas Crim. Rep., 355. There being no proper certificate and approval by the county judge, we can not consider the purported statement of facts as a part of the record in this cause.

There is also lacking in the record a notice of appeal given in open court at the term, as required by law. There is an attempt to remedy this, however, by an order nunc pro tunc, which was made at a subsequent term. This order was made over the objections of the county attorney, who reserved a bill of exceptions to said order entering the notice of appeal nunc pro tunc; the grounds of his objections being that the entry of *568 the order in the final minutes of the court could not be made after the term, and after filing an appeal bond; that, after the elapsing of the term and the filing of the appeal bond, the court below had no further jurisdiction. Under the rulings of this court, the entry of the order nunc pro tunc of notice of appeal at a subsequent term was without authority of law, and did not confer jurisdiction on this court to hear and entertain said appeal. See Lewis v. State, 34 Texas Crim. Rep., 126; Quarles v. State, 37 Texas Crim. Rep., 363; Youngman v. State, 38 Texas Crim. Rep., 459; Perryman v. State, post, p. -. The appeal is accordingly dismissed.

Dismissed.

Hurt, Presiding Judge, absent.

After the above opinion was delivered dismissing the appeal, appellant filed a motion for rehearing based upon the following grounds:

First. The court erred in holding that the statement of facts was not certified to by the trial judge, but signed by him without a certificate. (The said statement of facts begins as follows: “Be it known, that the following is a correct statement of all the facts proved upon the trial of this cause.” Then follows the facts and the signature “F. Theo. Barnes, County Judge, presiding.”)

Second. The court has erred in holding that the notice of appeal could not be entered nunc pro tunc in this cause after filing of appeal bond and before filing transcript in the appellate court, this being a cause governed by the civil statutes and rules, and not by the criminal law.

Graves & Bell, for the motion.—The court dismissed the appeal in this cause on the 2d day of November, 1898, on the ground that notice of appeal was entered by the trial court nunc pro tune after the appeal bond had been given by appellant. The court in dismissing the appeal cite a number of authorities holding that after the appeal is perfected no further proceeding can be had in the cause in the trial court. All of the cases cited by the court are on appeals from criminal convictions, and are evidently based upon the Code of Criminal Procedure, article 884, which provides that the effect of an appeal is to suspend and arrest all further proceedings in the court in which the conviction was had until the judgment of the appellate court is received. No such provision is to be found in the Civil Statutes, and the decisions of the Supreme Court are so at variance with the doctrine announced by the Court of Criminal Appeals, that we are confident that the latter court was governed bjr said article 88-4, Code of Criminal Procedure, in this ruling as to the right of the trial court to. correct or amend its judgments pending appeals.

The cause at bar being a suit upon a forfeited bail bond which our statute, Code of Criminal Procedure, article 485, provides, “shall be governed by the same rules governing other civil actions,” we assume *569 that the Civil Statutes and decisions thereunder will be regarded by the coiirt in disposing of this motion and determining the disposition of this cause.

Our Civil Statutes, articles 1356 and 1357, provide for amending and correcting judgments, while the Code of Criminal Procedure provides only for substitution of lost or destroyed portions of the record. This power to correct or amend a judgment pending appeal, it is said by the Supreme Court, “does not rest upon a continued jurisdiction over the subject matter, but upon the trial court’s continued control of its own records.” See Blum v. Nelson, 59 Texas, 378. In this cause the appellant contended that an order granting ten days to file a statement of facts could not be entered at a subsequent term nunc pro tunc after appeal was perfected. In that case the trial court amended the record at a subsequent term after appeal, and Judge Willie, rendering the opinion, says: “It has always been the practice in our State, as well as in others, to allow corrections of judgment records to be made at a term subsequent to that at which they have been entered.” This has been followed and cited in Hicks v. Behrens, 75 Texas, 378; also Pollard v. Chestnutt, 77 Texas, 87. In the latter ease Chief Justice Gaines says: “It is true that after an appeal has been perfected the district court has no further jurisdiction in the cause until it has been remanded, but a court has authority upon proper proof to correct its minutes at any time so as to make them present a faithful record of its action.”

In Cowen v. Ross, 28 Texas, 228, an order was entered nunc pro tune at a subsequent term, and after writ of error was perfected the Supreme Court affirmed the action of the trial court.

The 'following authorities are relied upon for authority to amend nunc pro tunc, as was done in the ease at bar: De Hymel v. Mortgage Co., 80 Texas, 493; Nelson v. Blum, 59 Texas, 357; Hickey v. Bechress, 75 Texas, 378; Pollard v. Chestnutt, 77 Texas, 87; Ximines v. Ximines, 43 Texas, 463, and authorities cited in said decisions.

The only other question arising out of this amendment of judgment is as to the evidence upon which such amendment can be made. It appears to be the rule that in amending under either article of the statutes, it shall be upon the remembrance of the trial judge or from some written memoranda.

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Bluebook (online)
47 S.W. 645, 39 Tex. Crim. 566, 1898 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 179, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morse-v-state-texcrimapp-1898.