Case ID: mich-app_24/html/0344-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      Per Curiam.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

PEOPLE v. RUSSELL J. DAVIS
    Criminal Law — Signing Complaint — Objections — Swearing op Jury — Waiver.
    The right to object to a criminal complaint is waived if objection is not brought before the jury is sworn; therefore, the trial court’s refusal to dismiss a ease at the conclusion of the people’s proofs, and at the conclusion of trial, on the ground that the complaint was not signed by a municipal judge but by a deputy clerk not having authority to do so, in violation of a statute, is not reversible error (MCLA § 725.16).
    Reference for Points in Headnote
    21 Am Jur 2d, Criminal Law § 441.
    Appeal from Oakland, Frederick C. Ziem, J.
    Submitted Division 2 April 13, 1970, at Lansing.
    (Docket No. 8,190.)
    Decided June 3, 1970.
    Russell J. Davis was convicted of breaking and entering. Defendant appeals.
    Affirmed.
    
      Frank J. Kelley, Attorney General, Robert A. Derengoski, Solicitor General, Thomas G. Plunkett, Prosecuting Attorney, and Dennis Donohue, Chief Appellate Counsel, for the people.
    
      William Ibershof, for defendant on appeal.
    Before: R. B. Burns, P. J., and Fitzgerald and VanDomelen, JJ.
    
      
       Circuit judge, sitting on the Court of Appeals by assignment.
    
   Per Curiam.

Defendant was found guilty by a jury of breaking and entering and was sentenced to four to ten years in the state penitentiary.

Defendant’s sole issue on appeal concerns MCLA § 725.16 (Stat Ann 1962 Rev § 27.3956) which requires a judicial order to empower a clerk or his deputy to sign a criminal complaint. The issue is stated thus: is reversible error committed when the trial court refuses to dismiss a criminal case at the conclusion of the people’s proof, and at the conclusion of the trial, where the original criminal complaint issued against the defendant was not signed by a municipal judge, but by a deputy clerk not having authority to do so?

There is ample Michigan authority to hold that there is a waiver of the right to object to a criminal complaint if not brought before the jury is sworn. People v. Roney (1967), 7 Mich App 678; People v. Licavoli (1931), 256 Mich 229; People v. Bonneau (1948), 323 Mich 237; People v. Linscott (1968), 14 Mich App 334; People v. Curran (1916), 191 Mich 583; People v. Graves (1968), 15 Mich App 244.

Affirmed. 
      
       MCLA § 750.110 (Stat Ann 1969 Cum Supp § 28.305).