People v. Lawson
| Decision Date | 23 February 1933 |
| Docket Number | No. 21562.,21562. |
| Citation | 351 Ill. 507,184 N.E. 828 |
| Parties | PEOPLE v. LAWSON et al. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Error to Circuit Court, La Salle County; Edgar Eldredge, Judge.
Proceedings by the People against Frank Le Roy Lawson and Henry Fritzinger, surety, for forfeiture of bail. To review an order refusing to vacate judgment forfeiting the bail bond, the surety named brings error.
Cause transferred to Appellate Court.
George W. Sprenger, of Peoria, for plaintiff in error.
Oscar E. Carlstrom, Atty. Gen., R. O. Hanson, State's Atty., of Ottawa, and J. J. Neiger, of Springfield, for the People.
The facts in this case as stated substantially in the brief of the plaintiff in error are as follows: Frank Le Roy Lawson was indicted in the circuit court of La Salle county, jointly with Sam Wade, on the charge of robbery while armed with a deadly weapon. They were tried at the March term, 1925, were convicted, and sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary at Joliet. They sued out a writ of error, which was made a supersedeas upon their giving bail fixed at $20,000. Lawson gave bail in this amount with Henry Fritzinger and others as sureties. The judgment was affirmed and a rehearing denied at the October term, 1928, of this court. 331 Ill. 380, 163 N. E. 149. Lawson failed to comply with the conditions of his recognizance, but made default at the October term of the circuit court, and the sureties also made default. A scire facias was issued, returnable to the January term, 1929, and was returned by the sheriff that defendants were not found. The defendants by their counsel entered a special and limited appearance and made a motion to dismiss the scire facias and quash the return, alleging that the court had no jurisdiction of the subject-matter for the reason that the bail bond was taken by and made to the warden of the penitentiary, and therefore the circuit court of La Salle county had no jurisdiction of the subject-matter. This motion was overruled, the defendants were defaulted, and a judgment was entered awarding execution for the amount of the recognizance. Thereupon a writ of error was sued out of the Appellate Court, which affirmed the judgment. A petition for a writ of certiorari was presented to the Supreme Court and denied. After the denial of the writ of certiorari, a motion was made by Fritzinger on April 13, 1931, to vacate the judgment entered at the January term, 1929, and set aside the forfeiture, offering to pay the costs and showing that Lawson had been apprehended and was then imprisoned and serving his sentence in the Joliet Penitentiary. The reason alleged for the motion was that the judgment was void because the statute under which the recognizance was given was unconstitutional and deprived the defendant of his property without due process of law. The present writ of error was then sued out to the June term, 1932, and the errors assigned are that the circuit court erred because the statute under which the supersedeas bond was given is unconstitutional for the reason that it is in violation of the State and Federal Constitutions and deprives the plaintiff in error of his property without due process of law, and that the court erred in not vacating the judgment of forfeiture, for the reason that, prior to the hearing of the motion for that purpose, the principal, Lawson,had been surrendered to the custody of the warden of the penitentiary.
This cause must be transferred to the Appellate Court. Such constitutional objections, if any, as were made or might have been made to the judgment of the circuit court in the proceedings for the forfeiture of the recognizance, were waived by the plaintiff in error when he sued out a writ of error from the Appellate Court to review the judgment rendered at the June term, 1929. The Practice Act requires all cases in which a constitutional question is involved to be taken on...
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