Poole v. State
Poole v. State
Opinion of the Court
Randolph Poole, Jr. was charged by accusation of, inter alia, violation of the City of LaGrange public drunk ordinance. Following a non-jury trial in the State Court of Troup County, the court convicted Poole of the offense. Poole appeals, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence on the ground that the State failed to introduce into evidence a copy of the municipal ordinance. Because we find that the State failed to properly prove the existence of the ordinance, we agree with Poole and reverse his conviction.
1. Before reaching the merits of Poole’s appeal, we must address the jurisdictional issues raised by the dissent. According to the dissent, Poole’s conviction was rendered by a municipal court and his appeal must be dismissed because this Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction to consider a direct appeal from a municipal court. In this regard, the dissent contends that the state court could not have convicted Poole of a municipal ordinance violation because the state court lacked jurisdiction to try such ordinance violations. Rather, the dissent argues, when the state court convicted Poole, it was serving as a municipal court pursuant to OCGA § 15-7-80 et seq. For the following reasons, we disagree with both assertions.
(a) A state court’s criminal jurisdiction is generally governed by OCGA § 15-7-4 (a) (1), which provides that a state court shall have jurisdiction over the “trial of criminal cases below the grade of felony.” This statutory enactment is similar to the legislature’s original declaration in establishing state courts that they “shall have criminal jurisdiction in the county over all misdemeanor cases, but shall not have any jurisdiction over felony cases.” Ga. L. 1970, p. 679, § 7. The only other guidance afforded by our Code relating to a state court’s criminal jurisdiction is OCGA § 15-7-3, which provides that the jurisdiction statute “shall apply to and govern all state courts; and, unless otherwise provided in this chapter, in all cases in which there is a conflict between this chapter and the local law creating the state court, this chapter shall take priority and shall be controlling.”
The local law creating what is now known as the State Court of Troup County is codified at Ga. L. 1962, p. 3020. See also Ga. L. 1970, p. 679, § 3 (changing name of court to State Court of Troup
We note finally that the cases and local laws cited by the dissent in support of its conclusion that the State Court of Troup County does not have jurisdiction over such municipal misdemeanor violations are simply not controlling. Both Dollar v. State, 160 Ga. App. 759 (288 SE2d 42) (1981) and Floyd v. State, 168 Ga. App. 645 (310 SE2d 749) (1983) concern the jurisdictional limits of the State Court of Cobb County, and the decisions in those cases only interpreted the enabling legislation establishing that particular state court. Similarly, the Georgia law cited in Dollar, and quoted by the dissent, is enabling legislation specifically creating what is now known as the State Court of Cobb County and has no application to the present case. See Ga. L. 1964, p. 3211. For these reasons, we must interpret the local law to provide that the State Court of Troup County has jurisdiction over city code misdemeanor violations.
(b) We also disagree with the dissent that the trial court in this case was acting as a municipal court. Although it is clear that OCGA
Moreover, even if such a contract existed, more was required of the trial court for it to act as a municipal court. Even after such a contract is entered into and becomes effective, OCGA § 15-7-83 requires that when a state court is acting as a municipal court, that “all judges and other officers of the state court shall be styled as judges and officers of the municipal court; and all pleadings, process, and papers of the municipal court shall be styled as such and not as pleadings, process, and papers of the state court.” OCGA § 15-7-83.
In this case, the record makes it abundantly clear that the State Court of Troup County was not acting as the City of LaGrange Municipal Court. In fact, there is not a single pleading, process or paper styled as a municipal court document. The accusation, Poole’s affidavit of indigency, discovery requests and demand for witnesses, as well as the trial court’s judgment and sentencing form are all styled as documents of the State Court of Troup County. Furthermore, the accusation is signed by the “Solicitor [of the] State Court of Troup County,” and the trial judge signed the judgment as “Judge, Troup County State Court.” Finally, the transcript shows that at the opening of trial proceedings the trial judge stated: “This is the case of the State of Georgia versus Randolph Ray Poole, it’s case number 96-S-3570 in the State Court of Troup County” (Emphasis supplied.) In short, the total lack of compliance with OCGA § 15-7-83 requires a finding that the court in this case was acting as a state court and not a municipal court. And, in this appeal, Poole is simply challenging the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his state court conviction. Accordingly, contrary to the dissent’s finding, this Court does have jurisdiction to consider Poole’s appeal as a direct appeal from a state court judgment of conviction.
Judgment reversed.
I note that the dissent has created quite a dilemma for a defendant in Poole’s shoes. Although the uncontradicted evidence of record shows that the judgment was rendered by a state court, the dissent concludes that he should have filed an application for certiorari to the superior court. If, however, Poole had applied to the superior court for review, his petition would have properly been dismissed because there was no evidence the judgment was
It should be noted that the State has inexplicably failed to file an appellee’s brief in this case. Such conduct not only constitutes a dereliction of the solicitor’s duties under OCGA § 15-18-66 (a) (4), but may also subject him or her to contempt of this Court under Court of Appeals Rule 26 (b).
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s opinion.
1. A state court does not have subject matter jurisdiction over the enforcement of a violation of a municipal ordinance absent a statutory conference of subject matter jurisdiction. There has been no statutory conference of subject matter jurisdiction to the State Court of Troup County to try a violation of a municipal ordinance of the City of LaGrange while sitting as a state court.
“The jurisdiction of the state court includes ‘misdemeanor cases.’ Ga. L. 1964, p. 3211. However, this refers only to state statutes, the violation of which constitutes a misdemeanor, and does not include a city ordinance even though the punishment thereunder may be partially within the range of punishment for a misdemeanor established by state law.” Dollar v. State, 160 Ga. App. 759, 760 (288 SE2d 42) (1981); see Floyd v. State, 168 Ga. App. 645 (310 SE2d 749) (1983)
Further, a county or municipal ordinance violation cannot be a state law offense and cannot be designated as a misdemeanor based upon state law criteria, because county and municipal ordinance violations are not described as a crime under Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia. OCGA § 16-1-4. In fact, the General Assembly in enacting the legislation to provide for the establishment of the Georgia Crime Information Center recognized that county or municipal ordinances are not state misdemeanors by defining an “offense” as an act which is either a felony, a misdemeanor, or a violation of a county or municipal ordinance. Ga. L. 1973, p. 1301, § 1 (b); OCGA § 35-3-30 (7). Further, the City of LaGrange, in its 1968 charter, designated a violation of one of its ordinances as an “ordinance violation,” not as a misdemeanor, which carried a maximum penalty of a fine not exceeding $500 and imprisonment not exceeding six months. Ga. L. 1968, pp. 2191, 2224, § 7.03; see also Ga. L. 1901, p. 477, § 18.
The City Court of LaGrange was created by Ga. L. 1899, p. 385. Under subsection II of such legislative act, subject matter jurisdiction was given to the City Court of LaGrange to try state misdemeanor cases, which did not specify city ordinance violations. In 1901, a Mayor’s Court was created under the new charter for the City of LaGrange, and such court was given specific subject matter jurisdiction to hear violations of the laws and ordinances of the City of LaGrange. Ga. L. 1901, p. 477, § 18. Therefore, the City of LaGrange
In 1951, a legislative act was passed which allowed the election of a recorder for the City of LaGrange and renamed the Mayor’s Court the Recorder’s Court. Ga. L. 1951, p. 2623, § 1 (c).
The enactment of Ga. L. 1962, p. 3020, created the Civil and Criminal Court of Troup County (the State Court of Troup County) and abolished the City Court of LaGrange, but this act did not repeal either the act creating the Mayor’s Court or the act renaming the Mayor’s Court as the Recorder’s Court. However, Ga. L. 1962, p. 3020, § 34 specifically repealed. Ga. L. 1899, p. 385, which created the City Court of LaGrange.
In 1986, a legislative act was passed to amend Chapter 32 of Title 36 of the Official Code of Georgia under which the Recorder’s Court of LaGrange became a municipal court with continued exclusive subject matter jurisdiction over violations of municipal ordinances. OCGA § 36-32-1; Ga. L. 1986, p. 784.
Thus, since the City Court of LaGrange never had subject matter jurisdiction to hear violations of municipal ordinances, then Ga. L. 1962, p. 3020, which established the Civil and Criminal Court of Troup County (the State Court of Troup County) and which abolished the City Court of LaGrange, did not grant the State Court of Troup County subject matter jurisdiction to try violations of city ordinances. The transfer of cases under § 30 of such legislative act was simply the transfer of all state misdemeanor cases currently pending before the City Court of LaGrange at the time it was abolished; such transfer was in order to avoid an inability to prosecute pending cases and to provide continuity of jurisdiction. Ga. L. 1962, p. 3020, § 30. Thus, there has been no special statutorily conferred subject matter jurisdiction for the State Court of Troup County to try a municipal violation.
If a state court, sitting outside some statutorily conferred subject matter jurisdiction, presided over the trial of a violation of a municipal offense, then any judgment entered thereon would be void and a mere nullity, for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Hubbard v. State, 225 Ga. App. 154 (483 SE2d 115) (1997). On appeal, this Court would be required to reverse the conviction and remand the case; double jeopardy would not attach, and the case could be retried in the court with proper subject matter jurisdiction.
2. However, within the ambit of OCGA § 15-7-80 et seq., a state court can try a violation of a municipal ordinance while sitting as a municipal court. In 1992, the General Assembly enacted OCGA § 15-
The record is replete with evidence that the state court was, in fact, operating under contract as a municipal court. The assistant solicitor stated as an officer of the court, on the record that “the state is under the impression that we are operating under contract[,]” and the trial judge took judicial notice and specifically found that “the fact that we were acting under contract basically as the city recorder’s court would remove the requirement that would otherwise be to bring in a certified copy of that ordinance.” No objection was made at the trial level by counsel for the defendant as to the existence of a contract for the state court to provide municipal court services, and in fact, counsel has not raised the existence of such a contract as an enumeration of error before us. There is a presumption in favor of the regularity and legality of all proceedings in the trial court. Merrill v. State, 201 Ga. App. 671 (411 SE2d 750) (1991); Conley v. State, 172 Ga. App. 884, 885 (2) (324 SE2d 750) (1984). This Court will not presume error from a silent record. Merrill v. State, supra; Rogers v. State, 155 Ga. App. 685 (272 SE2d 549) (1980).
Since the State Court of Troup County was operating under a contract to provide municipal court services to the City of LaGrange as the municipal court, it would have jurisdiction to hear either the state offense of public drunk as the state court or the municipal offense of public drunk as a municipal court. Counsel for the appellant did not object to the State’s election to proceed under the viola
A direct review of a conviction in a municipal court shall be by writ of certiorari to the superior court of the county within which the municipality lies. OCGA § 5-4-1. Therefore, when a state court is sitting as a municipal court pursuant to OCGA § 15-7-80 et seq., all direct reviews of any conviction or final judgment shall be by writ of certiorari to the appropriate superior court. This Court, therefore, lacks subject matter jurisdiction to consider the appellant’s direct appeal. Further, this appeal cannot be transferred to the superior court for determination, because an appeal is not the statutory procedure for review by a superior court of an inferior court; the notice of appeal does not satisfy the mandated elements of an application for a writ of certiorari. Therefore, this appeal should be dismissed.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Pope joins in this dissent.
Even though the issue of subject matter jurisdiction can be raised at any time, the issue of jurisdiction based on the existence of or the legality of a contract entered into between a county and a municipality pursuant to OCGA § 15-7-80 et seq. allowing the county to furnish municipal court services to the municipality must be raised at the trial level, so that the trial court can have an evidentiary hearing to prove or disprove the contract. Otherwise, this case would have to be remanded for such factual determination.
Pursuant to OCGA § 15-7-83, when a state court is acting as a municipal court, “judges and other officers of the state court shall be styled as judges and officers of the municipal court; and all pleadings, process, and papers of the municipal court shall be styled as such and not as pleadings, process, and papers of the state court.” Such Code section also provides that “[t]he dockets and other records of the municipal court shall be kept separately from those of the state court.” Even though this procedure was not followed in the case sub judice, the appellant’s failure to raise this as error on appeal precludes our review of this matter. This Court cannot acquire subject matter jurisdiction through the error of the state court sentence to indicate on its face that the sentence was imposed under municipal court jurisdiction only.
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