State v. Fillingham

113 S.W. 1057, 214 Mo. 368, 1908 Mo. LEXIS 234
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedNovember 24, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 113 S.W. 1057 (State v. Fillingham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Fillingham, 113 S.W. 1057, 214 Mo. 368, 1908 Mo. LEXIS 234 (Mo. 1908).

Opinion

GANTT, J.

On October 26, 1903, the circuit attorney of the city of St. Louis filed an information, numbered seventy-one, in the circuit court, wherein he charged Fred Fillingham with having on the 19th day of May, 1903, made a felonious assault upon one Emma Fillingham. On May 1, 1905, an alias capias was issued, and defendant was arrested, and upon the same day, with Charles Fillingham as his surety, he entered into the following recognizance:

“State of Missouri, City of Si. Louis, ss.
“Be it remembered, that on the 1st day of May, in the year nineteen hundred and five, personally came before Robert M. Foster, Judge of the Circuit Court of the city of St. Louis, Division No. 11, within and for said city of St. Louis, Fred Fillingham (as prin[371]*371cipal) and Charles Fillingham (as surety) and acknowledge themselves, jointly and severally, to owe to the State of Missouri the sum of one thousand dollars, to he levied of their respective goods and chattels, lands and tenements; yet upon condition that if the said Fred Fillingham shall personally appear before the circuit court of the city of St. Louis, Division No. 11, from day to day during the present term, and on the first day and from day to day of any future term thereof to which this cause may be continued, then and there to answer to an information preferred by the assistant circuit attorney of said city against said Fred Fillingham for the offense of assault to kill and shall not depart the said court- without leave thereof, then this recognizance' to be void, else to remain in full force ánd effect.
“Address of principal: 3134 Vinegfove Ave.
“Feed Fillingham; (Seal)
Charles Fillingham (Seal)
“Taken and certified the year and day aforesaid.
“Robert M. Foster,
“Judge of the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, Division No. 11.”

Thereafter on May 3, 190*5, and at the April term, 1905, of said court, there was another information filed charging the same identical offense as that charged in the information numbered 71. This new information, presumedly, was filed because the first one ■was not verified as required by the statute and the decisions of this court. At the same term, the cause was set down for trial on May 17, 1905, and on that date was continued on the application of the defendant, to July 7, 1905. On the last-mentioned date, the defendant defaulted, and thereupon he and his surety, Charles Fillingham, having been duly called according to the condition of the said recognizance, made default and a forfeiture of the said recognizance was [372]*372taken by tbe court and a new capias and scire facias ordered to issue, and thereupon on May 29, 1906, the scire facias was issued reciting all the above-mentioned facts and record and made returnable the first Monday in October, 1906. At the October term Charles Filling-ham, the surety, filed his answer to the scire facias as follows:

“He denies each and every allegation contained in the said scire facias.
“2nd. And for further answer defendant states that the recognizance mentioned in said scire facias and which was executed on the first day of May, 1905, was given to release the defendant, Fred Fillingham, from arrest under an information that was then, on the said first day of May, 1905-, pending in said court, and which had been filed therein on October 26, 1903; and that subsequently thereto, to-wit, on May 3, 1905, another information was issued and filed in said court charging the said Fred Fillingham with the commission of the same offense as that charged in the first aforesaid information, and that the effect of the filing of the said second information was to quash the first information and to discharge the defendant and his surety from the recognizance aforesaid, which had been given for the appearance of the principal to answer said first information; and the charge which was set down for trial on May 17, 1905, and subsequently on July 7, 1905, was that contained in the aforesaid second information, and the forfeiture was enteréd against the principal and his surety on July 7, 1905, because of the failure of the defendant, Fred Filling-ham, to answer to the charge contained in said second information, and not for his failure to answer to the charge contained in the said first information, to answer to which said recognizance was executed.
“3rd. And further answering, defendant says that the aforesaid recognizance is insufficient in law [373]*373and that the record entries are insufficient to sustain the forfeiture of said recognizance and are insufficient •to sustain a judgment on said recognizance.
“Wherefore defendants pray judgment against plaintiff.” The circuit attorney filed a reply denying the new matters and facts pleaded in the answer. The cause coming on for hearing, the court rendered judgment for the State against the surety, Charles Fillingham alone, adjudging his answer insufficient. In due time he filed his motions for new trial and in arrest of judgment which were heard and overruled and thereupon he appealed to this court.

The legal propositions advanced hy the defendant for the reversal of this judgment are that the recognizance was given by the defendant Fred Filling-ham only to secure his appearance under the first information filed against him, and that the forfeiture was illegal because it was taken for his failure to appear to answer the second information. The substance of the argument for the learned counsel for the defendant is that the recognizance recites the obligation of the defendant Fred Fillingham “to answer to the information preferred by the assistant circuit attorney of said city for the offense of assault to kill, ’ ’ and that the power of the court to require the defendant to give bail for his appearance rested solely upon the pending information, and as soon as the court lost its power to try him upon said information, the bail bond given for that purpose became ineffective and without any vitality.

It will be observed that the learned counsel for the defendant omits from his statement of the language of the recognizance the words, “And shall not depart the said, court without leave thereof.” The contention of the defendant is based upon section 2522, Revised Statutes 1899, which provides: “If there be at any time pending against the same defendant two [374]*374indictments for the same offense, or two indictments for the same matter, although charged as different offenses, the indictment first found shall be deemed to be suspended by said second indictment, and shall be quashed. ’ ’ And inasmuch as it appears from the record in this case, that the information numbered 71 to answer which the bail was originally taken, was after-wards suspended by the filing of the information number 64, two days after the recognizance had been taken and approved, the first information was without life and the bond to answer it was without life, and the court had no longer any power over the defendant.

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State v. Norton
347 S.W.2d 849 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1961)

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Bluebook (online)
113 S.W. 1057, 214 Mo. 368, 1908 Mo. LEXIS 234, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-fillingham-mo-1908.