1 A.2d 761 | Conn. | 1938
In the first of these cases the defendant has been charged with a criminal offense by the indictment of a grand jury. In the other two, informations have been brought against the defendants as a result of a report made by a special grand jury. All three cases are before us upon motions for permission to inspect the minutes of the grand juries. In the first case the trial court granted the motion and the State has appealed, but in the other two the trial court in a different county denied the motions and the defendants have appealed. Whatever difference, if any, there may be in the rights of the defendants to inspect the minutes, there is no distinction as regards the question presented upon these motions to erase the appeals. The question before us is whether the rulings upon the motions are final judgments within the statute giving a right of appeal to this court. General Statutes, 5689.
We have said, referring to a ruling granting a motion to erase a case from the docket, that "Any order *642
or proceeding which disposes of the cause, and places the parties out of court, is `final.'" Norton v. Shore Line Electric Ry. Co.,
In Banca Commerciale Italiana Trust Co. v. Westchester Artistic Works, Inc., supra, we said with reference to final judgments in the appeal statute: "The test lies, not in the nature of the judgment, but in its effect as concluding the rights of some or all of the parties; if such rights are concluded, so that further proceedings after entry of the order or decree of the court cannot affect them, then the judgment is a final judgment from which an appeal lies." We did not use the word "rights" in that opinion in an inclusive sense. There are many rulings in the course of an action by which rights are determined which are interlocutory in their nature and reviewable only upon an appeal taken from a judgment later rendered. France v. Munson,
Recognizing the force of these decisions the appellants claim that the motions now before us were made in proceedings collateral to but independent of the prosecutions and as the rulings upon them terminated those proceedings they constitute final judgments. Under 5701 of the General Statutes a court may, for certain reasons, such as the discovery of new evidence, grant a new trial of an action, and while a petition for such relief is really ancillary to the original action, nevertheless, unless relief is sought by a motion made in the course of that action, the petition must be served and returned as is required in the case of other civil process; Gannon v. State,
The motions before us do not present an analogous situation. They were made in the course of the proceedings *646 following upon the indictment or informations and their object was to obtain certain evidence which might aid the defendants in their preparation for and conduct of the trial. The rulings were a part of the proceedings in the principal cases and were strictly interlocutory in their nature. They were not final judgments within our appeal statute.
It may be that there is justification for the different rulings made on the motions by the trial courts before which they came. The cases differ, whether materially or not we do not need to consider, in that in the first the prosecution is based upon an indictment by the grand jury and in the others upon informations filed by the special state's attorney, and other variant circumstances may have entered into the respective decisions. We do not overlook the fact that counsel for the defendant appellants claim that they will be much hampered by these rulings in their preparation for trial and in a full and fair presentation of the cases in court. They state in their briefs that witnesses before the grand jury were sworn to secrecy and that the defendants cannot, therefore, ascertain from those witnesses facts relevant to their defense. That is clearly a misunderstanding of the situation. The oath would prevent such witnesses from disclosing what took place in the grand jury room, including the testimony they or others there gave. But it would not prevent them if they so desired from giving to the defendants any information they might have relevant to the prosecution even though it was the same information as to which they testified before the grand jury.
Should the present appeals be sustained they would serve as precedents which might go far to nullify the purpose of the Legislature in authorizing an appeal only from a "final judgment." These motions are, for example, closely analogous to motions for disclosure *647 or to inspect the person of a party to the action, and the like. To permit appeals from rulings upon such motions might seriously delay the final disposition of pending cases. On the one hand, counsel who sincerely felt that by an order upon such a motion the rights of his client were seriously harmed might feel compelled to take an immediate appeal; and, on the other hand, the opportunity to appeal in such a situation might well serve the purpose of parties who desire for their own ends to postpone the final determination of the issues. Allowance of multiple appeals in a single action would not accord with the sound policy which favors the speedy disposition of actions in court, and particularly of criminal prosecution
The motions to erase are granted.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.