Case Name: STATE v. HARRISON
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1923-11-19
Citations: 154 La. 1011
Docket Number: No. 26196
Parties: STATE v. HARRISON.
Judges: By Division B, composed of Justices DAW-KINS, LAND, and LECHE.
Reporter: Louisiana Reports
Volume: 154
Pages: 1012–1013

Head Matter:
(98 South. 622)
No. 26196.
STATE v. HARRISON.
(Nov. 19, 1923.
Rehearing Denied Jan. 7, 1924.)
(Syllabus by Editorial Staf.)
1. Criminal law &wkey;3l020 — Supreme Court held without jurisdiction of appeal from judgment quashing indictment for misdemeanor.
In view of Const. 1921, art. 7, § 10, limiting the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to criminal cases whenever the penalty of death or imprisonment at hard labor may be imposed, or where a fine exceeding $300, or imprisonment exceeding six months has been actually imposed, an appeal from a judgment rendered prior to sentence quashing an indictment for misdemeanor is not within the court’s jurisdiction.
2. Criminal law <@=>l024(3) — When state may prosecute appeal in criminal cases stated.
Under Const. 1921, art. 7, § 10, relative to the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in -criminal cases, it is only from judgments quashing indictments which charge capital offenses, or offenses whose penalty may be imprisonment at hard labor, that the state may appeal.
Appeal from Twenty-Seventh Judicial District Court, Parish of St. James; William C. Carruth, Judge.
Benjamin Harrison was charged with an offense. The indictment was quashed on demurrer, and the State appeals.
Appeal dismissed.
A. V. Coco, Atty. Gen., Aubert L. Talbot, Dist. Atty., of Napoleonville (T. S. Walmsley, of New Orleans, A. J. Bordelon, of Marks-ville, and Rolla A. Tichenor, of New Orleans, of counsel), for the State.
Paul W. Maloney, of New Orleans, for appellee.
By Division B, composed of Justices DAW-KINS, LAND, and LECHE.

Opinion:
LAND, J.
The defendant is prosecuted under Act 209 of 1914, an act to punish the giving of checks, drafts, or orders on any bank or other depository wherein the person so giving such check, draft, or order shall not have sufficient funds as a credit for the payment of the same.
Defendant demurred to the information filed herein on the ground that said information, as drawn in this case, does not set out or disclose any misdemeanor or offense known to the laws of the state of Louisiana.
This demurrer was maintained by the trial judge, and the indictment quashed. The state has appealed from this judgment.
The act in question declares that any violation of its provisions shall constitute a "misdemeanor,'' and that any person convicted under said act "shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars or; imprisoned not more than one year, or both, at th'e discretion of the court."
The appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court extends to criminal oases on questions of law alone, whenever the penalty of death or imprisonment at hard labor may be imposed; or where a fine exceeding $300, or imprisonment exceeding six months has been actually imposed. Const. 1921, art. 7, § 10.
As the appeal in .this case has been prosecuted from a judgment rendered prior to sentence quashing the indictment, and as neither fine nor imprisonment has been imposed exceeding $300 or exceeding six months, this court is without jurisdiction of the appeal.
It is only from judgments quashing indictments which charge capital offenses, or offenses whose penalty may be imprisonment at hard labor, that the state may prosecute appeals in criminal cases. State v. Kalone, 110 La. 360, 34 South. 475; State v. Normand, 110 La. 361, 34 South. 476; State v. Kramer, 127 La. 1033, 54 South. 341; State v. Phelps et al., 132 La. 399, 61 South. 415; State v. Thomas, 132 La. 378, 61 South, 408; State v. Sherman, 144 La. 76, 80 South. 205.
It is therefore ordered that the appeal in this case be dismissed.
Rehearing refused by the WHOLE COURT.