Pinkstaff v. State

1925 OK 785, 240 P. 107, 112 Okla. 91, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 548
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 29, 1925
Docket15823
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 1925 OK 785 (Pinkstaff v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pinkstaff v. State, 1925 OK 785, 240 P. 107, 112 Okla. 91, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 548 (Okla. 1925).

Opinion

Opinion by

THOMPSON, C.

This action is a bastardy proceeding instituted in the county court of Noble county by the county attorney of said county in the name of the state of Oklahoma, defendant in error, as plaintiff below, against Dock Pinkstaff, plaintiff in er.ror, defendant below. The parties will be referred to in this opinion as plaintiff and defendant, as they appeared in the lower court.

The information was filed on the 21st day of June, 1923, and is as follows:

“Comes now Joe W. Howard, county attorney in and for the state and county aforesaid, and in the name and by the authority of the state of Oklahoma, gives the court to know and be informed that one Dock Pinkstaff, late of the county of Noble and state of Oklahoma, on oe about the 17th day of April, 1923, at and within the said county and state, did then and there become the father of an illegitimate baby boy, born on said date to Lavona Bruce, a single woman in said county and state, and of which said child said Dock Pinkstaff was the father, and that the said child was not born of lawful wedlock, and that the said *92 Dock Pinkstaff and the said Lavona' Bruce were not then and there husband and wife, and never had been such at any time.
“And so your complainant does say that on April 17, 1923, and from day to day and including this 19th day of June, 1923, said Dock Pinkstaff is and has been the father of said child, born in Noble county, Okla., as aforesaid.”

To this information the defendant filed his demurrer, which is as follows:

“ (1) That said information does not state facts sufficient to constitute a public offense against this defendant.
“ (2) That said information does not comply with the Code of Criminal Procedure of the state of Oklahoma, which requires that the charge be made in simple and concise language, such that an ordinary person may know and understand the meaning and intent thereof.
(3) That said information does not state facts sufficient to constitute the offense therein sought to be charged, to wit, the offense of bastardy.
“(4) That said information m duplicitous in that it states more than one offense in the same count.”

The trial court overruled the demurrer of the defendant, which was excepted to by the defendant. Thereupon, the defendant entered his plea of not guilty. The cause came on for trial before the trial court and jury, and before any evidence was introduced, the defendant objected to the introduction of any evidence in the cause on. the ground find for the reason that the information did not state facts sufficient to confer jurisdiction upon the court to render judgment against the defendant, which objection was overruled and defendant excepted. At the close of the testimony on part of the plaintiff, the defendant demurred to the sufficiency of the evidence in that it did not state facts sufficient to confer jurisdiction upon the court, and upon the further ground that the said information and evidence introduced did not prove facts sufficient to establish a case against the defendant. The plaintiff then moved to amend the information by inter-lineation by inserting the following words:

“That the said Lavona Bruce was on the date of the birth of said child and has been since a resident of Noble county, state of Oklahoma”

—which offer of amen'dlment was objected! to by the defendant as follows:

“The defendant objects to the allowance of said amendment on the ground and for the reason that the case has been tried to the jury and the state has rested its cause and submitted it to the jury; and the court is without authority in law to permit an amendment or confer jurisdiction at this time; and that said defect and said information was challenged by demurrers and by objections to the statement of counsel to the jury, and the information by objection to the introduction of evidence, at all of which times the said objections were overruled; and) that to permit said amendment at this time is prejudicial to the rights of the defendant as a matter of surprise against which ordinary prudence could not have guarded. Objection is by the court overruled, and the plaintiff is granted permission to amend the information at this time as requested by in-terlineation. To all of which the defendant objects and excepts, which exception is allowed by the court.”

The record further shows that the offer made by plaintiff to introduce evidence that the residence of Lavona Bruce at the time of the birth of her child was in Noble county, state of Oklahoma, was objected to by the attorneys for the defendant, objections overruled, and exceptions reserved by the at-, torneys. At the close of all the testimony in the case, the court instructed the jury, and after argument heard, the jury returned into court its verdict finding the defendant guilty as charged. Motion for new trial was filed, heard, and overruled, and exceptions saved by the defendant, and the court rendered judgment upon the verdict of the jury that the defendant was guilty, as charged. añd that he be adjudged to pay the sum of $1,000 for the maintenance of the child in the amount of $25 per month, at the first of each month, until the whole amount was .paid, and to give sufficient bond in the stun of $1,000, conditioned for the payment of the amount of said judgment, and that he pay the cost of the suit, to which judgment of the court the defendant excepted, and the cause comes regularly upon appeal to this court from said judgment.

Attorneys for plaintiff filed motion to dismiss the appeal, which motion has been disposed of by this court on petition for rehearing adversely to the plaintiff, and the cause comes now to be decided upon the petition in error. The first ground relied upon by the attorneys for defendant is that:

“In an action sought to be brought under article 3, e. 13, Comp. Laws 1909 (article 3, c. 70, Comp. Stats. 1921), against the father of an illegitimate child for bastardy, the fact of the residence of the mother of such child is jurisdictional, and a complaint which fails to state that the mother of such child is a resident of the county in which the action is brought is not sufficient to constitute a cause of action.”

*93 It is urged by attorneys for defendant in their brief, that this defect could not be cured by amendment after a demurrer bad been filed by defendant to the sufficiency of the information, and an objection made to the introduction of any testimony upon the information, and objection to the introduction of any testimony upon the Question of the residence of Lavona Bruce, and after a demurrer to the sufficiency of the evidence had been interposed 'by defendant at the close of plaintiff’s testimony, which demurrer and all of said objections had been overruled by the court and exceptions saved thereto, and that the offer of the amendment came tooi late, and that the demurrers and objections of the defendant should 'have been sustained by the court at the time they were entered, and that the court could not cure its previous errors by allowing the amendment.

This action was brought under section 8050, Cdrnp. St. 1921, te ihicb is as follows:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1925 OK 785, 240 P. 107, 112 Okla. 91, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 548, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pinkstaff-v-state-okla-1925.