People v. Lee

78 N.E.2d 822, 334 Ill. App. 158, 1948 Ill. App. LEXIS 300
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMarch 12, 1948
DocketGen. No. 9,569
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 78 N.E.2d 822 (People v. Lee) 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. Lee, 78 N.E.2d 822, 334 Ill. App. 158, 1948 Ill. App. LEXIS 300 (Ill. Ct. App. 1948).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Justice Wheat

delivered the opinion of the court.

This case concerns a criminal action against Floyd Lee, plaintiff in error herein, brought in a justice court on a complaint charging that Lee, ‘ on the 26th day of October, A. D., 1946, unlawfully did then and there conduct himself in a disorderly manner by making improper advances toward one Mildred Cline upon a public place of the City of Decatur.” Upon arraignment before the justice, Lee pleaded guilty, judgment was entered against him, and he was fined $200, which he paid. The fifth day thereafter Lee filed an appeal bond with the justice of the peace, who approved the bond, granted the appeal," and filed the transcript of appeal with the clerk of the county court of Macon county, who docketed the cause. Lee then filed a motion in the county court asking that the warrant against him be quashed and the complaint dismissed because of insufficiency of the complaint. Thereafter the state’s attorney filed a motion in the county court asking that the appeal be dismissed because the justice of the peace had no jurisdiction to grant an appeal and because the appeal fees had not been paid, which motion the county court allowed and entered an order dismissing the appeal. This writ of error follows.

The record on review before this court sets out in full the state’s attorney’s motion to dismiss the appeal from the justice court and the county court’s order thereon, together with judgment order dismissing the appeal. The entire record on review is certified to by the clerk of the county court as true and correct. No part thereof, however, has been authenticated or certified to by the county judge, as a bill of exceptions or certificate of evidence.

Defendant in error contends that there is, therefore, no question properly before this court for review because motions to dismiss, and rulings thereon, are not and cannot be made a part of the common-law record by being copied therein, but must be incorporated in the record in a bill of exceptions, and if they are not so incorporated, the reviewing court on writ of error cannot pass upon any question in connection with the motion or the rule.

Defendant in error’s citation of authority in support of this position includes the following decisions indicating the distinction between the common-law record and the bill of exceptions, as developed prior to the enactment of the Civil Practice Act: People v. Ellsworth, 261 Ill. 275 (1914); People v. Ritscher, 301 Ill. 40 (1922); and People v. Street, 353 Ill. 60 (1933).

Subsequent decisions of the Supreme Court in People v. Zaransky, 362 Ill. 76 (1935); People v. Buckman, 357 Ill. 407 (1935); People v. Reese, 355 Ill. 562 (1934); People v. Yetter, 386 Ill. 594 (1944); and People v. Lantz, 387 Ill. 72 (1945), also relied on by defendant in error, appear to extend and reaffirm this body of law despite the advent of the Civil Practice Act which provides that (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1945, ch. 110, par. 198, subpar. 2 [Jones Ill. Stats. Ann. 104.074, subpar. 2]) and despite the 1938 amendment to the Criminal Code which provides that

“all distinctions between the common law record (and) the bill of exceptions . . . for the purpose of' determining what is properly before the reviewing court are hereby abolished . . . (and that) all matters in the trial court record actually before the court on appeal may be considered by the court for all purposes; ’ ’
“ ... proceedings for review of criminal cases . . . shall be the same as in civil cases.”

(Ill. Rev. Stat. 1945, ch. 38, par. 780¼ [Jones Ill. Stats. Ann. 37.802]).

"In the following Supreme Court cases, the court appears to have further extended and reaffirmed the preCivil Practice Act doctrine contended for by defendant in error:

People v. Yetter, 386 Ill. 594 (1944);
People v. Lantz, 387 Ill. 72 (1944);
People v. Justat, 389 Ill. 138 (1945);
People v. Corrie, 387 Ill. 587 (1944);
People v. Johns, 388 Ill. 212 (1944);
People v. Nelson, 390 Ill. 47 (1945);
People v. Pond, 390 Ill. 237 (1945);
People v. Kobley, 390 Ill. 565 (1945);
People v. Richardson, 391 Ill. 523 (1945);
People v. Carter, 391 Ill. 594 (1945);
People v. Jensen, 392 Ill. 72 (1945);
People v. Montville, 393 Ill. 590 (1946);
People v. Wells, 393 Ill. 626 (1946);
People v. Adams, 393 Ill. 308 (1946);
People v. Foster, 394 Ill. 194 (1946);
People v. Klien, 395 Ill. 449 (1947);
People v. Washington, 396 Ill. 30 (1947);
People v. Ritcheson, 396 Ill. 146 (1947);
People v. Laughery, 396 Ill. 213 (1947);
People v. Kemp, 396 Ill. 578 (1947).

In" each of these cases the plaintiff in error unsuccessfully sought review of a ruling on motion for a new trial, alleging as grounds in support of the motion, insufficiency of evidence to support the verdict, incompetence of counsel, improper instructions, improper conduct of the trial court and state’s attorney, and lack of due process resulting from various irregularities in the trial procedure. It is noted that in each case review was sought on the common-law record alone and that these questions sought to be reviewed concern for the most part factual matters which occurred during trial, and that no issue was made as to the applicability and interpretation of those provisions of the Civil Practice Act now being considered.

These matters, by their nature, would ordinarily appear in a report of proceedings only and would not be adequately presented for consideration by a reviewing court having before it only that part of the record which under former practice constituted the ‘ ‘ common law record.” As a result, it appears that the decisions in these cases would probably have been the same had the above provisions of the Civil Practice Act and Criminal Code been an issue before the Supreme Court, because the questions sought to be raised were not sufficiently presented by the record on review to enable the reviewing court to make an intelligent inquiry into them. It would seem, therefore, that pronouncements in these cases to the effect that “motions and the court’s rulings thereon can be preserved for review only by being included in bills of exceptions” (e.g., People v. Jensen, 392 Ill. 72 (1945) ) are excessively broad for strict accuracy and that they constiute dicta to the extent that they are unnecessary to support these decisions.

Furthermore, there is indication that some “movement” has occurred in the meaning of the language used in these decisions.

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Bluebook (online)
78 N.E.2d 822, 334 Ill. App. 158, 1948 Ill. App. LEXIS 300, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-lee-illappct-1948.