Scopes v. State

• Decision Date: 24 October 1925
• Citation: 278 S.W. 57
• Parties: SCOPES v. STATE.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

278 S.W. 57

SCOPES v. STATE.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

October 24, 1925.

Error to Circuit Court, Rhea County; J. T. Raulston, Judge.

John Thomas Scopes was convicted of violation of the Anti-Evolution Act, and he brings error. On motion by the State to strike from record the bill of exceptions. Motion sustained.

John Randolph Neal, of Knoxville, Clarence Darrow, of Chicago, Ill., Arthur G. Hays, Dudley Field Malone, and Wm. A. Thompson, all of New York City, and Frank McElwee, of Rockwood, for John Thomas Scopes.

Frank M. Thompson, Atty. Gen., and Ed. T. Seay and K. T. McConnico, both of Nashville, for the State.

GREEN, C. J.

The plaintiff in error has been convicted of a violation of chapter 27 of the Public Acts of 1925, known as the Anti-Evolution Act, and has appealed in error to this court. A motion has been made by the state to strike from the record the bill of exceptions on the ground that it was not seasonably filed.

Plaintiff in error was tried at a special term of the circuit court of Rhea county beginning on July 10, 1925. The minutes of the court, of date July 21, 1925, show that a motion for a new trial was made and overruled on that day, and this minute entry further recites:

"Upon motion, the court is pleased to grant defendant 30 days from July 21, 1925, in which to prepare, perfect, and file his bill of exceptions.

"Thereupon court adjourned until court in course.

                  "[Signed]        J. T. Raulston, Judge."
                

The motion for a new trial having been disposed of at the trial term, chapter 157 of the Public Acts of 1919, and chapter 72 of the Public Acts of 1921, have no application to this case. These statutes regulate the procedure in a case where the hearing of the motion for a new trial is continued until a subsequent term.

The practice is well settled that, where a motion for a new trial is overruled at the trial term, and that term is formally adjourned without a bill of exceptions having been taken, such bill of exceptions cannot thereafter be signed by the judge and made part of the record, "unless within the term, by order on the minutes, time be granted, not exceeding thirty days from the date of adjournment, for the making and filing of a bill of exceptions." Dunn v. State, 127 Tenn. 267, 154 S. W. 969; Rhinehart v. State, 122 Tenn. 698, 127 S. W. 445; Bettis v. State, 103 Tenn. 339, 52 S. W. 1071.

After these cases came chapter 49 of the Public Acts of 1917, but that act only provided that the trial judge might "in his discretion allow the parties time in which to prepare and file the bill of exceptions not to exceed sixty days from and after the adjournment of the court." According to the minute entry above quoted, the trial judge did not in his discretion grant to the plaintiff in error such an extension as was authorized by chapter 49 of the Public Acts of 1917.

The 30 days allowed by order of the court in which plaintiff in error was entitled to file his bill of exceptions expired August 20th. The bill of exceptions herein appears to have been signed September 14th, and to have been filed September 16th.

Obviously this bill of exceptions was signed and filed too late, unless we can look to a paragraph contained therein, as follows:

"Upon motion the court is pleased to grant defendant 60 days from July 21, 1925, in which to prepare, perfect, and file his bill of exceptions."

Such a recital cannot have any force. The minute order of July 21st prescribes 30 days as the period during which the bill of exceptions is to be filed, and, continuing, said order formally adjourns court to court in course.

Previously the rule was that —

"The power of the judge over the record ceases upon the adjournment of the term, and he has no more authority than any third person to make any alteration or addition. He cannot even sign a bill of exceptions after the adjournment of the term, although the signature may have been inadvertently omitted. Jones v. Burch, 3 Lea [Tenn.] 747." Kennedy v. Kennedy, 81 Tenn. (13 Lea) 24.

Chapter 275 of the Public Acts of 1899 empowered the court in his discretion to extend the time for settlement of a bill of exceptions for as much as 30 days after adjournment. Chapter 49 of the Public Acts of 1917 empowered the court in his discretion to extend the time for settlement of a bill of exceptions for as much as 60 days after adjournment.

These laws permit the trial court, by proper order, to project his control over the record for a time after adjournment not exceeding the statutory limitations. When the time thus fixed, however, has expired, the power of the court is at an end, as it formerly ended with the adjournment of the term....