State v. Houser

55 N.E.2d 273, 73 Ohio App. 115, 28 Ohio Op. 209, 1942 Ohio App. LEXIS 667
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided April 7, 1942·No. 453, 454 and 455·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

Guernsey, P. J.

These are separate appeals upon questions of law, from separate judgments of the Common Pleas Court of Hancock county, Ohio, in separate actions therein, each based upon a separate indictment returned by a grand jury of such county, wherein the appellee, the state of Ohio, was plaintiff, and the appellant, Bruce Houser, was defendant.

By stipulation of the parties filed in each of the cases, the three cases were tried and submitted together to the court and a jury, and separate verdicts returned, separate judgments entered upon the verdicts, and separate appeals taken, and all the testimony, evidence and exhibits introduced at the trial embodied in one bill of exceptions bearing the title of each of the cases and filed in each case.

The judgments appealed from were of conviction and sentence entered upon the separate verdicts of the jury finding the defendant guilty as charged in the respective indictments upon which the respective actions are based.

Cause number 453 in this court is an appeal from *117 the judgment in cause number 4783 in the Common Pleas Court based on an indictment charging the defendant with a violation of the provisions of Section 6370, General Code.

Cause number 454 in this court is an appeal from the judgment in cause number 4784 in the Common Pleas Court based on an indictment charging the defendant with a violation of the provisions of Section 6371, General Code.

Cause number 455 in this court is an appeal from the judgment in cause number 4785 in the Common Pleas Court based on an indictment charging the defendant with a violation of the provisions of Section 6373, General Code.

The defendant filed, 'in cause number 4783 in the Common Pleas Court, which cause is now designated as number 453 in this court, a motion for a new trial, setting forth various grounds therefor, in the caption of which motion the numbers of all three cases in the Common Pleas Court, to wit, 4783, 4784 and 4785 are set forth. The clerk of courts noted on the appearance docket the filing of this motion in cause number 4783, and in causes numbers 4784 and 4785 made a notation on the appearance docket, “See papers filed in number 4783.”

The Common Pleas Court considered such filing as equivalent to the filing of a separate motion for a new trial in each of the cases, and overruled the same.

The defendant assigns error in each of the cases, in the following particulars:

1. The court erred in overruling the defendant’s plea in abatement.

2. The court erred in overruling defendant’s motion to quash the indictment filed in the case after defendant’s plea to the indictment.

*118 3. The court erred in overruling defendant’s demurrer to the indictment.

4. The indictment found by the grand jury is illegal and is in violation of the Constitution of Ohio and deprived the defendant of his constitutional rights and guaranties.

5. The offense which is charged and stated in the indictment is not such an offense as is indictable under the Constitution of the state of Ohio and the statutes.

6. The court erred in refusing to exclude all evidence from the consideration of the jury at the beginning of the trial.

7. The court erred in overruling defendant’s motion for a directed verdict of not guilty.

8. The court erred in refusing to give defendant’s requested instruction before argument to the jury.

9. The court erred in refusing to include and give in the court’s general charge to the jury, the defendant’s request to charge.

10. The court erred in overruling defendant’s motion in arrest of judgment.

The plaintiff has filed a motion in this court to dismiss the appeals in causes numbers 454 and 455 upon the ground that the defendant did not file motions for new trials in such causes, and upon the theory that the filing of such a motion for a new trial is a condition precedent to an appeal from a judgment of conviction in a criminal action.

While no paper writing designated as a separate motion for a new trial was actually filed by the defendant in causes numbers 4784 and 4785 in the Common Pleas Court, the captioning of the paper writing designated as and constituting a motion for a new trial with the numbers of the three causes, 4783, 4784 and 4785, with the reference on the appearance docket in causes numbers 4784 and 4785 to the paper writing *119 filed in cause number 4783, constituted a substantial compliance with tbe requirements of law with reference to tbe filing of motions for new trial and tbe filing of such motion in each case, so that the ground stated for dismissal of the appeal is without merit.

Furthermore, there is not incorporated in the assignments of error any assignment to the effect that the verdict is not sustained by sufficient evidence, or any assignment based on misconduct of the prevailing-party, or accident or surprise which ordinary prudence could not have guarded against, or newly discovered evidence, for the review of which the overruling of a motion for new trial based on any of such grounds is a condition precedent, and all the assignments of error are such that they are subject to review irrespective of whether a motion for new trial has been filed and overruled. Searles v. State, 6 C. C., 331, 3 C. D., 478; 2 Ohio Jurisprudence, Appeal and Error, pages 263, 264, 269, 270, 271; Weaver v. Rd. Co., 55 Ohio St., 491, 45 N. E., 717; Bauer v. Heaton, 68 Ohio App., 181, 38 N. E. (2d), 413; Travelers’ Indemnity Co. v. M. Werk Co., 33 Ohio App., 358, 169 N. E,, 584.

For the reasons mentioned the motion to dismiss the appeal in causes numbers 454 and 455 will be overruled.

We will now.proceed to a consideration of the assignments of error.

As assignments of error numbers one, two, three, four, five and ten are argued together, they will be considered together.

The sections of the General Code prescribing the separate offenses charged in the separate indictments are as follows:

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State v. Houser, 55 N.E.2d 273, 73 Ohio App. 115, 28 Ohio Op. 209, 1942 Ohio App. LEXIS 667 (Ohio Ct. App. 1942).

55 N.E.2d 273 (State v. Houser) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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