DAVID ALLEN MOORE v. COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA
Record No. 990665
Supreme Court of Virginia
March 3, 2000
259 Va. 431
JUSTICE KOONTZ delivered the opinion of the Court.
Present: Carrico, C.J., Compton,1 Lacy, Hassell, Keenan, Koontz, and Kinser, JJ.
Richard B. Smith, Assistant Attorney General (Mark L. Earley, Attorney General, on brief), for appellee.
The primary focus of this appeal is a determination of the scope of our recent decision in Commonwealth v. Baker, 258 Va. 1, 516 S.E.2d 219 (1999) (per curiam), aff‘g Baker v. Commonwealth, 28 Va. App. 306, 504 S.E.2d 394 (1998).2 As in that case, the question is whether the trial court, here the Circuit Court of Loudoun County (the circuit court), lacked jurisdiction to try David Allen Moore, a juvenile, as an adult on indictments charging him with two counts of murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of those murders. Specifically, the question is whether the failure of the Loudoun County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court (the juvenile court) to give notice of the initiation of juvenile court proceedings against Moore, required by the then applicable provisions of
The pertinent facts are not in dispute. Moore was born on May 13, 1977. In December 1994, four petitions were filed in the juvenile court charging that Moore committed the above noted criminal offenses in January 1994. On each petition in the space provided on the pre-printed form for the name and address of the juvenile‘s mother, “Lillie Ruth Moore - Arlington County Jail” was listed. A similar space regarding the juvenile‘s father was left blank. The juvenile court judge made no certification on the record that the identity of Moore‘s father was not reasonably ascertainable and no affidavit to that effect was made by Moore‘s mother. However, in a social history report later filed in the juvenile court by a probation coun-
Throughout the juvenile court proceedings Moore was held in custody and was represented by two court-appointed attorneys. According to court records, Moore‘s mother did not appear at any of the hearings in the juvenile court. Ultimately, following a transfer hearing at which Moore and his attorneys were present, the juvenile court by order entered on June 14, 1995, found probable cause that Moore had committed the criminal offenses charged in the petitions and certified Moore to stand trial as an adult in the circuit court for those offenses.
Moore was indicted for those offenses on July 28, 1995, found guilty of each by a jury on February 6, 1997, and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of two life sentences and eight years on December 19, 1997. Throughout the proceedings, both in the juvenile court and the circuit court, Moore raised no objection to the failure of the juvenile court to give notice of the initiation of the juvenile court proceedings to his father as required by the then applicable provisions of
On appeal to the Court of Appeals, Moore challenged his convictions on other grounds, but did not raise the issue of the failure to give notice to his father. The Court of Appeals affirmed Moore‘s convictions in an unpublished opinion. Moore v. Commonwealth, Record No. 0063-98-4 (February 23, 1999). We awarded Moore this appeal limited to the issue of the effect upon Moore‘s convictions of the failure to give notice to his father.
We begin our analysis in this appeal by noting the significant similarities and distinctions between the facts and circumstances involved in Moore‘s case and those in Baker‘s case. In both cases the criminal acts were committed and the proceedings against the juveniles in the appropriate juvenile courts occurred when
Under these circumstances, the Court of Appeals held in Baker I that the then applicable provisions of
Thereafter, for the reasons stated in the opinion of the Court of Appeals, we affirmed that Court‘s judgment voiding Baker‘s convictions.5 Baker II, 258 Va. at 2, 516 S.E.2d at 220. It is then readily apparent that in the absence of any significant distinction between the two cases, our decision in Baker II would control in Moore‘s case without further analysis.
However, there are significant distinctions between the facts and circumstances in Baker II and those in Moore‘s case. In Baker I, the Court of Appeals noted that “[p]rior to the indictment, Baker filed a motion to dismiss the charges or remand the case to juvenile court and alleged that the juvenile court lacked jurisdiction to transfer the case to the circuit court because the juvenile court failed to comply with the notice requirements of
We continue our analysis by emphasizing the necessary distinction to be drawn here between the power of a court to adjudicate a specified class of cases, commonly known as “subject matter jurisdiction,” and the authority of a court to exercise that power in a particular case. Subject matter jurisdiction is granted by constitution or statute. Humphreys v. Commonwealth, 186 Va. 765, 772, 43 S.E.2d 890, 894 (1947). It cannot be waived and any judgment rendered without it is void ab initio. Moreover, lack of subject matter jurisdiction “may be raised at any time, in any manner, before any court, or by the court itself.” Id., 43 S.E.2d at 893. In contrast, “[a] court‘s authority to exercise its subject matter jurisdiction over a case may be restricted by a failure to comply with statutory requirements that are mandatory in nature and, thus, are prerequisite to a court‘s lawful exercise of that jurisdiction.” Dennis Moore v. Commonwealth, 259 Va. 405, 409, 527 S.E.2d 415, 417 (2000) (decided today) (holding that the failure to give statutorily required notice of initiation of juvenile court proceeding to juvenile‘s parent is a defect in those proceedings cured by
The statute that provides subject matter jurisdiction to the juvenile and domestic relations district courts is
There is no question that when the statutory requirements related to the juvenile court proceedings are followed, a circuit court‘s subject matter jurisdiction over the class of offenses committed by a juvenile that are at issue here is invoked. See
In French, where the juvenile court failed to give parental notice of the initiation of the proceedings in that court, we stated that “the failure of the juvenile court to comply with the applicable statutes rendered the circuit court proceedings void.” Id. at 80, 147 S.E.2d at 743 (emphasis added). Moreover, and pertinent to the present appeal, in Jones v. Commonwealth, 213 Va. 425, 192 S.E.2d 775 (1972), we recognized that there had been various amendments to the notice requirements concerning juvenile court proceedings, but we stressed that “the requirement that the parents of an infant defendant
Guided by these principles, we turn to the specific circumstances in Moore‘s case. The notice provisions contained in the applicable version of
The Commonwealth‘s reliance on
In short, the juvenile court in Moore‘s case never acquired the authority to exercise its jurisdiction to conduct the transfer hearing that resulted in the transfer of Moore‘s case to the circuit court. Accordingly, the circuit court never acquired the authority to exercise its jurisdiction to try Moore for the criminal offenses charged in the indictments, and Moore‘s convictions in the circuit court are void. This result is consistent with our holdings in French and Baker II.
For these reasons, we will reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remand this case with directions that the case be remanded to the trial court for a new trial if the Commonwealth be so advised. Since Moore has now reached his majority and cannot be retried as a juvenile, if the Commonwealth elects to retry him, Moore
Reversed and remanded.
JUSTICE COMPTON, dissenting.
In my opinion, the defendant waived the defect in the juvenile court proceeding.
Baker did not involve interpretation of this statute. See Commonwealth v. Baker, 258 Va. 1, 516 S.E.2d 219 (1999) (per curiam), aff‘g Baker v. Commonwealth, 28 Va. App. 306, 504 S.E.2d 394 (1998).
As I understand the majority‘s reaction to this statute, waiver does not apply here because application of the statute is restricted to proceedings described in Article 7 of Chapter 11 of Title 16.1 of the Code, which does not include statutes dealing with the initiation of the juvenile court proceedings.
As I interpret
Therefore, I would affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals, which affirmed the defendant‘s convictions.
JUSTICE KINSER, with whom JUSTICE LACY joins, dissenting.
Because I believe that David Allen Moore has defaulted the alleged error under Rules 5:17(c) and 5:25, I would affirm his convictions.
Before discussing my reasons for this conclusion, it is important to note, as does the majority, that the instant case comes to us in an entirely different procedural posture than did the case of Baker v. Commonwealth, 258 Va. 1, 516 S.E.2d 219 (1999) (per curiam).
In contrast to Moore, the defendant in Baker preserved his objection to the error by filing a motion to dismiss before he was indicted. Baker also timely raised the issue on appeal. Thus, we did not have to determine in Baker whether the error was one that deprived the juvenile court of its subject matter jurisdiction and thus could be raised at any time.4 Consequently, this Court‘s decision in Baker is not dispositive of the present question whether Moore has defaulted the alleged error.
In analyzing this question, I begin with a series of this Court‘s decisions in which we permitted defendants, in the context of habeas corpus proceedings, to collaterally attack their prior convictions because certain mandatory procedures were not followed in their juvenile court proceedings. In Peyton v. French, 207 Va. 73, 147 S.E.2d 739 (1966), the juvenile court “certified” felony charges against the juvenile to the circuit court so the juvenile could be tried as an adult, but the juvenile court did so without notice to the juve-
In Gregory v. Peyton, 208 Va. 157, 156 S.E.2d 624 (1967), we again confronted the failure to appoint a guardian ad litem for the juvenile when neither of his parents was present at the hearing. Id. at 158, 156 S.E.2d 624. There, we reaffirmed our holding in French that the failure “to comply with the applicable provisions of the [j]uvenile . . . [1]aw rendered the subsequent proceeding in the criminal court void.” Id. at 159-60, 156 S.E.2d at 625. This Court addressed the same issue in Gogley v. Peyton, 208 Va. 679, 160 S.E.2d 746 (1968), where we applied our decision in French retrospectively so as to void the juvenile‘s convictions. 208 Va. at 680, 160 S.E.2d at 747. Again, in Pruitt v. Peyton, 209 Va. 532, 165 S.E.2d 288 (1969), we held that the failure to appoint a guardian ad litem for a juvenile after neither of his parents appeared at his juvenile court hearing was “jurisdictional,” and consequently rendered the juvenile‘s convictions void. Id. at 535, 165 S.E.2d at 290.
While the errors in the above cases were raised by the respective defendants in petitions for writs of habeas corpus, in Jones v. Commonwealth, 213 Va. 425, 192 S.E.2d 775 (1972), which was a direct appeal of the defendant‘s conviction as a recidivist, we also permitted Jones to collaterally attack his underlying juvenile conviction. We did so because the official records of the juvenile court were silent as to whether either of Jones’ parents had been notified of his juvenile
However, this Court has not always held that the failure to comply with mandatory provisions regarding juvenile proceedings deprived the juvenile court of its jurisdiction. For example, in Turner v. Commonwealth, 216 Va. 666, 222 S.E.2d 517 (1976), we decided that a mandatory requirement that “[n]otice in writing of the time, place and purpose of [a transfer] hearing” be provided “to the child and his parents . . . or attorney” was not jurisdictional. Id. at 667, 222 S.E.2d at 518. In that case, the juvenile, his father, and his attorney all received oral notice of the hearing.6 Id. at 668, 222 S.E.2d at 519. We concluded that the juvenile court‘s failure to comply with the requirement of written notice was “a mere procedural defect,” which could not be challenged as error if not timely raised. Id. at 669-70, 222 S.E.2d at 520.
More recently, this Court decided Jackson v. Commonwealth, 255 Va. 625, 499 S.E.2d 538 (1998), cert. denied, 525 U.S. 1067 (1999). There, in the context of determining whether certain transfer proceedings were conducted appropriately, we held that statutory language providing that “[t]he circuit court shall, within a reasonable time after receipt of the case from the juvenile court (i) examine all papers, reports and orders . . . ,” established a “jurisdictional” requirement that such a transfer review take place, but merely a “procedural” rule for the time of review. Id. at 642-43, 499 S.E.2d at 549. (Emphasis added.)
Upon reviewing the decisions in French and its progeny, it becomes evident that this Court addressed “jurisdictional” defects in those cases. However, we never clearly specified that we were considering subject matter jurisdictional defects. Nevertheless, the question of the juvenile court‘s subject matter jurisdiction was implicated because we allowed the defendants in French, Gregory, Gogley, Pruitt, and Jones to collaterally attack their juvenile convictions. In those decisions, this Court recognized that the statutes at issue
I believe that there were two provisions in effect when the juvenile proceedings at issue in French and its progeny were conducted that rendered the defects in those cases “jurisdictional.” The first one was the requirement that “[i]n no case shall the hearing proceed until the parent or parents of the child . . . have been notified . . . .”7 Former
In 1973, after this Court‘s decisions in French and its progeny, and before the commission of the crimes at issue in Turner, the General Assembly enacted former
Even more compelling is the fact that in 1977, the General Assembly repealed and reorganized the Code provisions pertaining to juveniles, and in doing so, deleted the requirement that “[i]n no case shall the hearing proceed” unless the juvenile‘s parent or parents are notified. Former
I believe that the majority incorrectly equates statutory provisions that are “mandatory” with those that are prerequisites to a juvenile court‘s exercise of its subject matter jurisdiction. See, e.g., the majority‘s quotation in the present case from Dennis Moore v. Commonwealth, 259 Va. 405, 527 S.E.2d 415 (2000) (this day decided). As already noted, the error in Turner was “a mere procedural defect,” 216 Va. at 669, 222 S.E.2d at 520, although the notice requirement at issue there used the mandatory term “shall.” Former
Since the juvenile court is a creature of statute, the General Assembly can modify any prerequisites for the juvenile court‘s exercise of its subject matter jurisdiction. See Burke v. Commonwealth, 29 Va. App. 183, 188, 510 S.E.2d 743, 746 (1999) (holding that when subject matter jurisdiction is statutorily created, General Assembly can alter rules governing judicial exercise of that jurisdiction). Thus, I conclude that what was deemed a “jurisdictional” defect in the French case and its progeny is no longer such because of the intervening changes in the language of the relevant statutory provisions.13 Therefore, Moore cannot now raise the failure to summons his father as a basis for voiding his convictions. See Humphreys v. Commonwealth, 186 Va. 765, 772, 43 S.E.2d 890, 894 (1947) (court‘s subject matter jurisdiction cannot be waived); Morrison v. Bestler, 239 Va. 166, 169, 387 S.E.2d 753, 755 (1990) (only type of jurisdiction which cannot be waived is subject matter jurisdiction). Accordingly, under Rules 5:17(c) and 5:25, Moore has defaulted his objection to the alleged error.
For these reasons, I respectfully dissent and would affirm Moore‘s convictions.14