State v. Tomlinson

74 N.W. 995, 7 N.D. 294, 1898 N.D. LEXIS 60
North Dakota Supreme Court·Decided April 12, 1898·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

Wallin, J.

In this case the record shows that after a jury trial the defendant was found guilty, and afterwards sentenced for the offense of keeping intoxicating liquor for sale as a beverage. Upon a statement of the case a motion for a new trial was made and denied. The defendant, having appealed the case, now assigns certain errors in this court. We have carefully examined the several assignments of errors, and consider them all untenable. We are satisfied that the evidence was sufficient to justify the verdict, and that the charge of the court below, as made to the jury, was full, fair, and impartial. We shall, however, in this opinion, discuss only three of the assignments of error; these being most strenuously urged upon our attention by the defendant’s couusel:

First, it appears that the action was tried in the County of Traill, in the Third Judicial District, in which the Honorable Charles A. Pollock is the duly elected and qualified Judge of the District Court. It further appears that upon the written request of Judge Pollock, the Honorable W. S. Lauder, of the Fourth [296] Judicial District, was called into the case, and presided at the trial, and during all the subsequent proceedings had in the action. The further fact is disclosed that the statement of the case, as originally settled by Judge Lauder, embodied an erroneous statement of fact. To correct this statement, of fact, the state’s attorney, on notice to defendant’s counsel, went before Judge Lauder, at his residence, in the Fourth District, and there moved for and obtained the desired correction of the record. Defendant’s counsel did not appear before Judge Lauder to oppose the motion, nor did he subsequently move in the District Court to vacate the order amending the record. In this court defendant moves to strike out the amendment in question. The motion raises the question whether Judge Lauder, under the circumstances narrated, had jurisdiction, while out of the district where the action was pending, and within his own district, to exercise •the powers of the District Court, for the purpose of deciding the motion to amend the record. We think he did possess such power. The statute seems to have conferred plenary power upon the several Judges of the District Courts of this state to act officially throughout the state, without reference to geographical considerations. The only exception to the broad gl'ant of power, with reference to the place of its exercise, is that trials of issues of fact can only be had in the localities indicated by express statutory provisions. Section 5178, Revised Codes, declares that “the several Judges of the District Court shall have jurisdiction throughout the state to exercise all the powers conferred by law upon the District Court or judges thereof subject to the limitations in this article provided.” The limitations referred to are found in subdivisions 1 and 2 of the same section, and relate wholly to the mode of calling in an outside judge to sit in a case not pending in his district, and have no reference whatever to the particular locality within which the functions of the court or judge shall be exercised. The statute seems to be explicit, and no reason is suggested by counsel why the same should be declared to be unconstitutional. We regard the statute, as it reads, as one of [297] great practical convenience to courts and counsel, and are riot disposed to limit its provisions by a narrow and restricted interpretation.

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State v. Tomlinson, 74 N.W. 995, 7 N.D. 294, 1898 N.D. LEXIS 60 (N.D. 1898).

74 N.W. 995 (State v. Tomlinson) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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