THE STATE EX REL. YEAGER, APPELLANT, v. LAKE COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS ET AL., APPELLEES.
No. 2023-1172
Supreme Court of Ohio
May 22, 2024
Slip Opinion No. 2024-Ohio-1921
APPEAL frоm the Court of Appeals for Lake County, No. 2023-L-033, 2023-Ohio-2928.
NOTICE
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SLIP OPINION NO. 2024-OHIO-1921
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as State ex rel. Yeager v. Lake Cty. Court of Common Pleas, Slip Opinion No. 2024-Ohio-1921.]
Mandamus—Prohibition—Appellant had adequate remedy in ordinary course of law through direct appeal to raise his claim that trial court violated his right to counsel—Trial court did not patently and unambiguously lack jurisdiction—Court of appeals’ judgment granting trial court‘s motion to dismiss affirmed.
(No. 2023-1172—Submitted March 26, 2024—Decided May 22, 2024.)
{¶ 1} Appellant, Andre M. Yeager, is an inmate at the Richland Correctional Institution. He appeals the Eleventh District Court of Appeals’ judgment dismissing his complaint for writs of prohibition and mandamus against appellees, the Lake County Court of Common Pleas and Judge Vincent A. Culotta (collectively, “the trial court“). Yeager generally argues that his criminal convictions are unenforceable and must be vacated. Bеcause Yeager has failed to state a valid claim for either writ, we affirm.
BACKGROUND
{¶ 2} In Lake County Court of Common Pleas case No. 21CR001041, Yeager waived his right to counsel and represented himself at trial. A jury found Yeager guilty of grand theft, breaking and entering, and vandalism. On January 10, 2022, the trial court sentenced Yeager to an aggregate prison term of 39 months. Yeager appealed his convictions to the Eleventh District, where he argued that the trial court had erred by allowing him to represent himself at trial. The Eleventh District affirmed the trial court‘s judgment of conviction. See State v. Yeager, 11th Dist. Lake No. 2022-L-008, 2023-Ohio-2541, ¶ 31 (“we arе completely satisfied that appellant knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligently chose to represent himself“).
{¶ 3} Yeager filed this original action in the Eleventh District, requesting a writ of prohibition preсluding the trial court from enforcing his convictions and a writ of mandamus directing the trial court to vacate his convictions. In his complaint, Yeager asserts seven causes of action in which he claims that his case was improperly assigned to the trial-court judge, the trial court violated his right to counsel, and the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence. The Eleventh District granted the trial court‘s motion to dismiss Yeager‘s complaint under
{¶ 4} Yeager appealed to this court as of right.
LEGAL ANALYSIS
{¶ 5} We can quickly dispose of Yeager‘s first three propositions of law. In his first proposition of law, Yeager contends that the Elеventh District denied him due process of law by granting the trial court‘s motion for a protective order and to stay discovery in violation of
{¶ 6} In his second and third propositions of law, Yeager maintains that the Eleventh District denied him due process of law by granting the trial court‘s motion to dismiss in its entirety because the trial court failed to address certain causes of action in Yeager‘s complaint and failed to comply with “Civil Rule 8(b)(2).”1 Yet the trial court did briefly describe the entirety of Yeager‘s cоmplaint in its motion to dismiss: “Although quite lengthy, Mr. Yeager‘s complaint appears only to assert seven causes of action, six of which appear to allege that he did not knowingly, intelligently, аnd voluntarily waive his right to counsel, and one that alleges that the state withheld exculpatory evidence.” Additionally,
{¶ 7} Under his final proposition of law, Yeager argues that the Eleventh District erred in granting the trial court‘s motion to dismiss his complaint under
{¶ 8} To be entitled to a writ of prohibition, Yeager must establish that (1) the trial court has exercised judicial power, (2) the exercise of that power was unauthorized by law, and (3) denying the writ would result in injury for which no other adequate remedy exists in the ordinary course of the law. State ex rel. Nyamusevya v. Hawkins, 165 Ohio St.3d 22, 2021-Ohio-1122, 175 N.E.3d 495, ¶ 14. To be entitled to a writ of mandamus, Yeager must establish (1) a cleаr legal right to the requested relief, (2) a clear legal duty on the part of the trial court to provide it, and (3) the lack of an adequate remedy in the ordinary course of the law. State ex rel. Waters v. Spaeth, 131 Ohio St.3d 55, 2012-Ohio-69, 960 N.E.2d 452, ¶ 6. Howеver, if the trial court patently and unambiguously lacked jurisdiction, Yeager need not establish the lack of an adequate legal remedy. Schlegel v. Sweeney, 171 Ohio St.3d 1, 2022-Ohio-3841, 215 N.E.3d 451, ¶ 6 (prohibition); State ex rel. Davis v. Janas, 160 Ohio St.3d 187, 2020-Ohio-1462, 155 N.E.3d 822, ¶ 10 (mandamus).
{¶ 9} In his complaint, Yeager claims that his convictiоns are unenforceable and must be vacated because the trial court failed to obtain a valid waiver of his constitutional right to counsel, in violation of state and federal сase law and
{¶ 11} Moreover, the trial court unquestionably had subject-matter jurisdiction over Yeager‘s criminal case. See Smith v. Sheldon, 157 Ohio St.3d 1, 2019-Ohio-1677, 131 N.E.3d 1, ¶ 8 (under
{¶ 12} Yeager nevertheless contends in his complaint that he is entitled to relief in prohibition and mandamus because the trial court‘s alleged failure to obtain a valid waiver of counsel deрrived the trial court of jurisdiction to proceed to trial. In support of this contention, Yeager relies on Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 58 S.Ct. 1019, 82 L.Ed. 1461 (1938) and State ex rel. Ogle v. Hocking Cty. Common Pleas Court, 167 Ohio St.3d 181, 2021-Ohio-4453, 190 N.E.3d 594 (”Ogle I“), overruled by State ex rel. Ogle v. Hocking Cty. Common Pleas Court, 173 Ohio St.3d 118, 2023-Ohio-3534, 227 N.E.3d 1202 (”Ogle II“). In Zerbst, the United
{¶ 13} We recently overruled Ogle I, however, explaining that in Waley v. Johnston, 316 U.S. 101, 104-105, 62 S.Ct. 964, 86 L.Ed. 1302 (1942), the United States Supreme Court “‘openly discarded the concept of jurisdiction’ that was articulated in cases such аs Zerbst as a concept that had become ‘more a fiction than anything else,’ Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. 72, 79, 97 S.Ct. 2497, 53 L.Ed.2d 594 (1977).” Ogle II at ¶ 20. We held that “[a] violation of the defendant‘s right to counsel does not deprive the sentencing court of subject-matter jurisdiction any more than any other constitutional or trial error does.” Id. at ¶ 21. “Such a violation is a structural error that is reversible on appeal, but it does not result in a sеntence that is void for the court‘s lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.” State ex rel. Boyd v. Tone, 173 Ohio St.3d 170, 2023-Ohio-3832, 227 N.E.3d 1246, ¶ 16, citing Ogle II at ¶ 21.
{¶ 14} In his merit brief on appeal, Yeager acknowledges this development in the case law but asserts that we misread Waley in Ogle II and that the United States Supreme Court has not overruled Zerbst. However, our decision in Ogle II wаs based on the United States Supreme Court‘s own recognition that “its prior ‘elastic concept of jurisdiction is not what the term “jurisdiction” means today, i.e., “the courts’ statutory or constitutional power to adjudicate the case.“’ (Emphasis added in Steel Co.)” Ogle II at ¶ 20, quoting United States v. Cotton, 535 U.S. 625, 630, 122 S.Ct. 1781, 152 L.Ed.2d 860 (2002), quoting Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment, 523 U.S. 83, 89, 118 S.Ct. 1003, 140 L.Ed.2d 210 (1998). “Rather, subject-matter jurisdiction refers only to ‘the classes of cases * * * falling
{¶ 15} Because Yeager had an adequate remedy in the ordinary course of the law to raise the claims in his complaint and because the trial court did not рatently and unambiguously lack jurisdiction, Yeager is not entitled to a writ of prohibition precluding the trial court from enforcing his convictions or a writ of mandamus vacating his convictions.
CONCLUSION
{¶ 16} We affirm the Eleventh District Court of Appeals’ judgment dismissing Yeager‘s complaint for writs of prohibition and mandamus under
Judgment affirmed.
KENNEDY, C.J., and FISCHER, DeWINE, DONNELLY, STEWART, BRUNNER, and DETERS, JJ., conсur.
Andre M. Yeager, pro se.
Charles E. Coulson, Lake County Prosecuting Attorney, and Kelly A. Echols, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellees.