18 N.M. 314 | N.M. | 1913
OPINION OF THE COURT.
G. W. Bledsoe was the prosecuting witness in an information filed by the District Attorney, before a Justice of the Peace, against John Coats and his wife, wherein they were charged with conducting a disorderly house within three hundred yards of a school house. Upon trial the defendants were acquitted, and the Justice ■of the Peace found that the prosecution was instituted “maliciously and without probable cause,” and taxed the costs against Bledsoe and ordered him committed until the costs.should be paid. Prom the judgment taxing him with the costs, Bledsoe appealed to the District Court. In the District Court the State filed a motion to dismiss the ■appeal, on the ground that the District Court was without jurisdiction to try the case, because no appeal could be taken from, the judgment of the Justice of the Peace. The Court overruled the motion and called the case for trial, and the State offering no evidence, a judgment was entered discharging Bledsoe from the payment of the costs •of the case. Prom such judgment the State appeals, and predicates error upon two grounds, viz: (1) The imposition of costs, upon the prosecuting witness, resting’ solely within the discretion of the Justice of the Peace, no appeal lies to review such discretion, and (2) upon appeal, in such a case, the burden was upon the appellant, and in the absence of any evidence it was the duty of the Court to •enter judgment fox the State.
Appellant’s brief is devoteá chiefly to a discussion of the first ground upon which error is predicated. The section of the statute, under which the Justice of the Peace imposed the costs of the case upon the prosecuting witness^ reads as follows:—
Section 3, chap.- 61, S. L. 1907.) ‘‘Upon the trial of any criminal ease, whenever the Court or Justice of the Peace shall be satisfied that any such case has been instituted maliciously, or without probable cause, the Court may in its discretion tax the costs therein against the prosecuting witness, in which event such witness shall stand committed until such costs be fully paid.”
“In North Carolina, where the Court decides whether grounds exist for imposing costs on the prosecutor, its-finding that the facts warrant the imposition, is conclusive.”
But that this rule applies only to appeals from the District Court to the Supreme Court, is clearly shown by the-North Carolina Supreme Court in. the case of State v. Hamilton, 106 N. C. 660:
“Section 738 empowers the Court to imprison the proseeutor for nonpayment of costs, if it shall adjudge that the prosecution was frivolous and malicious. This is held constitutional. State v. Cannady, 78 N. C. 539. These findings of fact by the Court below have been repeatedly held conclusive and not reviewable by this Court on appeal. State v. Adams, 85 N. C. 560; State v. Owen, 87 N. C. 565; State v. Dunn, 95 N. C. 697. Though such findings of fact by a Justice of the Peace are reviewable by the Superior Court on appeal. State v. Murdock, 85 N. C. 598; State v. Powell, 86 N. C. 640.”
By sec. 3305, C. L. 1897, Bledsoe had the right to appeal to the District Court from the judgment against him. This being true, the District Court properly overruled the motion to dismiss the appeal.
Finding no errors in the record, the judgment of the District Court is affirmed, and it is so ordered.