Opinion · Supreme Court of North Carolina

State v. . Tisdale

19 N.C. 159

Type: Opinion
Court: Supreme Court of North Carolina
Jurisdiction: North Carolina
Date: 1836-12-05
Topic: general

Ruffin, Chief Justice. It is not denied, on the part of the state, that a former conviction is generally a bar to another indictment for the same offence. But it is said, that it is not a bar, unless tpé court which gave the judgment had jurisdiction ; and that in this case, the County Court had none, because it attached, upon the finding of the bill,, in the Superior Court, and necessarily ousted that of the former court. We do not accede to that inference : the finding of a bill does not confine the state to that single bill. Another may be preferred, and the party put to a trial on it, notwithstanding the first remains undetermined ; for auter foits arraign is no plea, generally.

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STATEv. TISDALE,19 N.C. 159(1836)

THE STATEv. WILLIAM D. TISDALE.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

(December Term, 1836.)

Where a bill of indictment for an assault and battery was found in the Superior Court against a person who was subsequently, but before being taken to answer the charge in the Superior Court, indicted and convicted in the County Court for the same offence,it was held, that the County Court had jurisdiction of the case, notwithstanding the bill found in the Superior Court; and that to that bill he might plead his former conviction in the County Court.

THE defendant was indicted in the Superior Court of the county of Nash, for an assault and battery, upon one Cullen Floyd; and at the last term of the said court, in September, he plead a "former conviction for the same offence, in the County Court of Nash, at its August Term, 1836;" to which the Attorney-General, for the state, replied, that before the prosecution commenced in the County Court, to wit, at the Spring Term, 1836, of the Superior Court, the present bill was found against the defendant, and that the prosecution had been since regularly kept up. To this replication the defendant rejoined, that he had no legal notice of the prosecution in the Superior Court, before his conviction in the County Court; and to this rejoinder the Attorney-General demurred. His Honor Judge STRANGE overruled the demurrer, and ordered the defendant to be discharged; whereupon the Attorney-General appealed.

The Attorney-General, for the state, contended, — That by the finding of the bill, the jurisdiction of the Superior Court attached to the case, and that the County Court then had none. By the act of 1777, (Rev. c. 115,) the County Court had sole jurisdiction of the offence; and by the act of 1807, (Rev. c. 712,) concurrent jurisdiction was given to the Superior Court; but the legislature could not have intended that two indictments for the same offence should be carried on at the same time. The case ofTheStatev.Yarbrough, 1 Hawks, 78, decides, that where the jurisdiction of the County Court attaches, the Superior CourtPage 160cannot act upon the case, except upon an appeal. See also,Statev.McNiel, 3 Hawks, 183. Hence, when the bill was found, the jurisdiction of the Superior Court attached, and the County Court could not afterwards entertain the case.

No counsel appeared for the defendant.

RUFFIN, Chief Justice.

— It is not denied, on the part of the state, that a former conviction is generally a bar to another indictment for the same offence. But it is said, that it is not a bar, unless the court which gave the judgment had jurisdiction; and that in this case, the County Court had none, because it attached, upon the finding of the bill, in the Superior Court, and necessarily ousted that of the former court.

We do not accede to that inference: the finding of a bill does not confine the state to that single bill. Another may be preferred, and the party put to a trial on it, notwithstanding the first remains undetermined; forauter foits arraignis no plea, generally. Thus it undoubtedly is, when both bills are in the same court: a second bill therefore is not takencoram non judiceso as to be a nullity; but the jurisdiction of the offence remains, independent of that to be exercised on the first bill. Then, how is this affected by the two bills being found in two courts having concurrent jurisdiction? We think, that as respects the jurisdictionof theoffence, the case is the same as if both prosecutions were in the same court. If, for instance, a bill were now to be found in the Superior Court — which might be, notwithstanding the former bill in that court — the defendant could plead to it his former conviction in the County Court, notwithstanding it took place hanging such first bill, on which no proceedings had been taken. The state may prefer a prosecution in any of her courts, which have jurisdiction, and may, in general, try the party on which she pleases. If two indictments be found in the same court, the course is to quash one before the party is put to plead on the other. If in different courts, neither court can be said to be ousted of its jurisdictionof the offence;though the defendant may have it in his power to abate the latter bill by plea, that another court hasPage 161cognizanceof the caseby a prior bill. It is like the case of a second civil action brought, pending a former; which is not matter of abatement of the first, but is a good plea of that kind in the second. Yet if it be not pleaded in abatement, and a judgment be taken in the second suit, there can be no doubt that such judgment might be pleaded, since the last continuance, in bar of the further prosecution of the action first brought. This is not therefore a case of a total want of jurisdiction, but of a privilege to the defendant to object to being tried on a second indictment, either in the same or another court, until the first be disposed of; and like other privileges, it may be waived. This, we think, is the principle on which alone the judgment inThe Statev.Yarbrough, 1 Hawks, 78, can be sustained; for the other ground, that the jurisdiction attaching in one court by the finding of the bill destroys the concurrent jurisdiction of another court, would go to this extent, that there could not be a trial on the second bill, although anolle prosequiwere entered on that first found in the other court; which is against the subsequent case ofThe Statev.McNeill, 3 Hawks, 183. That the court confined themselves inYarbrough'sCaseto a plea in abatement of the pendency of another bill, and felt the difficulty that would be presented by a plea in bar of a conviction or acquittal upon one of the indictments, is plainly to be collected from the observation "that while the indictment" (that is, the one fraudulently preferred,) "is pending, and before judgment," the defendant's plea in abatement to the other indictment may be obviated by replying the fraud. No method of getting clear of a judgment in either is even suggested. If there be one, it must be of the same nature with the answer to a plea of another prosecution pending. Whether that would be sufficient, it is not for us now to say, since fraud is not alleged in these pleadings. If there can be a fraud, in a legal sense, in prosecuting and convicting an offender in a court on which the jurisdiction is conferred by law, as a competent and fit tribunal to try and punish criminals, it is certainly not to be presumed, without an averment ofPage 162it in the record, upon the single fact, that a bill had been previously found for the same matter in another court.

In the particular case before us, the defendant had no day in the Superior Court; he having neither been arraigned, nor even arrested on the bill in that court. Until he had a day in court on that indictment, he was notvexatusthereby, and stood in relation thereto on the same footing as if he had been put without day by anolle prosequithereon; in which last case it is laid down inMcNeill's Case, that he would be amenable on another indictment inany courthaving jurisdictionof the offence.

We are therefore of opinion, that there is no error in the judgment of the Superior Court.

PER CURIAM. Judgment affirmed.