State ex rel. Cowan v. Gallagher (Slip Opinion), 147 Ohio St. 3d 416

In January 2012, Craig A. Cowan was tried, convicted, and sentenced; before trial he had moved to represent himself but the trial court never ruled on that motion.
On direct appeal, appellate counsel raised five assignments of error; Cowan was allowed to file a pro se supplemental brief but was limited to ten pages.
Cowan’s pro se supplemental brief exceeded the page limit, was stricken, and the court of appeals did not address his self-representation argument.
Cowan sought to reopen the appeal; the court of appeals denied the application. He pursued multiple subsequent appeals.
In September 2015 Cowan filed a mandamus action in the Eighth District asking the appellate court to issue a writ compelling a ruling on his pretrial motion to self-represent; the court dismissed the petition.
The Ohio Supreme Court affirmed, holding Cowan had an adequate remedy at law by way of appeal and therefore was not entitled to mandamus relief.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Cowan is entitled to a writ of mandamus compelling a ruling on his motion to self-represent	Cowan argued the appellate court had a duty to grant mandamus because the trial court never ruled on his self-representation motion	Appellees contended mandamus was improper because Cowan had an adequate remedy by appeal and the motion was effectively overruled when the case concluded	Denied: mandamus unavailable because Cowan had an adequate remedy by appeal; motion was effectively overruled when case concluded

Kostelnik v. Helper, 96 Ohio St.3d 1 (2002) (a motion not expressly decided when the case concludes is ordinarily presumed overruled)
State ex rel. Waters v. Spaeth, 131 Ohio St.3d 55 (2012) (elements required for extraordinary mandamus relief)
State ex rel. Caskey v. Gano, 135 Ohio St.3d 175 (2013) (availability of an appeal generally precludes mandamus)