State v. Hunt

37 N.E. 409, 137 Ind. 537, 1894 Ind. LEXIS 253
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 15, 1894
DocketNo. 17,238
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 37 N.E. 409 (State v. Hunt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hunt, 37 N.E. 409, 137 Ind. 537, 1894 Ind. LEXIS 253 (Ind. 1894).

Opinion

McCabe, J.

The appellee was prosecuted and acquitted of the charge of perjury, in the circuit court. The State appeals and assigns many rulings of the trial court [539]*539in the reception and rejection of evidence, and in giving and refusing instructions.

We are met with an objection from the appellee, to the consideration of the errors assigned, that the bill of exceptions is not in the record. The trial ended on the 18th day of October, 1893, when the verdict of not guilty was returned, whereon judgment of acquittal was rendered.

Ninety days’ time was allowed to the State in which to file a bill of exceptions. The bill of exceptions was filed on the 7th day of December next following.

It is contended that the order was void because the statute only permits the court to allow sixty days after the judgment is rendered in which to file a bill of exceptions. That is the provision of the statute. 1 Burns’ R. S. 1894, section 1916; R. S. 1881, section 1847.

But the bill was filed within sixty days next after the time the judgment was rendered. The court was authorized to allow sixty days, and it allowed sixty days, and more — it granted ninety days.

Now, does the fact that it allowed thirty days more than the statute authorized it to allow, render the whole allowance of time invalid, the sixty days it was authorized to allow, as well as the additional thirty days it was not authorized to allow? It has been held that where the order allowing time was for more than sixty days and the bill was not filed until after the expiration of the statutory limit of sixty days, such bill of exceptions, though filed within the time allowed, is not in the record. Marshall v. State, 123 Ind. 128; Bartley v. State, 111 Ind. 358.

We are of opinion that to the extent of sixty days of the time allowed, the order was valid; the order as to all the time over that was invalid; and as the bill was actually filed within the time validly allowed, it was a sub[540]*540stantial compliance with the statute and it thereby became a part of the record.

It is contended by the appellee, that no valid judgment of acquittal was rendered, and hence no appeal lies, and for that reason- we are asked by the appellee to dismiss the appeal.

In criminal cases the State is authorized to appeal in the following cases and no other: 1. Upon a judgment for the defendant quashing the indictment. 2. Upon an order arresting the judgment. 3. Upon a question reserved by the State. 1 Burns’ R. S. 1894, section 1955; R. S. 1881, section 1882.

This appeal is prosecuted under the third and last specification. But there must be a judgment for the defendant in each case before an appeal will lie. The reason assigned why there is supposed to be no judgment for the defendant is that the transcript does not disclose that the record of the judgment set forth therein was signed by the special judge who tried the cause. Certified transcripts of proceedings of courts need not show that such proceedings were signed, the presumption beingjthat they were duly and properly signed, until the contrary is affirmatively made to appear in the transcript. Adams v. Lee, 82 Ind. 587; Anderson v. Ackerman, 88 Ind. 481; State v. Hanna, 84 Ind. 183.

The motion to dismiss the appeal is, therefore, overruled.

It is next objected that the evidence set out in a bill of exceptions embodying the original longhand manuscript of the shorthand report thereof is not shown ever to'have been actually introduced in evidence on the trial, on account of the closing statement of the bill of exceptions being insufficient. And, therefore, it is insisted that no question is presented to this court, for want of the evidence. The closing statement of the bill is "That-[541]*541the above and foregoing longhand manuscript of the evidence so taken, reported, and filed, as aforesaid, contains all the evidence in said cause.”

The contention is that it may be the evidence in the cause, and yet never have been introduced in evidence on the trial. We regard such contention as rather technical.

What we are required to ascertain is, what does the language employed by the judge fairly mean? If it means that such evidence was actually introduced on the trial, that is sufficient.

It would certainly be a strange construction of that language to say that the judge had reference to evidence that never was introduced on the trial. When we connect the language quoted with that in the caption of the bill of exceptions its meaning is rendered undoubted.

That reads as follows: "The following evidence was delivered and given to the jury trying the same (the cause), and the following rulings of the court were made in respect to the admission and rejection of evidence, and objections and exceptions thereto were made and taken, as noted therein, etc.”

This is clearly sufficient to show that-the evidence was introduced.

The indictment charged that the alleged perjury had been committed by the accused in giving testimony as a witness in a trial of a civil cause in the Elkhart Circuit Court, wherein one Martin Peterson, a minor, by his next friend, was plaintiff, and the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company was defendant) to recover damages for an alleged personal injury. The alleged injury sustained by the infant was caused by his attempt to get off a certain box freight car in a freight train of that company while the train was in motion, and in which effort he, while going down the ladder in [542]*542haste, was caused to slip or lose his hold, and fall in such a manner as that his arms fell across the rail, were run over by the wheels, crushing them so that they both had to be and were amputated between the shoulder and elbow.

The boy seems not to have been connected with the railway company in any way — as employe or otherwise —and was a mere trespasser on the car.

The point of contention, on the trial of the damage suit, was whether the company was at fault in compelling the boy to attempt to get off while the train was running, and under such excitement as might, or probably might, have caused his fall and injury. It was claimed on the part of the plaintiff, that a servant of the company, a brakeman, on top of the car, ordered him off, threatened him with violence, applying to him abusive language, and pursued him with a club and struck at him therewith, which frightened and alarmed him, so that in his haste to escape the vengeance of the brakeman he became excited, so that he was caused to slip and lose his hold on the ladder, which caused his fall and injury.

The only part of these facts that the company controverted on the trial of the damage suit was that part relating to the conduct of their servant, the brakeman. The evidence of the company denied that part of the plaintiff’s evidence in toto.

The complaint charged the facts to be as above indicated, and the answer denied them.

The material part of the indictment is as follows:

“And the said issue was then and there tried in the said Elkhart Circuit Court, before the said Honorable John M. Van Fleet, and before a jury of said county, etc., * * and upon said trial it became material to said Martin Peterson to show, by evidence in the cause, [543]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
37 N.E. 409, 137 Ind. 537, 1894 Ind. LEXIS 253, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hunt-ind-1894.