People v. Ervin

431 N.E.2d 453, 103 Ill. App. 3d 465, 59 Ill. Dec. 168, 1982 Ill. App. LEXIS 1395
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJanuary 29, 1982
DocketNo. 80-316
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 431 N.E.2d 453 (People v. Ervin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Ervin, 431 N.E.2d 453, 103 Ill. App. 3d 465, 59 Ill. Dec. 168, 1982 Ill. App. LEXIS 1395 (Ill. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

JUSTICE JONES

delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a bench trial defendant was convicted of aggravated incest and indecent liberties with a child (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 38, pars. 11—10 and 11—4). The court imposed a sentence of four years on the latter conviction; no sentence was imposed on the aggravated incest conviction. The court pronounced sentence on May 29, 1980, stating, in pertinent part:

“I am going to sentence you to the minimum 4 years in the penitentiary. Judgment will be entered on the sentence and mitimus [sic] will be ordered to issue instanter.
Judgment order should be prepared. It will set forth the credit. One other matter I have to advise you of, Mr. Ervin, you have a right to take an appeal and to preserve your right to appeal you must file with the Clerk of this court within 30 days of today’s date a written notice of appeal and that will perfect your right to take an appeal to the Appellate Court.”

The defendant, who was represented by counsel at the sentencing hearing, was admonished of his rights on appeal pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 605(a) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 110A, par. 605(a)). A formal written “judgment and sentence” was signed by the court, dated May 29, 1980, but not filed until June 3, 1980. No post-trial motion was filed after the May 29, 1980, sentencing hearing. On July 2, 1980, defendant’s pro se notice of appeal was filed. Neither the defendant nor his counsel requested in open court at the time he was advised of his right to appeal, or subsequently in writing, that he desired to file a notice of appeal (see Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 110A, par. 606(a)).

The threshold issue we must address is whether defendant’s notice of appeal was timely filed in order to confer jurisdiction upon this court. This, of course, depends on the date of “the entry of the final judgment appealed from” under Supreme Court Rule 606(b) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 110A, par. 606(b)).

Although Supreme Court Rule 606(b) requires that a notice of appeal in a criminal case be filed within 30 days after entry of the final judgment, or order disposing of a motion directed against the judgment, there is no provision in article VI of the Supreme Court Rules that denotes when a judgment is entered. However, in civil cases Supreme Court Rule 272 (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 110A, par. 272) provides some guidance. If at the time of announcing final judgment the court requires submission of a written judgment, the judgment becomes final when the signed judgment is filed. If no submission is required, the judgment is entered at the time it is “entered of record.”

In Scott v. Dreis & Krump Manufacturing Co. (1975), 26 Ill. App. 3d 971, 983, 326 N.E.2d 74, 82, the court observed that Supreme Court Rule 272 “does not explicitly fix the time at which a judgment is entered of record in circumstances where no written judgment order is requested by the court.” After examining the unique procedure followed in the County Department of the Cook County Circuit Court, the court held that the judgment was entered of record not with entry in the “minute book” of the trial court, but with the transcription of the minute book entry to the “Docket and the Law Record Book.” Further discussion of the application of Supreme Court Rule 272 to the labyrinth of idiosyncratic recordkeeping procedures peculiar to Cook County can be found in Berzana v. Mezyk (1980), 86 Ill. App. 3d 824, 408 N.E.2d 412. There the court held that a judgment entered in the circuit court’s “minute book,” but not upon the “half-sheet,” in the Municipal Department was “entered of record” for purposes of Supreme Court Rule 272. In In re Annexation to City of Darien (1973), 16 Ill. App. 3d 140, 144, 304 N.E.2d 769, 773, the court observed that “when an order is ‘entered’ it becomes of record in the case either as a written document placed in the file, or by being placed in the circuit court clerk’s docket book.” In Heritage Shelter Care Home, Inc. v. Miller (1975), 31 Ill. App. 3d 700, 334 N.E.2d 355, we held that a trial judge’s record-sheet entry was an entry of an “order” disposing of a motion for rehearing for purposes of determining when the 30-day period for appealing began to run under Supreme Court Rule 303(a).

In short, these cases reflect that under Supreme Court Rule 272, an order or judgment is not entered of record upon the oral pronouncement of the court, but rather a judgment is entered of record when a signed judgment is filed, if the court requires submission of a written judgment; or, if no written judgment or order is to be prepared, when it is noted (1) in the docket and law record book in the County Department or the minute book in the Municipal Department of the Cook County Circuit Court or (2) in the “Record Sheet” (commonly referred to as docket entry sheet) elsewhere. The administrative order of the Supreme Court on recordkeeping in the circuit courts provides that the record sheet is part of the basic court record (see sections 1001.3 and 5136).

Article VI of the Supreme Court Rules (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 110A, par. 601 et seq.) governing appeals in criminal cases does not have a provision similar to Supreme Court Rule 272. Neither does the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 38, par. 100—1 et seq.)

The final judgment in a criminal case is the sentence. (People v. Lilly (1974), 56 Ill. 2d 493, 309 N.E.2d 1; People v. Warship (1974), 59 Ill. 2d 125, 319 N.E.2d 507; People v. Allen (1978), 71 Ill. 2d 378, 375 N.E.2d 1283.) The precise issue we are presented with; then, is when is the final judgment or sentence in a criminal case “entered of record.”

In People v. Boston (1975), 27 Ill. App. 3d 246, 327 N.E.2d 40, the State appealed from a May 23, 1974, order granting defendants’ motions to dismiss various criminal charges. At the May 23 hearing the court granted the motions but stated a written order was to be prepared. Written orders were filed July 10 after the State filed notices of appeal on June 21. We held that the May 23 announcement did not constitute entry of that order. The orders were entered of record when they, were filed July 10. Thus, since the State filed its notices of appeal before entry of the orders, the appeal was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.

In People v. Allen (1977), 49 Ill. App. 3d 108, 363 N.E.2d 892, we held that the oral pronouncement of sentence, at which time the court indicated that a written order was to be prepared, was not entry of the final judgment. The 30-day period under Supreme Court Rule 606(b) for filing a notice of appeal did not begin to run until the written order was subsequently filed, i.e., the judgment was entered of record.

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451 N.E.2d 1364 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1983)

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Bluebook (online)
431 N.E.2d 453, 103 Ill. App. 3d 465, 59 Ill. Dec. 168, 1982 Ill. App. LEXIS 1395, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-ervin-illappct-1982.