State v. Hill

• Decision Date: 07 November 1898
• Citation: 147 Mo. 63,47 S.W. 798
• Parties: STATE v. HILL.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

47 S.W. 798

147 Mo. 63

STATE v. HILL.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

November 7, 1898.

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW — JUDGES — POWERS — SPECIAL LAWS — UNIFORMITY OF OPERATION.

1. Act March 1, 1897, providing that the judge of the criminal court of Buchanan county may be called on by the circuit judge of any other county to hold a term or a part thereof in such other county, and vesting him in such case with the powers of a circuit judge, is a special law, and repugnant to Const. art. 4, § 53, prohibiting special legislation regulating the practice or jurisdiction of judicial proceedings.

2. Said act is repugnant to Const. art. 4, § 53, par. 32, prohibiting the enactment of a special law where a general law can be made applicable.

3. 2 Rev. St. 1889, p. 2209, § 3, gives the judge of the criminal court of Buchanan county the powers of a circuit judge in criminal cases. Act March 1, 1897, vests him whenever called on by a circuit judge of another county to hold a term or a part thereof, with the powers of a circuit judge in civil and criminal proceedings. Held, that the latter provision is invalid for want of uniformity of operation.

Appeal from circuit court, Platte county; R. E. Culver, Special Judge.

Joel Hill was convicted of an offense, and he appeals. Reversed.

James W. Coburn, James H. Hull, and James W. Boyd, for appellant. Edward C. Crow, Atty. Gen., and Sam. B. Jeffries, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

SHERWOOD, J.

The powers and jurisdiction of the judge of the criminal court of Buchanan county are defined in section 3, p. 2209, 2 Rev.St. 1889. That section as it was originally, and the amendment thereto, approved March 1, 1897, are as follows, the amendment being indicated by the brackets:

"Sec. 3. Powers and Jurisdiction. The judge of said court shall be a conservator of the peace throughout his county, and shall have the power and jurisdiction to issue, hear and determine writ of habeas corpus, and to admit to bail all parties entitled thereto, and shall have such powers as the several judges of the circuit courts in this state have in criminal cases, [and may be called upon by the judge of any circuit in this state to try any cause pending in such circuit in which a change of venue has been granted from the judge, or to hold any term or part of term of court for such circuit judge, and in such matters shall have such powers as the several judges of the circuit courts of this state now have in civil and criminal proceedings.]"

If the foregoing amendment is valid, then the judge of the criminal court of Buchanan county had the right to sit in the trial of this cause on the bench of the circuit court of Platte county, having been called upon so to do by the judge of that court.

In order to determine the question thus presented, it is necessary to examine the provisions of section 53 of article 4 of the constitution, so far as applicable to the case before us. The general assembly is prohibited from passing any local or special law "regulating the practice, or jurisdiction of, or changing the rules of evidence in, any judicial proceeding or inquiry before courts," etc. Is the amendment of 1897, then, "a local or special law"? In Ex parte Allen, 67 Mo. 534, it was held that "An act making provision for supplying the place of a criminal judge in the event of his sickness, absence or inability to hold court" was one regulating the criminal practice and proceedings in courts of record. And in State v. Kring, 74 Mo. 612, it was decided that the act approved March 26, 1881 (Laws 1881, p. 119), in relation to and which changed the method of procedure only in the...