State v. Bob Manashian PaintingState v. Bob Manashian Painting
INTRODUCTION
{¶ 1} On September 28, 1999, the court entered judgment for plaintiff against defendant in the sum of $482.10, with statutory interest to run from the date of judgment. The court now has before it a “Certified Demand for Proof of Jurisdiction,” “Nunc Pro Tunc Estoppel at Law and Public Notice Rescission
{¶ 2} The Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure do not contemplate such documents. The court will treat them as a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction over the person under Civ.R. 12(B)(2), and will rule accordingly.
FINDINGS OF FACT
{¶ 3} It is hard to know how to approach the virtually impenetrable wall of legalistic gibberish which defendant has erected. However, in light of defendant’s apparent misconceptions regarding citizenship, a brief review of Ohio history may be in order.
{¶ 4} For thousands of years, the region now known as the state of Ohio was wild and unsettled. Indian tribes such as the Adena, Hopewell, Miami, Wyandot, Mingo, Delaware, Shawnee, and Seneca came and went as they pleased, and no nation exercised dominion here. Eventually European explorers and settlers arrived and, with the British victory in the French and Indian War of 1754-1763, British control of the Ohio territory was secured. Knepper, Ohio and Its People (Kent State Univ. Press 1989), at 9-32.
{¶ 5} For over a century after their establishment, the original thirteen American colonies were ruled by Great Britain. In 1774, angered by “taxation without representation” and concerned that their rights were being systematically violated by King George III and his officials, the colonies sent delegates to the Continental Congress. The next year, the American Revolution broke out when colonists fought the King’s soldiers at Lexington and Concord. On July 4, 1776, Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming that the colonies “are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states * * * absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and * * * Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved.” Several more years of warfare followed, until the great American victory at Yorktown in 1781 brought the War for Independence to a close. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris confirmed American independence from Britain.
{¶ 6} Congress adopted a resolution on October 10, 1780, concerning the lands to the west of the original thirteen states: “Resolved, that the unappropriated lands that may be ceded or relinquished to the United States, by any particular states * * * shall be disposed of for the common benefit of the United States, and be settled and formed into distinct republican states, which shall
{¶ 7} Congress then passed the Land Ordinance of 1785, which provided for the surveying of the Western Territory, including present-day Ohio. In 1787, Congress enacted the Northwest Ordinance, establishing a territorial government here and providing that “[t]here shall be formed in the said territory, not less than three nor more than five states.” The Ordinance prohibited slavery and provided for freedom of worship, the right of habeas corpus and trial by jury, and the right to make bail except for capital offenses. The Northwest Ordinance “was ever considered as the fundamental law of the territory.” Ludlow’s Heirs v. Johnston (1828),
{¶ 8} Throughout the last decade of the eighteenth century, the pace of settlement in the Ohio territory increased and its population grew. Congress passed an Enabling Bill to establish a new state, which President Thomas Jefferson signed into law on April 30, 1802. Knepper at 93; State ex rel. Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers v. Sheward (1999),
{¶ 9} A state constitutional convention was held in November 1802 in Chilli-cothe, and a state constitution was adopted. Congress accepted the constitution and approved statehood for the new state of Ohio. On February 19, 1803, President Jefferson signed the bill into law. It provided that Ohio “had become one of the United States of America,” and that all the laws of the United States “shall have the same force and effect within the said State of Ohio, as elsewhere within the United States.” The first state legislature met in Chillicothe, the new state capital, on March 1, 1803. Ohio was the seventeenth state to join the Union. Knepper at 32-98.
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
{¶ 10} Defendant is undoubtedly a citizen of the United States and of this state. The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides:
{¶ 12} Every citizen of Ohio is a citizen of two distinct sovereignties having jurisdiction throughout the state. This jurisdiction is concurrent as to place and persons, but distinct as to subject matter. Claflin v. Houseman (1876),
{¶ 13} Ohio has never existed as an independent nation (unlike, for instance, Vermont and Texas before statehood), and defendant’s references to an “Ohio Republic” have no basis in law or fact. Litigants in other courts have argued that Ohio is not a state, or that it was never properly admitted to the Union. These assertions are entirely groundless. Lewingdon v. Celeste (C.A.6,1986),
{¶ 14} Each of the cases which defendant cites in his “Certified Demand for Proof of Jurisdiction” pertains to the jurisdiction of federal courts, which is quite different from that of a state court. Defendant also misreads Clause 17, Section 8, Article I of the United States Constitution, which provides:
{¶ 15} “The Congress shall have Power to * * * exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards and other needful Buildings.”
{¶ 16} Commonly referred to as the Enclave Clause, this provision simply refers to what was to become the District of Columbia, a national capital free of state control, and other areas such as military bases and national parks, which are under exclusive federal jurisdiction. It obviously does not mean that the Constitution is restricted in its operation only to such areas. As provided by the Supremacy Clause, Section 2, Article VI:
{¶ 18} The boundaries of the United States conform to the external boundaries of the several states, including all areas subject to the jurisdiction of the federal government wherever located, such as overseas territories. Hooven & Allison Co. v. Evatt (1945),
{¶ 19} In Ohio, the people are sovereign, but collectively, and not as individuals. DeRolph v. State (2000),
{¶ 20} “All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their equal protection and benefit, and they have the right to alter, reform, or abolish the same, whenever they may deem it necessary.” Ohio Constitution, Section 2, Article I.
{¶ 21} The Supreme Court of Ohio held over a century ago:
{¶ 22} “Here the people, possessing all governmental power, adopted constitutions, completely distributing it to appropriate departments. They created courts * * * [with] all the powers which are necessary to their efficient action, or embraced within their commonly received definition. The power in question was lodged permanently in the courts, to be exercised by those who, for the time being, may be charged with the performance of judicial duties.” Hale v. State (1896),
{¶ 23} The judicial branch bears the judicial power of the state. Ohio Constitution, Section 2, Article IV. It is “emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.” Marbury v. Madison (1803),
{¶ 24} Ohio is a sovereign state, possessing sovereign powers effective within its territorial limits. S. Gum Co. v. Laylin (1902),
{¶ 25} The governments of the state of Ohio and of the United States are each sovereign, but the sovereignty of the state is essentially different from that of the federal government. The state is in some ways subordinate to the United States, as the Supremacy Clause indicates. Claflin, supra; see, also, Tafflin v. Levitt (1990),
{¶ 26} The Constitution of Ohio guarantees that the courts of this state must be open, and each person must have a remedy by due course of law. Ohio Constitution, Section 16, Article I. The word “person” in this guaranty refers to any lawful resident. Leiberg v. Vitangeli (1942),
{¶ 27} To evade that judgment, defendant wishes to set himself outside the structure of ordered liberty provided by the laws of this state and this nation. President George Washington once warned, “If the laws are to be trampled upon with impunity, and a minority (a small one too) is to dictate to the majority, there is an end put, at one stroke, to republican government.” Flexner, Washington: The Indispensable Man (Little, Brown and Co. 1969), at 316. It is hard to conceive of a minority smaller than one.
{¶ 28} Defendant is a citizen of this state unless and until he establishes residency in another state, or in another country. He is a citizen of the United States unless and until he undertakes those steps provided under federal law for revocation of citizenship, and, incidentally, subjects himself to deportation. Sections 1229 and 1481, Title 8, U.S.Code; see, also, Afroyim v. Rusk (1967),
HOLDING
{¶ 29} Treating his filings of October 17, 2002, as a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction over the person under Civ.R. 12(B)(2), the court finds it to be both untimely and unpersuasive, and denies the motion. Defendant’s filings are a nullity, of no legal force and effect whatsoever. The court’s judgment of September 28,1999, stands.
{¶ 30} IT IS SO ORDERED.
Judgment accordingly.