State v. Montroy

217 P. 611, 37 Idaho 684, 1923 Ida. LEXIS 173
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 4, 1923
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 217 P. 611 (State v. Montroy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho 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. Montroy, 217 P. 611, 37 Idaho 684, 1923 Ida. LEXIS 173 (Idaho 1923).

Opinion

FEATITERSTONE, District Judge.

— The defendant in this case was informed against by Roger G-. Wearne, Esq., prosecuting attorney of Kootenai county, upon the charge of assault with a deadly weapon, but was convicted upon trial of only simple assault. The state thereupon filed a cost bill aggregating $484.65, and the defendant was sentenced to pay $100 fine and costs, the judgment providing that in default of the payment of fine and costs, the defendant be confined in the county jail of said county for 292 days, the date of imprisonment to run from the day of his delivery to the sheriff of said county.

Included in the bill were items aggregating $292.40 expended by the county for the defendant’s witnesses, he having obtained an order pursuant to C. S., sec. 9135, which is hereinafter quoted in full, requiring the county to pay their fees and mileage.

The defendant objected to the whole of the cost bill on the ground that the costs were incurred in an effort to convict him of a felony, of which, by his conviction of the lesser, included offense, he had been acquitted; and objected particularly to the further taxation of the items aggregating said sum of $292.40, for the fees and mileage of witnesses subpoenaed and called by him, and which, by said order, the county was required to pay.

Upon a hearing of these objections the trial court struck from the bill the fees and mileage of defendant’s witnesses, and taxed the costs at the difference between the amount of the bill and said sum, and assessed the costs at $192.15. Thereupon a modified judgment was entered in conformity with said order of which only the following excerpt is material here”: .... It is ordered and adjudged by and is the sentence of this court that you pay a fine of $100, together with the costs and disbursements of this action taxed and allowed in the sum of $192.15 and, in default of the payment of said fine and costs that you, the said defendant, Gilbert Montroy, be confined in the county jail of Kootenai county, Idaho, one day for each $2.00 of said fine and costs, to wit: for the period of 146 days, the date of imprisonment [687]*687and confinement to commence to run from the date of your delivery to the sheriff of Kootenai county.”

The defendant has appealed from the original judgment, as well as from the order retaxing costs, and from the modified judgment based thereon in so far as these imposed costs upon the defendant and imprisonment at the rate of one day for every $2 of the costs; and the state has appealed from the order and modified judgment in so far as these reduced the amount of the costs originally taxed.

The question thus presented is: Did the lower court err in reducing the costs at all, or should he have disallowed the whole bill?

Considering, first, the question as to whether the trial court erred in retaxing costs in the sum of $192.15, and entering judgment thereon of imprisonment in the event of the defendant’s failure to pay the same, the defendant’s contention is that, having been acquitted of the felony charge by his conviction of an included misdemeanor, he cannot be taxed with costs incurred by the state in an effort to convict him of the felony.

The trouble with this proposition is that no showing was made to the trial court that any of the items taxed were not properly and legally incurred in the prosecution and conviction of the defendant of the misdemeanor. Therefore, no segregation which is not an arbitrary one can be made, and besides, there is no statutory authority for an apportionment.

Counsel for the defendant, however, earnestly contends that the defendant had no opportunity to avoid the costs incurred in the effort of the state to 'convict him of a felony, as he could not have insisted upon the acceptance of a plea of guilty to the offense of which he was ultimately convicted, and cites Biester v. State, 65 Neb. 276, 91 N. W. 416, and State v. Arnold, 100 Tenn. 307, 47 S. W. 221. But quite as reputable authority is found aligned against this contention. See State v. Belle, 92 Iowa, 258, 60 N. W. 525, and State v. Granville, 26 Kan. 158, the opinion in the latter ease being written by a jurist of no less eminence than the late Mr. Justice Brewer.

[688]*688Here, again, we have no statute which takes such a situation into account. And, in the absence of legislation, the courts of this state can provide no remedy, unless by the situation which has resulted the defendant has been deprived of some constitutional guaranty.

But the defendant does not claim that his constitutional rights have in this respect been invaded. He merely asserts that there is no warrant of law for taxing these costs against him under the circumstances. This requires an examination of the statutes.

C. S., sec. 8882, provides that “The plea of not guilty puts in issue every material allegation of the indictment.” And C. S., sec. 8997, provides that “The jury may find the defendant guilty of any offense, the commission of which is necessarily included in that with which he is charged in the indictment, or of an attempt to commit the offense.” By C. S., sec. 8812, these provisions are made applicable to in-formations.

Reading sections 8882 and 8997 together, the plea of defendant placed in issue every essential element not only of the felony charged, but of the included offenses as well. There was then tendered but one issue, namely, the guilt or innocence of the defendant of the offenses charged.

C. S., see. 9353', reads as follows: “At the close of every trial for any offense against the laws of this state the costs thereof shall be paid as by law provided, but by way of indemnity to the county the whole amount of such costs, including the costs of examination if such shall have been had, in eases wherein the accused is convicted, shall be taxed against the convicted person, and judgment shall be rendered accordingly by the court before which such person shall have been convicted, and such judgment may be enforced in the same manner as judgments in civil cases.

C. S., see. 9039, makes a judgment for fines and costs a lien the same as judgments in civil actions, and C. S., sec. 9049, allows execution to issue thereon.

C. S., sec. 9038, however, provides that the defendant may also be imprisoned if the costs are not paid, and until they [689]*689are paid, at the rate of one day for every $2 of such costs. The section reads as follows: “A judgment that the defendant pay a fine, or pay costs, or pay both fine and costs, may also direct that defendant be imprisoned until the fine, or costs, or both fine and costs, have been satisfied; specifying the extent of the imprisonment, which cannot exceed one day for every $2 of the fine, costs or fine and costs, as the case may be.”

The remedies provided by these sections are concurrent in so far as they relate to costs; but, if the costs or any portion of them are paid, then obviously the imprisonment for them is to that extent avoided.

The matter of imprisonment for costs under this section has been before this court in the case of State v. Anderson, 31 Ida. 514, 174 Pac. 124; and we there held that a defendant may be imprisoned for the nonpayment of them. Moreover, the great weight of authority is to the effect that costs of prosecution are not a debt within the constitutional inhibition against imprisonment for debt. (15 C. J., pp. 342, 343, and cases cited in note 99.)

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
217 P. 611, 37 Idaho 684, 1923 Ida. LEXIS 173, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-montroy-idaho-1923.