110 Mo. App. 520 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1905
(after stating the facts). — Appellant contends that “two circuit courts for the same circuit cannot be convened and holden the same day.” A court is a judicial assembly. Bouvier gives the
“If there be a vacancy in the office of judge of any circuit, or if the judge be sick, absent, or from any cause unable to hold any term or part of term of court in any county in his circuit, such term or part of term of court may be held by a judge of any other circuit; and at the request of the judge of any circuit, any term or part of term in his circuit may be held by the judge of any other circuit and in all such cases, or any case where the judge cannot preside, the General Assembly shall make such additional provision for holding court as may be found necessary.”
It appears from the above sections of the Constitution that the circuit courts, while they are courts of
“If in any case, the judge shall be incompetent to sit for any of the causes mentioned in section 2594, and no person to try the case will serve when elected as such special judge, the judge of the court shall, in either case, set the cause down for trial on some day of the term, or on some day as early as practicable in vacation, and notify and request the judge of some other circuit to try the cause; and it shall be the duty of the judge so requested to appear and hold the court at the time appointed for the trial of said cause; and he shall, during the trial of said cause, possess all the powers and perform all the duties of a circuit judge at a regular term■ of such court, and may adjourn the case from day to day, or to some other time as the exigencies of the case may require, and may grant a change of venue in said cause to the circuit court of another county in the same circuit, or to another circuit • and whenever said cause shall be removed to the circuit court of another county in the same circuit, it shall be the duty of the judge so requested to appear and hold the court at the time set for the trial of said cause in the circuit court of the county to which said cause shall be removed: Provided, that if the person elected as such special judge shall refuse to serve, or if the judge so requested shall fail to appear and hold the court at the time appointed for the trial of said cause, the judge of said court shall reset said cause for trial, to suit the convenience of the judge so requested to try said cause, or may notify and request the judge*527 of some other circuit to appear and try said cause, as heretofore provided. Should said judge so requested fail to appear and hold the court at the time appointed for the trial of said cause, the judge of the court shall order a change of venue in said cause to some other circuit. Said order may he made in term time, or by the judge of the court in vacation, by an order in writing, which the judge shall file with the’ clerk of the court in which said cause is pending. Whenever the judge so requested shall appear and hold the court for the trial of said cause, he shall, in addition to the salary now allowed by law, receive his actual expenses and five dollars per diem for the time necessarily engaged in the trial of said cause and in going to and returning from the place of trial, which shall be paid out of the State treasury upon the certificate of the clerk of the court in which such cause is pending. Whenever the special judge elected to try a cause shall appear and hold court for the trial thereof, he shall receive ten dollars per day for the time necessarily engaged in such trial and five dollars per day while going to and returning from the place of trial, if he reside out of the county where said cause is tried, to be paid out of the State treasury upon the certificate of the clerk of the court where said cause is tried.”
Section 2598 is as follows:
“When any cause is set down for trial in vacation, as directed, in the next preceding section, the judge shall adjourn the term to that day, at which time an adjourned term of said court may he held for the trial ■of the cause, and the court shall notify or recognize the witnesses in the cause to appear at the time set for the trial thereof, and their attendance may be compelled by attachment, as in other cases.”
This last section authorizes in plain terms the adjournment of the court to any day in vacation of the Ripley, not the Butler, Circuit Court that the cause may be set down for trial and says “an adjourned term
Section 29 of tbe Constitution above quoted conferred upon tbe Legislature full and complete authority to provide for cases when tbe regular judge is disqualified. By the sections' of tbe statute above quoted, the Legislature has made ample provisions and authorized tbe calling of Judge Davis to bold tbe court. [R. S. 1899, sec. 2597.] That section authorized Judge Port, tbe regular judge, “to set tbe cause down for trial on some day of tbe term or on some day as early as practicable in vacationIn vacation of what? Of tbe Ripley County Circuit Court. That is, on some day convenient to tbe judge being called in between tbe regular terms of tbe Ripley Circuit Court. In. construing these statutes we must keep in mind what we know and what tbe Legislature which made this law knew, that tbe judicial circuits in this State are composed as a rule, of several counties — say an average of four or five counties to tbe circuit. In some counties by a special act, there are two or more courts. Now tbe judge who is to be called in to bold tbe court under these provisions may and often does, and in fact in this case did, reside several hundred miles away from the court be was called upon to bold; that be, too, being a judge of a circuit court, bad bis time occupied with tbe duties of bis own court in several counties over which be presided; that to dispose of tbe court beld by him in bis circuit at tbe regular term thereof and then probably cross tbe State to bold court in Judge Port’s circuit might and probably would bring about a condition which would render it impossible to bold tbe court in Ripley county at all unless at a time when some other court in tbe same circuit was in session. It is provided in tbe section above quoted that “if tbe
The appellant’s contention is not very clear. He
In Lewin v. Dille, 17 Mo. 64, the Madison County Circuit Court, during a trial, the term being about to expire, ordered a special term the next day, the same day fixed by law for holding the regular term in Bollinger county. The Supreme Court held that “there
In the case of State v. Knight, 19 Iowa 94, it was held that a judge might continue a term of court into the time fixed by law for holding a court in the same district and the earlier cases of Davis v. Fish, 1 Green (Ia.) 408, and Grable v. State, 2 Green (Ia.) 559, were in effect overruled. This last case cited was relied upon by appellant — also cited and relied upon and in fact, it was the only case cited and relied upon by Mr. Justice Brewer on this point, in In re Millington, supra. So we see that Mr. Justice Brewer’s opinion is based upon the doctrine of this case borrowed from Iowa, which also has been, in effect, overruled by the court of that State. The same court held in Weaver v. Coolidge, 15 Iowa 244, that a judgment rendered three days after the time fixed for the commencement of another court in the same district was not void. To the same effect are State v. Clark, 30 Ia. 168, and .Cook v. Smith, 54 la. 636. It was held that a judgment pronounced at a term continued over the time fixed by law for another term in the same district was not erro
The Supreme Court of West Virginia, like that of Missouri, has taken a broad and liberal, yet conservative view of this question in an ably considered opinion so strongly in point here that we quote extensively from it. That court said: ‘ ‘ Look at the inconvenience and evil resulting from a different construction. An important criminal cause, occupying days or weeks in one county, is heard. The jury is out deliberating, but has not yet reached a verdict. The clock strikes the hour when the judge ought to leave to get to his next court. He calls in the jury, and disbands it; remands the prisoner to jail. All the expense and work go for naught, and worse yet, the prisoner is deprived of his right of a speedy trial. I cannot yield to this construction eutailing so much evil, without a statute more plainly calling for it than our present statute. Therefore, I think the acts of the circuit court of Tucker not void, though done by that court sitting any number of days into the term fixed for the circuit court of Preston. It seems to me that common sense, convenience, dispatch of the public business, range themselves on the side of one construction; mere idle technicality and inconvenience on the other. Two courts in the same circuit can proceed at the same time in different counties. The law provides that a judge of one circuit may hold in that of another. The circuit court of each county is a separate, distinct entity — an existence in itself. Why a lawful judge may not sit in one county,
Our conclusion is that the court in which the defendant was tried was a tribunal exercising judicial power at the time and place of the trial under the warrant, provisions and authority of the law. The judgment is, therefore, affirmed.