State v. Allison

• Decision Date: 06 November 1879
• Citation: State v. Allison, 47 Wis. 548, 2 N.W. 1141 (Wis. 1879)
• Parties: STATE OF WISCONSIN v. JOHN ALLISON.
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

47 Wis. 548

2 N.W. 1141

STATE OF WISCONSIN

v.JOHN ALLISON.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Filed November 6, 1879.

Appeal from Milwaukee municipal court.J. C. McKenney and Attorney General, for the state.

Fred.C Winkler, for defendant.

LYON, J.

A complaint was made to the municipal court of Milwaukee county, against the defendant, charging him with assault and battery, and a trial was had in that court which resulted in a verdict of guilty.The municipal judge thereupon reported the case for the opinion of this court on certain questions of law involved therein.

We are to determine whether the statutes authorize the municipal judge to report a case to this court where the defendant has been prosecuted and tried on complaint, (as in cases before justices of the peace,) without information or indictment.

The authority to report a case to this court is given, by the general statute on that subject, to the circuit judge alone, and is confined to cases tried in the circuit court.Rev. St. § 4721.

Section 2500, as amended bysection 2, c. 256, Laws of 1879, which relates to the municipal court of Milwaukee county, provides that “the general provisions of law which may at any time be in force relative to circuit courts, and actions and proceedings therein, in cases of crimes and misdemeanors, shall relate also to said municipal court, unless inapplicable.”The authority to report this case, if it exists, must be found in the above provision.

The statute confers upon the municipal court of Milwaukee county a twofold jurisdiction: First, a concurrent jurisdiction with the circuit court in all cases of crimes and misdemeanors arising in that county, and exclusive appellate jurisdiction of all crimes and misdemeanors tried before justices of the peace therein.Examinations, recognizances and commitments for trial in criminal cases, arising in the towns of that county and not triable before justices of the peace, are returnable to the muncipal, instead of the circuit court.Section 1, c. 256,Laws 1879.All this is circuit court jurisdiction proper.Second, by chapter 256, supra, read in connection with the procedure act of 1853, mentioned in section 3, such municipal court has exclusive jurisdiction of prosecutions for all offences committed in the city of Milwaukee, otherwise cognizable by justices of the peace, under the general statutes on that subject, (Rev. St. § 4739) and for violations of ordinances, rules and regulations of that city.We have here no concern with prosecutions for the violation of ordinances; but the criminal jurisdiction thus conferred by the statute is the jurisdiction of a justice of the peace and nothing more.

This case belongs to the latter class.In its inception and progress to conviction no peculiar circuit court powers were exercised, but the prosecution was instituted as it would have been had the complaint been made to a justice of the peace, and to a considerable extent the procedure in the municipal court was controlled by the provisions of the statute giving jurisdiction to justices of the peace to hear, try and determine such prosecutions.For example, it was necessary to go to that act to ascertain whether the defendant might lawfully be prosecuted summarily; that is, without formal information.SeeJenkins v. Muning,38 Wis. 507;Mathie v. McIntosh,40 Wis. 120.

Moreover, section 4 of the act of 1879, amendatory of section 2511, Rev. St., allows cases of the second class, above mentioned, in certain contingencies, to be tried before any justice of the peace of Milwaukee county who may...