28 Ga. App. 40 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1921
At the September term, 1919, of Jenkins superior court the grand jury of Jenkins county returned two indictments against Joe Buffin, one charging him with the murder of T. P. Stephens, the other with the murder of W. C. Brown, both offenses being alleged to have been committed in the county of Jenkins on April 13, 1919. Buffin petitioned the judge of Jenkins superior court for a change of venue, on the ground that there was danger of an attempt to commit violence upon him. if he were brought back to or allowed to remain in the county in which the crimes were alleged to have been committed. Upon the hearing on that petition a change of venue was ordered, and both cases were duly transferred to the superior court of Chatham county, where, in November, 1920, Buffin was acquitted on the indictment charging him with the murder of Stephens, and was later acquitted of the murder of Brown also. On March 15, 1921, the grand jury of Jenkins
Hpon the refusal by the judge of Chatham superior court to assume jurisdiction of his petition, Ruffin presented to the judge of Jenkins superior court a petition containing substantially the same averments and contentions, and praying for an order directing the clerk of Jenkins superior court to transmit to Chatham superior court the third indictment, “ so that all further proceedings thereon may be had by the said superior court of Chatham county,” etc. On this petition a rule nisi was granted and a hearing had. In the answer filed by the solicitor-general every material averment of the petition is admitted, except as to the identity of the dates and of the transactions involved in the three several indictments.
The jurisdiction of a court depends always upon its right to decide a case, and never upon the merits of its decision or upon the soundness of the case presented for decision. Holbrook v. James H. Prichard Motor Co., 27 Ga. App. 480 (109 S. E. 164). By section 4644 of the Civil Code (1910) it is declared that every court has power to compel obedience to its own judgments, orders, and process, and to the order of a judge out of court, in. an action or proceeding therein. Nothing more would seem to' be necessary to show the jurisdiction of Jenldns superior court over the subject-matter of the petitions under review. While it is clearly true that, by the change of venue, Jenkins superior court lost all jurisdiction to try the accused upon the transferred indictment (Johnson v. State, 118 Ga. 310, 45 S. E. 381, 46 S. E. 488), yet it does not by any means follow that, by its own judgment changing the venue, it lost any of its original power to compel obedience to that judgment. To hold that a court lost by its own judgment the power to enforce the judgment would not only be absurd, but would also nullify the above-mentioned provision of section 4614 of the Civil Code, and would divest the court of one of its inherent and essential powers, and might conceivably result in public evils as great as those to avoid which a change of venue is authorized by law.
Whether or not it would have been error for the judge of Chat-ham superior court to assume jurisdiction of the petition presented to him is a question not now presented for decision, and that question is therefore not decided. The thing that, is now decided is that this judge did not err in what he did. We are not, however, unmindful of the awkward situation which might conceivably have been produced by conflicting orders of different judges directing the same official with respect to the same paper in his custody.
In the instant case the judge, on his own motion, changed the venue from Jenkins county to Effingham county, to avoid the danger of moh violence; and in doing so he was well within the power conferred upon him by the act of 1911. To so order, he needed neither pleadings nor sworn testimony, nor anything else save a belief, derived from personal familiarity with local conditions, that the danger of mob violence contemplated by the law existed, together with the courage to seek to avoid such violence by changing the venue of the case to a county in which he believed that a legal, fair, and impartial trial could be had without danger of such violence. In the state of the present record, the order itself sufficiently establishes these essentials.
It follows, from what is said above, that both of the judgments complained of are free from error.
Judgments affirmed.