136 Wis. 432 | Wis. | 1908
Lead Opinion
The following opinion was filed October 20, 1908:
The important question presented by the record is whether this court, under its .power of superintending control over inferior courts granted to it by sec. 3,
“The supreme court, except in cases otherwise provided in this constitution, shall have appellate jurisdiction only, which shall he coextensive with the state; hut in no case removed to the supreme court -shall a trial by jury he allowed. The supreme court shall have a general superintending control over all inferior courts; it shall have power to issue writs of habeas corpus, mandam/us, injunction, quo warranto, cer-tiorari and other original and remedial writs, and to hear and determine the same.”
This court has had occasion to pass upon this provision of the constitution at an early day in All’y Gen. v. Blossom, 1 Wis. 317, and many times since. The general scope of the subject has been quite fully covered in former decisions of this court. Att'y Gen. v. Blossom, 1 Wis. 317; Att’y Gen. v. Railroad Cos. 35 Wis. 425; State ex rel. Fourth Nat. Bank v. Johnson, 103 Wis. 591, 79 E. W. 1081; State ex rel. Mitchell v. Johnson, 105 Wis. 90, 80 N. W. 1104; State ex rel. Fourth Nat. Bank v. Johnson, 105 Wis. 164, 83 N. W. 320; State ex rel. Milwaukee v. Ludwig, 106 Wis. 226, 82 N. W. 158; State ex rel. W. G. Taylor Co. v. Elliott, 108 Wis. 163, 84 N. W. 149; State ex rel. Coffey v. Chittenden, 112 Wis. 569, 88 N. W. 587; In re Gates, 117 Wis. 445, 94 N. W. 292; State ex rel. Milwaukee Med. Coll. v. Chittenden, 127 Wis. 468, 107 N. W. 500. In view of what has been said in the above cases, we do not feel that any extended discussion of the history and scope of the doctrine of superintending control under our constitution is necessary. Moreover, we think the case before us is embraced within narrow limits, and the determination of it we regard sufficient without laying down rules for the government of future cases which may arise and require the discussion of legal principles not necessary to be considered here. The words of the constitution granting to this court
The high prerogative authority, though sparingly used, applies as well to criminal as to civil eases. State ex rel. Fourth Nat. Bank v. Johnson, 103 Wis. 591, 614, 79 N. W. 1081; State ex rel. McGovern v. Williams, ante, p. 1, 116 N. W. 225; State ex rel. Harris v. Laughlin, 75 Mo. 358; Benners v. State, 124 Ala. 97, 26 South. 942; 1 Bishop, Eiew Grim. Proc. § 1402. In State ex rel. McGovern v. Williams, supra, the question presented was whether this court has jurisdiction, under its power of superintending control, to compel the circuit court to reinstate a criminal action and proceed to the trial thereof, where the indictment had been wrongfully quashed by the trial court before a jury was impaneled on the ground that the indictment was bad because the grand jury returning such indictment was illegally constituted. In that case this court held the question of whether the grand jury was an illegal grand jury, and therefore the indictment void, was a preliminary question, and that this court could order the trial court to reinstate the case and proceed with the trial of it. That case, we think, is the same in principle as the one now before us. Here the court below held the complaint bad for want of sufficient facts, and there because of illegality of grand jury. In each case, before entering upon the trial, the court passed upon the validity of the indictment, or, to be accurate, in the
It will be observed under the rule laid down in the cases before cited, and especially in State ex rel. Fourth Nat. Bank v. Johnson, 103 Wis. 591, 19 N. W. 1081, that power always exists when an inferior court “either refuses to act within its jurisdiction or acts beyond its jurisdiction to the serious prejudice of the citizen” and there is no other adequate remedy. Does the quashing of a valid indictment charging an offense known to the law and refusal to proceed to the trial of the accused for the offense charged amount to a refusal to act within its jurisdiction? As we have seen, this court held that it was where the ground upon which the indictment was quashed involved a preliminary question, namely, defect in impaneling the jury, and no other adequate remedy existed (State ex rel. McGovern v. Williams, ante, p. 1, 116 N. W. 225), and it was said:
“That the act of the circuit court is a refusal to exercise its jurisdiction and perform its duty to consider the criminal charge against the accused seems too plain for discussion.”
So we come to the question before us, whether, in the absence of other adequate remedy, this court has power to compel the trial court to assume jurisdiction of a criminal action after it has quashed a good complaint upon the ground that it did not charge an offense. We see no difference in principle between the two cases, hence we think the doctrine laid down in State ex rel. McGovern v. Williams, supra, rules this case. The fact that it becomes necessary to review judicial action of an inferior court is no insuperable obstacle to the exercise of the power of superintending control in a proper case. Slate ex rel. Fourth Nat. Bank v. Johnson,
“The courts, English and American, agree with practical unanimity that such preliminary decision, however judicial in character, may be reviewed under the superintending power, and, in case of erroneous -decision thereof by the inferior court, the latter -should be required, by mandamus, to proceed to perform its duty toward the principal controversy notwithstanding its decision upon the preliminary question” — citing a long line of authority, English and American, in support of the proposition. ,
2. The next question to be considered is whether an exigency exists for the exercise of the power prayed for in the petition. Assuming, without deciding, that the complaint states a criminal offense and therefore that the court erroneously quashed the complaint, we approach the question of whether a proper case is made calling for the exercise of the power of superintending control. This court has repeatedly held that it should not exercise its power of superintending control upon light occasions or when other and ordinary remedies are sufficient. State ex rel. Fourth Nat. Bank v. Johnson, 103 Wis. 591, 79 N. W. 1081; State ex rel. Meggett v. O'Neill, 104 Wis. 227, 80 N. W. 447; In re Mielke, 120 Wis. 501, 98 N. W. 245; State ex rel. Tewalt v. Pollard, 112 Wis. 232, 87 N. W. 1107; State ex rel. Mitchell v. Johnson, 105 Wis. 90, 80 N. W. 1104; State ex rel. Milwaukee v. Ludwig, 106 Wis. 226, 82 N. W. 158. In Stale ex rel. Tewalt v. Pollard, supra, it is said:
“But this court will not exercise its jurisdiction when there is another adequate remedy by appeal or otherwise, nor*442 unless the exigency is of such an extreme nature as obviously to justify and demand the interposition of the extraordinary superintending power of the court of last resort of this state.”
In view of the nature of the offense and the facility with which future prosecution may be maintained, should it be found necessary on the part of the state to do so, it is considered by this court that no such serious prejudice will result from the action of the trial court in quashing the complaint as to create an exigency calling for the exercise of the power of superintending control. It therefore follows that the writ "hould be denied.
By the Court. — The writ is denied.
Concurrence Opinion
The following opinion was filed October 20, 1908:
(concurring). Desiring to aid, as best I can, in eradicating any misconception which may exist respecting the scope of the superintending power of this court over other courts and conditions under which such power should be exercised, I supplement the opinion written for the court, by stating in my own way its position as I understand it. The primary question is whether the controversy in this case is within the court’s jurisdiction. The secondary question is whether a situation is presented of sufficient gravity to call such jurisdiction into activity. The power, as will be hereafter seen, is one and the all-important thing. In respect to that no discretion whatever exists. The secondary matter appeals solely to the judgment, the discretion, of this court.
While this opinion will be purely personal, its sole purpose is to reinforce what is well said by our Brother Kkrwih' in the court’s opinion, so far as it goes, and to advance further, covering the entire subject, which in my judgment may now be legitimately considered, to the end that the right of the vexing questions which have so often engaged our attention
In discussing the matter I shall not endeavor to fence it about by precedents found in other jurisdictions, especially by those of the English courts, but deal with principles, and holdings of this court, endeavoring to read therefrom substantial harmony in such holdings with the conception of the court’s power entertained by the framers of the constitution, as at the outset here declared, and to show that it ex
Much difficulty has arisen, it is thought, by regarding cases, especially those in foreign jurisdictions, which went upon the scope of some particular common-law writ specified in our constitution, as marking the limits of power, while the writs are mere conveniences for the exercise of a power existing independently of them. The false premise has at times naturally led to the idea, and giren rise to judicial expressions, in terms or in effect, that the power of superintending control appertains only to such errors as may be in some reasonable view classed as jurisdictional. That, as we shall see, was not entertained here at the start, and, notwithstanding expressions from time to time in opinions, to which we shall refer, suggesting the contrary, has never been considerately adopted, if at all, and in recent years has been fully repudiated, though the extent to which judicial errors are subject to correction by use of the power has been left in doubt. Hence the situation we now face. By the last declaration on the subject (State ex rel. McGovern v. Williams, ante, p. 1, 116 N. W. 225), the power was, in effect, said to extend to all preliminary questions arising in the course of litigation though they involve correction of erroneous decisions within the inferior court’s jurisdiction. No attempt was there made to define the limits of the term “preliminary questions,” nor did the court go so far as to hold that its superintending power was limited to such questions. The decision was supported by copious citations of cases foreign and domestic, in the main at least, limited as to field of jurisdiction asserted, by the particular writ with which it was invoked; the general result being, that the wrong dealt with was within the field of the power because within the scope of the writ and jurisdictional in the sense, at least, of being an erroneous refusal to exercise jurisdiction. The case is in har
Tbe last foregoing in advance of a general discussion seemed necessary in order to clear up apparent inconsistency between tbe result in the two instances mentioned, making it plain that tbe latter result was reached, logically, without any change of opinion on tbe part of any one participating in the first and without any purpose of declaring that tbe limits of tbe power involved were determinable either by tbe character of tbe question to be dealt witb, as regards whether preliminary or not, or by the ancient scope of tbe writ of mandamus, which was used to put tbe power in operation.
Aiming in this opinion to tie closely to tbe decisions of this court, in the belief that they lead logically and unmistakably to tbe result reached, I can best commence by quoting tbe constitutional provision involved (sec. 3, art. VII), dividing tbe same, as significantly as practicable, into its component parts in harmony witb numerous adjudications on the subject.
Tbe supreme court, except.in cases otherwise provided in this constitution,
(2) shall have a general superintending control over all inferior courts; . . .
(3) and shall have power to issue writs of habeas corpus, mandamus, injunction, quo warranto, certiorari> and other original and remedial writs, and to hear and determine the same.
In this connection I will place the provision of the constitution as to circuit courts in order that the distinction between the functions of the specifically named writs in one and the same in the other as repeatedly pointed out here, and as we shall call attention to hereafter, may be easily seen.
The circuit courts shall have original jurisdiction
(1) in all matters civil and criminal . . . not excepted, etc.,
(2) and appellate jurisdiction, from all inferior courts and tribunals,
(3) and a supervisory control over the same . . . and “shall also have the power to issue writs of habeas corpus, mandamus, injunction, quo warranto, certiorari, and all other writs necessary to . . . give them a general control over inferior courts and jurisdictions.”
At the first instance of the scope of the provision as to this court coming in question (Att’y Gen. v. Blossom, 1 Wis. 311), the opening clause was treated as a limitation and the second and third as separate and distinct grants of power. The v/rits specifically named in the second Avere held not to have been so named to afford instrumentalities for the exercise of the first grant of power, the power being ancillary to the latter, but to grant a distinct power of original jurisdiction co-extensive with the scope of the writs by the rules of the common law; that the first grant, as to its scope, is not dependent upon any or all the writs specifically named; that, such writs, in their ordinary functions, are not appropriate at all to the exercise of supreme judicial superintending con
Discussing, in somewhat of a vein of ridicule, the idea that either of the specified writs within their ordinary field is at all suitable to the exercise of the power of superintending control, the court said:
“A mandamus cannot go to an inferior court to control its action. But it may be issued to put the court in motion. It may be called the moving, not the controlling, agency. A writ of injunction is in no way an appropriate means for exercising a superintending control over an inferior court. ... It is usually directed to the parties, and not to the court.”
In short, it was as definitely determined as any question could well be that the power in question is not limited by the ordinary scope of any one or all of the writs specifically mentioned in the constitution; that the constitutional idea was that the power should be exercised by common-law instru-mentalities other than such specified writs, or by legislative means; that the writs were given not ancillary to any grant of power, but for jurisdiction of an original character, though no definite light was shed on the scope, in detail, of the great power under discussion, consistent with the court’s conception of the constitution as to ultimate judicial authority. However, it was characterized as “unlimited in extent . . . undefined in character . . . unsupplied with means and instrumentalities.” IIow comprehensive that conception is of the supreme authority to control litigation! How the power grows in one’s appreciation as the subject is contemplated! How the idea is dwarfed into insignificance that the ancient functions of the writ of mandamus or in
The court in Att’y Gen. v. Railroad Cos. 35 Wis. 425, 511, dealing primarily with the subject of original jurisdiction, followed without material variations the lines laid down in the Blossom Gase. The three quoted parts of the constitution, appertaining to this court, were characterized as three-separate and entirely independent grants of power, instead of, as before, one a limitation of power and the others grants-of power, and since that time the latter treatment of the matter in this respect has been followed. It was said that the second grant was given without any specific means for its-exercise, but carried with it by necessary implication all common-law writs suitable thereto, and the power of invention as to any new instrumentalities that might be necessary; that the power was given to round out a single policy to construct a supreme judicial tribunal over the whole state, a court of' last resort on all judicial questions under the constitution and the laws of the state, to which was essential this power of “superintending jurisdiction over all other courts to control the course of ordinary litigation in them.” Note the significant words “to control the ordinary course of litigar lion” etc. It was pointed out that the specification of writs common to the two quoted provisions was not made in the-same sense in each or for a common purpose. That as to-circuit courts the writs were given in aid of jurisdiction, while as to this court they were given for jurisdiction. So* in the former their use is as general as is applicable to the jurisdiction to which they are pertinent, while in the latter they are limited to their ancient scope as prerogative writs-when used for prerogative purposes.
So it will be seen that the broad scope of the second grant of jurisdiction to this court, as at first laid down, was in the-
Intervening between the two cases above referred to is State ex rel. Brownell v. McArthur, 13 Wis. 407, and following them are State ex rel. Att’y Gen. v. Circuit Court, 97 Wis. 1, 72 N. W. 193, and State ex rel. Spence v. Dick, 103 Wis. 407, 79 N. W. 421. In neither was the scope of the power in question, nor the circumstances under which it should be used, discussed. However, in the first and third cases the error dealt with was strictly judicial and the remedy was allowed solely upon the ground that a clear statutory right had been inexcusably denied and there was no way of righting the wrong by appeal, while in the second case the error involved was jurisdictional and a summary remedy was demanded. So far as such cases throw any light on the subject in hand, an error of a trial court, whether judicial or
We now come to State ex rel. Fourth Nat. Bank v. Johnson, 103 Wis. 591, 19 N. W. 1081. There for the first time the scope of the power and the proper instrumentalities for its exercise were called in question and the court, as it was then thought, defined the one and pointed out the other with sufficient clearness to render any further controversy in respect thereto unnecessary. The case has not since been disturbed at any point, and in all subsequent instances of the subject being presented here the controversy involved was treated as ruled by the former adjudication. There was no question in the Johnson Case but that the decision of the circuit court for Milwaukee county, which was challenged, was within the range of its judicial authority. The errors complained of were in respect to erroneously making several rulings denying statutory rights, all made judicially but injudiciously. By the proceedings instituted to remedy the mischief it was sought to compel a vacation of all orders interfering with the enjoyment of the rights so denied, to coerce the circuit court into retracing its steps, effacing all of the erroneous rulings from the record, and commencing anew at the point where the erroneous course of action commenced and into proceeding properly; and to fence the jurisdiction closely about as to what was the proper disposition of the controversy, and to reverse if necessary any action interfering with the offending court so retracing its steps.
At the threshold of the case it was insisted that the superintending control jurisdiction of this court was appropriate only for correction of jurisdictional errors and that the
“With the superintending control and the attendant writs this court took all the power necessary to make that control and those writs effective, and its arm is not nerveless because no writ may be found in the form books so framed as to meet the emergency. The ivrik will he framed to meet the exigencies of the case, and the court will discharge the duties of the trust reposed with it by the people, though it becomes necessary to modify and enlarge the terms of the ancient writ.”
A study of the court’s opinion, in the first Johnson Gase, phrased by the present chief justice in his accustomed concise and clear language, satisfies the' writer that a monumental work was there done for the administration of justice in this state. It defined clearly for the first time the nature of the great power lodged in this court. It laid the foundation for its administration so deep and made its import so supremely significant as to obviate any danger of the great trust reposed here not being carefully guarded and its lofty purposes fully vindicated. Eo other full exposition of the power and the manner of its exercise, so far as the writer can discover, can be found anywhere. The general effect of the case is that, as said in the beginning, the power is unlimited and undefined in the sense that it can have no limitation other than by the possibility of situations which may arise requiring its exercise to accomplish the ends of justice. The concept of the constitution makers, as suggested in the Johnson Gase, was based on the unlimited authority of the English sovereign as exercised through his court, wherein, in contemplation of law, he was ever present to vindicate the
By the foregoing full force is given to the remarks in the Blossom Case that the power in question was conferred with all the writs, instrumentalities, powers, and agencies provided by the common law for the convenient and complete exercise of it. But contrary to the treatment there of the competency of specified writs they are declared to be applicable to its exercise, especially in view of the inherent power of the court to adapt them to situations as they arise, by expansion if necossaiy, beyond their ancient scope. I suggest in passing that this power of expansion is probably all there is of the so-called “secret in the law” to make new writs; that the expansion of the scope of an old writ, though no new name is coined to characterize it, is, in effect, for the given case, the making of a new writ. The court is, therefore, fully equipped with all the essentials for the convenient and complete exercise of tire power of superintending control. Thus the Johnson Case left nothing further for future consideration as to fundamentals or details, and unless something has been since decided out of harmony therewith the case in hand clearly falls within the broad scope of that power.
In the second Johnson Case it was said that this court under its superintending control power may act upon an in
With the broad lines laid down in the Johnson Oase in view the court said in State ex rel. Milwaukee v. Ludwig, 106 Wis. 226, 237, 82 N. W. 158, 162, speaking of the Johnson Case:
‘This court decided summary and radical action essential to recall the circuit court from a wholly erroneous policy. ... It is urged, though the inferior courts be acting within their jurisdiction and exercising merely the judicial powers with which they are vested, this court should interfere to ‘control the course of ordinary litigation in such inferior courts,’ ‘not only by restraining their excesses, but by quickening their negligence and obviating their denial of justice.’ That such power is vested in this court cannot be denied, nor that from such power results a duty to exercise it fearlessly and unflinchingly in a proper case.” Page 234 (82 N. W. 161).
In State ex rel. Milwaukee Med. Coll. v. Chittenden, 127 Wis. 468, 512, 107 U. W. 500, 514, the idea expressed in the Johnson Oase that the “secret in the law” spoken of in
Tbe foregoing, without referring to other cases which are in harmony therewith, brings tbe subject under discussion down to date, leaving tbe first Johnson Gase as tbe judicial classic, fully exposing to view tbe power of superintending control in its fundamentals and details. It has not been, as we have seen, by anything said subsequent thereto and is not liable to be in tbe future, departed from. Tbe first Williams Case (130 Wis. 588, 110 N. W. 1135), it must be said, was a departure to tbe extent tbat, ex necessitate legis, tbe court was unable to act. The second Williams Gase {ante, p. 1, 116 N. W. 225), is in harmony or out of harmony according to one’s viewpoint, with tbe failure to act in tbe first. So far as it goes, it approves tbe declarations in tbe Johnson Gase without limitation, except as it may be read as suggesting tbat tbe ordinary scope of tbe writs used in tbe numerous cases cited, particularly tbe English cases, indi
The history we have given leaves nothing to be said to further define the superintending power. The ancient characterization, as we have seen, marks the boundaries, reaching out as far as possible wrongs to be righted for which no other efficient remedy would exist, it being understood that no situation is cognizable, judicially, as involving a wrong, which has been finally judicially closed, so far as the policy of the law designs to furnish a remedy at all. It is difficult to imagine a judicial or jurisdictional error not involving either excessive exercise of power or negligent exercise thereof or denial of justice.
The case in hand, if we assume the trial court’s decision to have been wrong, does not involve any jurisdictional error nor a mere preliminary question, if such are to be limited to those arising prior to entering upon the merits of the charge either in reference to the sufficiency of the indictment or the proof to sustain it, but, upon the hypothesis suggested, does involve a denial of justice, presents a case of guilt within reasonable probability and the doors of justice erroneously closed by the trial court and the offender immune and the people remediless.
We now come to the secondary question of whether the court ought to allow its superintending authority to be used in the given case. It by no means follows that, given a wrong within the field of the power, that power should be used as a matter of course to remedy it. The scope of the
“The duty of the court must bé plain, the refusal to proceed within its jurisdiction to perform that duty must be clear, the results of such refusal prejudicial, the remedy, if any, by appeal or writ of error utterly inadequate, and the application for relief by mandamus speedy and prompt.”
Cases involving a clear denial of a statutory right, whether by the commission of judicial or jurisdictional errors not remediable by appeal or otherwise than under the superintending control power, must be recognized as forming a class by itself. State ex rel. Brownell v. McArthur, supra;
“This court will not exercise its jurisdiction when there is another adequate remedy, by appeal or otherwise, nor unless the exigency is of such an extreme nature as obviously to justify and demand the interposition of the extraordinary superintending power.”
With the foregoing in view it seems plain that the difficulties claimed to exist here come very far from involving such an emergency as the adjudications suggest to be necessary for putting the power in question in motion, notwithstanding there is no opportunity for relief by the use of ordinary remedies. The alleged error is not jurisdictional in any sense. It is not of a serious nor far-reaching character. It may well be characterized as quite insignificant. It concerns only an alleged breach of a mere police interference with private conduct, not involving moral turpitude nor inflicting, in the given case, any injury upon any one. The incident challenged, wre may well assume, was but one of many affording ample opportunity for one or more prosecutions of the accused independently of the event in question. As to that the claimed infirmities in the information can probably be remedied. The validity of the law itself is not involved. A new prosecution for the same offense, even, can be commenced if sec. 4611, Stats. (1898), be valid, and it has never yet been challenged. No other pending prosecution in the same or any other jurisdiction, so far as appears, will be directly or indirectly affected by the alleged wrong decision. It is not binding and will not necessarily have any efficient influence as to other cases in any other jurisdiction. In short, it is truly of a trifling character, within the meaning of the declarations here that the court will not take cognizance under its superintending power of
In the foregoing I am conscious of having traversed ground covered in the able opinion written for the court, but it seemed necessary in order to carry out the full purpose of this opinion, to pursue as logically as I could a history of the subject from the beginning to the crystallization of the doctrine I understand to have been heretofore 'and to be now substantially declared. I will close the treatment with this brief recapitulation:
(1) The second constitutional grant of power to this court, that of “general superintending control over all inferior courts,’’ is not limited other than by the necessities of justice. It extends to judicial as well as jurisdictional errors.
(2) The necessities of justice, in a legal sense, do not reach beyond the scope of governmental policy as to righting wrongs by judicial interference; as for example, it stops in criminal cases at the constitutional prohibition of a second jeopardy.
(3) The grant of superintending control, though without specified means or instrumentalities for its exercise, includes, by necessary implication, all common-law writs and means applicable thereto and all power necessary to make such writs and means fully adaptable for the purpose.
(4) The extent of the power of superintending control, as to any particular group of circumstances, is not measurable by that of the common-law writ most adaptable in its ordinary scope to vitalize such power in regard to such circumstances. Such extent is referable to the necessities of the case and the ordinary-use feature of the writ is to- be expanded to meet the exigencies thereof.
(5) The common-law writs with the power indicated to adapt them leave no part of the court’s superintending con
(6) Tlie existence of error in the field of the controlling power does not, necessarily, upon proper request in form, re■quire the doors of the jurisdiction to open. When that should occur rests in sound judicial discretion.
(7) By the policy of this court its superintending control power is to be exercised only when the right of the matter involved is plain, there is no other efficient remedy for its invasion or denial, such invasion or denial is prejudicial, and, generally, and especially as to errors not strictly jurisdictional, the ease presents circumstances of exceptional or extraordinary hardship.
Concurrence Opinion
The following opinion was filed November 5, 1908:
(concurring). When an English inferior court had for some reason dismissed a cause and application was made to the court of King’s Bench to exercise its power of super intending control by the writ of mandamus •directing the inferior court to proceed to a trial of the cause, this test was applied: Has the court refused to proceed further because it wrongly decided that some jurisdictional •or other purely preliminary objection, such as lack of proper parties, prevented it from entertaining the controversy at all, or has it decided that the facts stated constitute no offense or cause of action? In the first case the writ would be issued, in the second case it would not, because in the first case the court had declined to exercise its jurisdiction to try the case, while in the second case it had exercised jurisdiction and tried the merit, of the case upon an issue of law. Reg. v. Brown, 7 E. & B. 757; State v. Williams, ante, p. 1, 116 N. W. 225, and cases cited in opinion. When the present case was brought before us I thought, and still think, that it presented, not a case of dismissal upon a preliminary
I was also of opinion that the English rule should be applied, as it seemed to me that we had definitely held in the Johnson Case (103 Wis. 591, 79 N. W. 1081; 105 Wis. 164, 83 N. W. 320) that the constitutional grant of the power of superintending control to this court meant only such power as was exercised by the court of King’s Bench. The majority of my brethren, however, hold that, even if my view of the English rule be correct (which they do not concede), still this court in the first Johnson Gase took a much broader-ground, and decided, in effect, that in a proper case this court would not only review by mandamus the action' of an inferior court upon such a preliminary question, but would review any ruling which resulted in the practical throwing of a case-out of court before trial upon evidence, which, as applied to-criminal cases, would mean any ruling resulting in dismissal-prior to the impaneling of a jury and the placing of the defendant in jeopardy. Upon mature reflection and with some hesitation I have yielded to this view, not because I have become convinced of error in my first conclusion, but chiefly because it has seemed to me eminently desirable that a troublesome question which has been frequently presented to us-of late should be definitely and clearly settled with as great unanimity as possible.
I agree also with the conclusion reached by the court that the facts here do not present a case of such importance as should move this court to' action. In the Johnson Case it was substantially held that the power of superintending control was not given to this court to be exercised indiscriminately in trivial or relatively unimportant causes, but only upon sufficienl occasion. That was a case where large prop
Concurrence Opinion
The following opinion was filed-November 10, 1908:
(concurring). The power of superintending control conferred on this court -by our constitution is coterminous with the power vested in the 'court of King’s Bench. State ex rel. Fourth Nat. Bank v. Johnson, 103 Wis. 591, 70 N. W. 1081; State ex rel. McGovern v. Williams, ante, p. 1, 116 N. W. 225. It extended to a review of preliminary questions needing to be decided before the court could take into consideration the merits of the controversy. State ex rel. McGovern v. Williams. supra, and English cases cited. The question in the Williams Case was whether there existed
Eor these reasons, while I concur in the judgment of the court in dismissing the writ in the present case, I cannot yield my assent to that portion of the opinion which declares that under some other circumstances we should have power to review such an order as this.