Case Title: State v. Foss

Citation: 230 Or. 579, 371 P.2d 564

Docket Number: 

State: oregon

Court: Oregon Supreme Court

Date: 1962-05-16T00:00:00Z

Document:
Affirmed May 16, 1962.
*580 Elliott B. Cummins, McMinnville, argued the cause for appellant Erwin Wayne Speers. Francis E. Marsh, McMinnville, argued the cause for appellant William Chester Foss. On the brief were Francis E. Marsh and Elliott B. Cummins.
James E. Craig, District Attorney for Yamhill County, McMinnville, argued the cause and submitted the brief for respondent.
Before McALLISTER, Chief Justice, and ROSSMAN, PERRY and GOODWIN, Justices.
AFFIRMED.
ROSSMAN, J.
These are appeals, one each, by the defendants, William Chester Foss and Erwin Wayne Speers, from judgments which the circuit court entered against them after each had entered a plea of not guilty to the indictment, which we will presently quote, and a jury had returned a verdict of guilty against each of them. The indictment charged each of the defendants with the crime of burglary not in a dwelling, as proscribed by ORS 164.240. The defendants have consolidated the two appeals.
The defendants' single assignment of error reads:
The defendants presented no evidence and their counsel no argument.
*581 The joint brief filed by the two defendants states:
The indictment charged:
ORS 164.240, which was Oregon Laws 1959, Chapter 99, page 12, proscribes the crime which is charged in the indictment; it follows:
ORS 164.230 confines itself to the crime of burglary committed in "any dwelling house."
It will be noticed from the indictment, which we quoted, that it charges that each defendant broke into and entered "a certain building other than a dwelling" and that the building into which they entered was "known as Inloes Motor Building." Further, it avers that the building which the defendants entered was situated in Yamhill County "near Newberg" and "on Portland Road."
1. Neither of the defendants challenged the indictment by demurrer; nor did either of them seek further particulars as may be done under ORS 135.630 (2). Neither employed any plea except one of not guilty. The transcript of evidence makes no intimation that either defendant experienced any difficulty during the trial with the indictment. Neither made any claim that the indictment gave him insufficient information to enable him to defend himself. The indictment sufficiently identifies the crime to render it impossible for a second prosecution to occur.
2, 3. In State v. Wright and Allen, 19 Or 258, 24 P 229, the indictment for the crime of burglary did not mention the name of the owner of the structure; the latter was a granary. After their conviction the defendants moved in arrest of judgment on the ground that an indictment for burglary must disclose the name of the owner of the structure into which felonious *583 entry was made. In affirming the judgment of guilty, the decision quoted a form of indictment for a charge of burglary which was contained in the appendix to Hill's Annotated Laws of Oregon, § 1758, and which set forth no averment of ownership. The form thus quoted and its companions were removed from our laws by Oregon Laws 1951, Chapter 391. The defendants-appellants contend that the repeal measure (of 1951) returned the common-law form of the indictment for burglary to Oregon criminal pleading.
We do not believe that the indictment in State v. Wright and Allen was dependent upon the form which the court quoted from Hill's Code. The quoted form was applicable to a charge in which the entry was made forcibly in the night time into a structure in which a human being was then present. In the Wright and Allen case, as in the one at bar, the crime was not dependent upon the presence of any one in the structure nor upon its commission in the night time.
State v. Holland, 202 Or 656, 277 P2d 386, held that the repeal of the statutory forms did not institute common law criminal pleading in this state. Our legislature has given us sufficient rules governing criminal pleading to enable any district attorney to prepare indictments without resort to common law criminal pleading.
The fundamental principle governing criminal pleading is set forth in ORS 132.540 (1) in these words:
State v. Briggen, 112 Or 681, 231 P 125, ruled:
See also Barber v. Gladden, 210 Or 46, 298 P2d 986, 309 P2d 192.
As we have seen, the defendants made no attack upon the indictment until after the state had rested and the defendants had moved for a directed verdict. Even then they did not assert that the indictment contained insufficient particulars of the crime to enable them to defend themselves. As a matter of fact the two defendants were discovered by a police officer in the Inloe Motor Building in the very act of endeavoring to force open the safe by the use of a heavy iron bar. The iron bar still remained jammed in the opening when the officer forced his way into the building and captured one of the two defendants. The other defendant fled, but two days later was apprehended and shortly gave to the officers a statement in which he confessed his guilt and acknowledged that he was in the Inloe Motor Building when the alert police officer arrived there.
We believe that the indictment was sufficient and that the circuit court properly overruled the defendants' attacks upon it. We dismiss the assignment of error as lacking in merit.
The judgments are affirmed.