State v. Kramer

75 N.W.2d 753, 1956 N.D. LEXIS 106
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 22, 1956
Docket7562
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 75 N.W.2d 753 (State v. Kramer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota 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. Kramer, 75 N.W.2d 753, 1956 N.D. LEXIS 106 (N.D. 1956).

Opinion

JOHNSON, Judge.

The- defendant, Adolph Kramer, appeals from a judgment convicting him of crim *755 inal contempt. He was sentenced to imprisonment in the county jail of Wells County, North Dakota, for a period of thirty days and fined $250.

On March 24, 1955, the juvenile commissioner of the district court of the Fourth Judicial District issued a summons upon a petition entitled: “In the matter of Esther E. Kramer, a neglected and delinquent minor”, directed to her and her father and mother, William and Christina Kramer, for a hearing on the petition on April 1, 1955, in the City of Fessenden, North Dakota. The hearing was held pursuant to the summons upon the petition and the juvenile court took full custody of Esther E. Kramer until “she shall have attained * * * twenty-one years.” The court placed her in the temporary custody of the Florence Crittenden Home at Fargo, North Dakota.

The appellant in this court, Adolph Kramer, was not a party to the juvenile proceedings, nor was he served with summons therein. He had no notice thereof. ■

It was within the power of the court under the statute to require his appearance if the court deemed that necessary.

“A summons may be issued requiring the appearance of any other person whose presence, in the opinion of the judge, is necessary.” Section 27-1614, NDRC 1943.

On April 1, 1955, and as a result of the juvenile hearing in this matter, the court issued a “Restraining Order as to Adolph Kramer” in which he was:

“ * * * enjoined and restrained from interviewing, communicating with or talking to the said Esther E. Kramer, or going to the place where she might be confined, either in the Florence Crittenden Home in Fargo, North Dakota, or in any hospital in said city, or at any other place whatsoever, and from entering the premises of the said Florence Crittenden Home during the presence there of the said Esther E. Kramer, or of molesting, annoying, or talking with her in any manner or form, until further order of this court.”

A copy of this order was served upon Adolph Kramer in the City of Fargo, North Dakota, on the 5th day of April, 1955. Adolph Kramer disregarded the order and contacted and communicated with Esther E. Kramer.

On August 24, 1955, the State’s Attorney of Wells County, in an action entitled in the juvenile proceedings against Esther E. Kramer in the name of the “State of North Dakota, plaintiff, v. Adolph Kramer, defendant”, made a complaint setting forth facts of alleged violations by Adolph Kramer of the court’s restraining order and directing twenty-eight interrogatories to him. He refused to answer the interrogatories. The Honorable H. E. Rittgers, Judge of the District Court of the Fourth Judicial District, had, the previous day, issued a warrant of attachment directed to the sheriff of Wells County, North Dakota, to apprehend Adolph Kramer and bring him before the court on the 24th day of August 1955, at 10:00 a. m., in the courthouse in the City of Fessenden, Wells County, North Dakota. Adolph Kramer was taken into custody by virtue of the warrant of attachment and appeared before the court on the 24th of August 1955. He requested a continuance of the hearing to September 13, 1955 at 10:00 a. m. Before the court would consider the granting of his request or motion, it asked him to enter a plea to the warrant of attachment. He entered a plea of not guilty and was released on bond. On September 13, 1955, the defendant appeared and moved to quash the warrant and dismiss the complaint on two grounds:

“1. The complaint and affidavit in this action and the original files and records in the matter of Esther E. Kramer, a neglected and delinquent minor under the age of eighteen years, affirmatively shows that the Court did not obtain jurisdiction over the person of the defendant, and any order issued in the matter of Esther E. Kramer as against Adolph Kramer is therefore void and of no force and effect.
*756 “2. That the moving papers do not state a cause of action for civil contempt against this defendant.”

The defendant was found guilty and judgment was entered. He specifies as errors the court’s refusal to dismiss the complaint and to grant the motion quashing the warrant of attachment, assuming jurisdiction over his person, and finding and adjudging him guilty of contempt.

While Section 27-1008, NDRC 1943, provides :

“ * * * If an attachment is issued pursuant to section 27-1007, it shall be deemed an original special proceeding by the state as plaintiff against the accused as defendant”;

it has been held that it is not wholly an independent proceeding.

“While, as appellant contends, a criminal contempt proceedings wherein a warrant of attachment is issued is an original special proceeding under the provisions of section 7555, Rev.Codes 1905, [Row Section 27-1008, NDRC 1943], it cannot be correctly said to be wholly an independent proceeding, as it grows out of and is, to a certain extent, connected with the proceedings in the main action. It is-only by .virtue of the proceedings in the main action that this special proceeding can originate. It is dependent for its foundation upon the proceedings in the main action and the violation of the injunc-tional order therein issued. The essence of the contempt consists in the violation of the mandate of the judgment in the main action.” State v. Heiser, 20 N.D. 357, 364, 127 N.W. 72, 75.

The validity of the conviction for criminal contempt in this action, therefore,' is dependent not merely upon the hearing held in the contempt proceedings, but upon the right and power of the court to issue a restraining order in the juvenile proceedings concerning Esther E. Kramer, to which the defendant and appellant was not a party, nor served with any process, so as to bind him to obedience to its mandates.

“Acts Punishable as Criminal Con-tempts by Courts of Record. A court of record of this state may punish as for a criminal contempt any person guilty of any: * * *
“3. Willful disobedience of any process or order lawfully issued or made by it;
“4. Resistance willfully offered to the lawful order or process of the court; * * *.” (Emphasis supplied.) Section 27-1001, NDRC 1943.

The question here presented is whether or not the court in the juvenile proceedings had jurisdiction to issue a restraining order affecting the rights of Adolph Kramer. He contends that the order was void. If the court had no jurisdiction over the person of Adolph Kramer, the issuance of the restraining order, insofar as it attempted to bind him or restrict his actions, was a nullity arid void. The rule may be said to be firmly established that a court does not possess the right or power to punish as for contempt a disregard or violation of its order or decree which it has rendered without jurisdiction over the subject matter or the parties. Lack of such jurisdiction or power may, therefore, be raised by the person charged with contempt for violation of the order or decree in a collateral proceedings on appeal from the judgment of conviction for contempt. Forman v. Healey, 11 N.D.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
75 N.W.2d 753, 1956 N.D. LEXIS 106, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-kramer-nd-1956.