Smith v. McDuffee

142 P. 558, 72 Or. 276, 1914 Ore. LEXIS 29
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJune 9, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 142 P. 558 (Smith v. McDuffee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. McDuffee, 142 P. 558, 72 Or. 276, 1914 Ore. LEXIS 29 (Or. 1914).

Opinions

Mr. Justice Moore

delivered the opinion of the court.

It is contended that, in receiving in evidence, over objection and exception, the affidavit for a search-warrant, the process issued pursuant thereto, and the excerpt from the justice’s docket, copies of which, as hereinbefore displayed, were substituted in the bill of exceptions, errors were committed. These questions [281]*281will be considered only in so far as they are involved in tbe remaining inquiry, to wit: An exception having been taken to a part of the court’s charge, it is insisted that an error was committed in telling the jury:

“I further instruct you that the defendant Andrew Edling, was a duly appointed officer to execute the search-warrant issued by William W. McDuffiee, justice of the peace in district No. 6 of this county and state, and that the search-warrant in this case was regular upon its face; that an officer acting under a writ which is regular upon its face,, as the search-warrant was in this case, is justified in following the command of such writ, regardless of whether the same was caused to be issued without probable cause, maliciously or otherwise.”

1. The latter exception presents for consideration the questions: Was Edling a duly appointed special constable? Did the process conform to prescribed rule? A justice of the peace is authorized to appoint some suitable person, not a party, to serve any process or order issued from his court when it appears to him that such service could not be made for want of an officer: Section 2518, L. O. L. The defendant Mc-Duffiee, as a witness, having identified the affidavit, search-warrant and the docket entry, was asked, in referring thereto on cross-examination: “You have now produced in court and offered in evidence all the record that you have or made at the time with reference to this search-warrant; is thai right?” He replied: “Yes, sir; that’s right.” It will thus be seen that Edling’s appointment was not evidenced by any writing, indorsed on the writ or otherwise, and that no finding was made, as in the case of North Pacific Cycle Co. v. Thomas, 26 Or. 381 (38 Pac. 307, 46 Am. St. Rep. 636), that it appeared to the justice that the [282]*282search-warrant could not be served for want of an officer.

The defendant Edling testified that McDuffee requested him to take the search-warrant and execute it, which he promised to do, whereupon the justice administered to him an oath of office. The presumption that official duty has been regularly performed was overcome by the testimony referred to. No evidence having been offered at the trial that the search-warrant could not have been served for want of an officer, the justice, whose power in this regard is limited by the enactment adverted to, was without authority to nominate Edling, and, this being so, he was not, as said by the court “a duly appointed officer.”

A clause of the Bill of Rights reads :

“No 'law shall violate the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable search or seizure; and no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or thing to be seized”: Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution.

A search-warrant may be issued by a justice of the peace directed to a peace officer commanding him to search for personal property at any place within his county: Section 1852, L. O. L. Such process may be issued when the property has been stolen: Section 1853, L. O. L. The statute also prescribes the form of the warrant: Section 1856, L. O. L. Such form, however, was not followed in the case at bar.

2. It will be remembered that the warrant herein did not state that any of Von Behren’s cattle had been stolen. The person in whom was vested the title to the cattle that had been “missed” from the public range is even left in doubt, though possibly the com[283]*283plainant’s ownership thereof may be inferred from a subsequent clause of the process to the effect that he believed “that his animals or animal had been butchered and that the beef, hides, etc., may be found on the premises of D. G. Smith.” It will be kept in mind that the affidavit charges “that D. G. Smith has now beef in his or his family’s possession; and, 3d, that I, Wm. Von Behren, believe his animals or animal has been butchered,” etc. The statute declares that a witness in all affidavits must be made to speak in the first person: Section 829, L. O. L. Construing the affidavit herein according to the rule thus prescribed, it will be observed from the pronoun “his” following the word “Von Behren” that the complainant believed Smith had butchered his own animals, and, when so read in connection with Von Behren’s sworn declaration that he had only “missed” cattle from the public range, the affidavit does not charge the commission of any offense known to the law. It will be noticed, however, that the search-warrant is broader than the affidavit in this respect.

3. The most serious objection to the writ, however, is its failure to comply with the requirements of the Constitution hereinbefore quoted, in that it does not particularly or at all describe any tract of land ox-buildings, or specify the process was to be executed in Grant County, Oregon. In an extended note to the case of Rose v. State, 17 Ann. Cas. 228, 232, in discussing the sufficiency of a description of the premises in a search-warrant or an affidavit therefor, it is said:

“The rule, however, has been laid down that a search-warrant must contain as specific a description of the place to be searched as would be required in an instrument conveying a specific piece of real estate.”

[284]*284To the same effect, see People v. Holcomb, 3 Park. Cr. R. (N. Y.) 656, 666; Commonwealth v. Intoxicating Liquors, 97 Mass. 334. In construing the language of deeds or other -writings relating to real property, it has been held that the description of land therein contained was sufficient, if, with the stated instrument before him, a surveyor, either with or without the aid of extrinsic evidence, could locate the premises with reasonable certainty: Willamette Co. v. Gordon, 6 Or. 175; House v. Jackson, 24 Or. 89 (32 Pac. 1027); Hayden v. Brown, 33 Or. 221 (53 Pac. 490); Bogard v. Barhan, 52 Or. 121 (96 Pac. 673, 132 Am. St. Rep. 676); St. Dennis v. Harras, 55 Or. 379 (105 Pac. 246, 106 Pac. 789).

Under the very liberal rule thus adopted the affidavit and the search-warrant based thereon were defective, in that they failed to describe any houses, buildings or real property to be examined or designate the county in which the writ was to be executed.

4. The dwelling of every person while he is in the lawful possession thereof is his castle, and it ought not to be subjected to an uninvited search, except by a duly qualified officer, and then only in pursuance of a valid writ commanding it. Such searches are usually made without the consent of the occupant of a domicile, and, the investigation being a proceeding in invitum,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
142 P. 558, 72 Or. 276, 1914 Ore. LEXIS 29, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-mcduffee-or-1914.