State Ex Rel. White v. District Court of Milwaukee County

54 N.W.2d 189, 262 Wis. 139, 1952 Wisc. LEXIS 345
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedJune 20, 1952
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 54 N.W.2d 189 (State Ex Rel. White v. District Court of Milwaukee County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. White v. District Court of Milwaukee County, 54 N.W.2d 189, 262 Wis. 139, 1952 Wisc. LEXIS 345 (Wis. 1952).

Opinion

Currie, J.

The question presented on this appeal is whether a criminal court had jurisdiction over relator by reason of the issuance of a warrant and the setting of a date for preliminary hearing at the time the juvenile court assumed jurisdiction and entered its judgment of December 6, 1951.

Under the provision of the statutes hereinafter quoted, criminal courts and the juvenile court are given concurrent jurisdiction over “children between the ages of sixteen and eighteen who have committed a crime.” In a case in which ‘two courts are given concurrent jurisdiction over a particular subject matter, and one of such courts has assumed jurisdiction, it is reversible error for the other to also assume jurisdiction. Kusick v. Kusick (1943), 243 Wis. 135, 9 N. W. (2d) 607; and Cawker v. Dreutzer (1928), 197 Wis. 98, 129, 221 N. W. 401. Therefore, if the prior proceedings before the district judge did constitute an assumption of jurisdiction by a criminal court, it was a reversible error for the juvenile court to thereafter assume jurisdiction and enter its judgment of December 6, 1951, committing relator to the state department of public welfare. On the other hand, if the proceedings before the district judge did not constitute a proceeding in a criminal court, the juvenile court would then have been the first court to assume jurisdiction and the judgment of December 6, 1951, would be a bar to any further proceedings by the respondents district judge or district court.

The portions of the pertinent statutes applicable to the point in issue are:

(1) Sec. 48.01 (1) (c) “The words ‘delinquent child’ shall mean any child under the age of eighteen years who has violated any law of the state or any county, city, town, or *144 village ordinance; or who by reason of being wayward or habitually disobedient, is uncontrolled by his parent, guardian, or custodian; or who is habitually truant from school or home; or who habitually so deports himself as to injure or endanger the morals or health of himself or others; ...”
(2) Sec. 48.01 (5) (am) “. . . In all cases of delinquent children over sixteen years of age, the criminal courts shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the juvenile court, . . .”
(3) Sec. 48.07 (3) “No adjudication upon the status of any child in the jurisdiction of the juvenile court shall operate to impose any of the civil disabilities ordinarily imposed by conviction, nor shall any child be deemed a criminal by reason of such adjudication, nor shall such adjudication be deemed a conviction, nor shall any child be charged with or convicted of a crime in any court, except as provided in section 48.11. . . .”

Sec. 48.11, Stats., referred to in sec. 48.07 (3), supra, contains no exception applicable to the present case. Therefore, if it was not reversible error for the juvenile court to have entered its order of December 6, 1951, adjudging relator a delinquent child by reason of having committed the identical crime of which he was charged in the warrant issued by the respondent district judge, such judgment of the juvenile court would, under the provisions of sec. 48.07 (3), bar further criminal proceedings before the respondent district judge. Counsel for relator contend that even though such judgment of the juvenile court might have been erroneously entered, it, nevertheless, would bar any further criminal proceedings until directly attacked and reversed on appeal; but we find it unnecessary to determine such latter point in order to arrive at our decision herein.

The district court of Milwaukee county has jurisdiction to hear, try, and determine charges of violations of ordinances of the city of Milwaukee, misdemeanors committed in Milwaukee county, and felonies committed within the county which are punishable by not more than one year’s *145 imprisonment or a fine of not more than $1,000, or both. The municipal court of Milwaukee county is the only court which possesses the general criminal jurisdiction to hear, try, and determine the offense for which the relator was charged in the warrant issued by the district judge because the minimum punishment therefor is three years’ imprisonment. However, sec. 5 of the District Court Act for Milwaukee county, confers the following authority and jurisdiction upon the district judge with respect to such offenses:

. . authority and jurisdiction to issue warrants for the apprehension of persons charged with the commission of offenses in said county of Milwaukee, and not triable before a justice of the peace of said county; and exclusive jurisdiction to examine said alleged offenders and commit or hold them to bail, the same as a justice of the peace might otherwise do. . . .” (Wis. Anno. (1950), p. 1796.)

Counsel for the respondents contend that because the foregoing quoted portion of sec. 5 of the District Court Act is preceded by the words “said court” (referring to the district court), the authority to issue warrants, hold preliminary examinations, and to commit or hold offenders to bail, is vested in the district court, rather than the district judge acting as a magistrate. However, sec. 6 of the District Court Act makes it clear that said authority is vested in the judge, rather than the court, the pertinent provision of sec. 6 being as follows:

“No justice of the peace, court commissioner, police justice, or other committing magistrate in said county of Milwaukee, shall exercise any jurisdiction in any criminal cases, except as hereinafter provided, but all such jurisdiction is vested in said district judge; . . .” (Wis. Anno. (1950), p. 1796.)

The functions of issuing warrants, conducting preliminary examinations or adjourning them, and committing or holding to bail are functions only conferred upon and exercised by certain persons or officers known to the law and designated *146 by statute in Wisconsin as “magistrates.” Secs. 354.01 and 354.05, Stats.

When the legislature provided in sec. 48.01 (5) (am), Stats., that “the criminal courts shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the juvenile court” in all cases of delinquent children over sixteen years of age, did its use of the term “criminal courts” have reference to a court exercising criminal jurisdiction over the offender as a court, to the exclusion of a situation in which a judge of a criminal court functions as a magistrate? Considerable light in answering this question is provided by the following language used in sec. 48.07 (1) (d) :

“In any case involving a male minor between eighteen and twenty-one years of age where the criminal court shall have waived jurisdiction in favor of the juvenile court as provided in paragraph (a) of subsection (5) of section 48.01 the court may place such minor on probation, as provided in this section, until twenty-five years of age or commit him to such institution and for such term as he might have been committed to by the criminal court.”

An examining magistrate, such as the district judge in the instant case, has no power to sentence an offender charged with an offense triable in the municipal court for a term, or place him on probation.

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Bluebook (online)
54 N.W.2d 189, 262 Wis. 139, 1952 Wisc. LEXIS 345, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-white-v-district-court-of-milwaukee-county-wis-1952.