State v. Tuller

34 Conn. 280
CourtSupreme Court of Connecticut
DecidedSeptember 15, 1867
StatusPublished
Cited by59 cases

This text of 34 Conn. 280 (State v. Tuller) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Tuller, 34 Conn. 280 (Colo. 1867).

Opinion

Butler, J.

On the motion in arrest two points are made in relation to the sufficiency of the information, namely, first, that the crimes are alleged to have been committed “ on or [294]*294about ” the fourth of September 1866, and therefore not with sufficient certainty, and second, that the era is not specified and the dates are in figures. Both of these objections were considered by Judge Church in Rawson v. The State, 19 Conn. R., 292, and holden untenable, and in that opinion the other judges concurred. The views there expressed meet our approval, and dispose of the points.

Another point made under the motion in arrest relates to the disqualification of the juror Sperry, because he had formed and expressed an opinion that the prisoner was guilty, before the trial, and before he was impaneled as a juror. The law is well settled that if a juror has formed and expressed an opinion, that the prisoner is guilty of the crime charged, prior to the trial, and that fact is unknown to the prisoner or his counsel until after verdict, the fact is good cause for arresting the judgment. That doctrine was recognized by this court in Smith v. Ward, 2 Root, 802, and by Judge Swift in the second volume of his Digest, page 415. The counsel of the prisoner are right therefore in respect to the law, but the questions arise, first," whether they are right as to the - fact, and second, whether their motion is sufficient.

The counsel for the prisoner did know that the panel was not indifferent because one of the jurors was biased, before the verdict, and while the jury were under the control of the court. Two claims are here made, neither of which is tenable. The first is that th$ counsel did not know the name, of the juror. That is immaterial. He was informed by a respectable member of the bar, in open court, that the panel was not indifferent, that one of them was biased, and would have been informed of the name of the juror on the instant if he had'desired it. A moment too would have sufficed to have brought the facts to the knowledge of the court; and on the request of the counsel for the prisoner, the court, on the statement of a respectable member of the bar, that one of the jurors had made such a statement to him personally, would have sent for the jury and taken the case from them without hesitation. The second claim is that if the counsel did know, but did not learn until after the jury had gone out [295]*295to consider the verdict, he did not know during the trial, and was not bound to bring the matter to the attention of the court. This claim is entirely too technical. It is immaterial what expressions have been used by judges or text writers in relation to the closing of a trial, or in the statement of the doctrine under consideration. We must look at the substance of the thing; and that is, that if he knows of an objection to the panel before the verdict is rendered, and in time to prevent the verdict, and obtain a rehearing before another jury, and does not avail himself of the opportunity, he must be holden to a waiver of the objection. Otherwise he would be permitted to lie by and speculate upon the chances of a verdict, and that cannot be tolerated.

The case has been argued upon the assumption that the knowledge of the counsel was not the knowledge of the prisoner, but if that were true it would not aid the prisoner in this case ; for the counsel who received the information were managers of the case, and had authority to waive objections; and the motion would be defective, and the prisoner could take nothing by it, because it is not alleged that the counsel were ignorant of the objection to the jury.

It is further claimed that if counsel did know, the prisoner is not chargeable with their waiver, because the counsel had no power to waive the objection. This claim is not tenable. The prisoner, or his counsel for him, may waive any objection in a case not capital. The cases of McKay and Oancemi were capital ones and therefore, if law, are not in point. Eor these reasons the motion in arrest should be overruled.

Several important practical questions are raised upon the motion for a new trial and upon the eight requests to charge made by the defendant to the court. The import of the first, second, fifth, sixth, and eighth requests is, that the prisoner could not be convicted under the second count of the information. The claims involved in those requests are, first, that the information would not lie under the statute of this state, because that statute does not embrace tellers of national banking associations ; second, because the package was not the property of, or a deposit in the bank, within the meaning [296]*296of that act; and third, that the court had no jurisdiction of such an offense, because the legislature had no constitutional right to apply it to a national bank. These claims we will consider in their order.

The first claim is not well founded. The statute is made to apply to all hanks incorporated by authority in the state. The language of the statute was originally of the state, and was changed by the revisers and General Assembly in 1866. These alterations and the general language of the first clause of the act, taken in connection with the particular language subsequently used, sufficiently show the intention of the legislature to embrace tellers in the national banks. Although termed banking associations in the act by which they are incorporated, they are created to do a banking business and are universally known as “banks,” and that is the name generally assumed by them in cases where they had previously existed under a state law and re-organized under the national law. Such is the name assumed by the institution in question, and such was the name applied to it by the counsel for the prisoner in their requests to the court. It is very clear then that the revisers and the legislature intended the statute to apply to tellers of the national banks doing business in the state.

The second claim is also without foundation. The property is not laid in the second count as the property of the bank; but as a special deposit by a third person, differing from money deposited on general account, intended by both parties to be mingled with the assets, of the bank and to become its property. These special deposits are very common, and that fact, and the language used, taken in connection with the provision in respect to the persons who may be defrauded, makes it very clear that the legislature intended to provide for just • such a case.

It seems equally clear that the third claim is untenable. It is undoubtedly true that the laws of Congress, if operative at all, are supreme and exclusive, and that offenses against them are not cognizable by the state courts. And it seems to be settled in this state by the case of Davison v. Champlin, 7 Conn. R., 244, and by high authority elsewhere, that [297]*297Congress have no power to give the cotirts of the states criminal jurisdiction in respect to offenses against federal laws. It follows therefore that the legislature have no power to constitute such offenses cognizable by our courts. So far as they have attempted to do any such thing by the statute in question, the statute is inoperative. But a statute may be good and operative in part and in part inoperative.

Congress by the national currency act incorporated the bank in question as a bank, located within this state.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Bellamy
147 A.3d 655 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2016)
State v. Elson
9 A.3d 731 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2010)
Levine v. Levine
871 A.2d 1034 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2005)
Utz v. Warden, No. Cv97-0002388 (Jan. 28, 2003)
2003 Conn. Super. Ct. 1539 (Connecticut Superior Court, 2003)
Bruno v. Warden Tarascio, No. Cv 98 416581 S (Mar. 1, 2002)
2002 Conn. Super. Ct. 2738 (Connecticut Superior Court, 2002)
State v. Tate
755 A.2d 984 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2000)
State v. Suggs
553 A.2d 1110 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1989)
State v. Stevenson
504 A.2d 1029 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1986)
State v. Hinckley
502 A.2d 388 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1985)
State v. Tyler-Barcomb
500 A.2d 1324 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1985)
State v. Williams
438 A.2d 80 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1980)
State v. Baker
437 A.2d 843 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1980)
State v. Evans
327 A.2d 576 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1973)
State v. Scarano
175 A.2d 360 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1961)
Housing Authority v. Pezenik
78 A.2d 546 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1951)
State v. Bradley
55 A.2d 114 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1947)
People v. Spiegel
149 Misc. 439 (New York Court of General Session of the Peace, 1933)
Martin v. State
61 S.W.2d 999 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1933)
Hooton v. Jarman Chevrolet Co.
296 P. 36 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1931)
State v. Cianflone
120 A. 347 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1923)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
34 Conn. 280, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-tuller-conn-1867.