Opinion ID: 1770740
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Attacking or Defending the Judgment of Conviction

Text: Although the court of appeal found the evidence sufficient to support forgery convictions based on both false making and false issuing, that court affirmed one count of defendant's forgery conviction and vacate[d] the second count of this conviction, because La.R.S. 14:72 authorizes dual prosecutions but not cumulative penalities for making and transferring a single false writing. State v. Smith, 475 So.2d 331 (La.1985). The state did not apply for certiorari from this decision. Defendant argues that since his conviction for false issuing has been vacated by the court of appeal, and because he is entitled to have his conviction for false making set aside for lack of sufficient evidence, this court must not only reverse the court of appeal judgment but also order the defendant discharged and released. In essence, the defendant argues that the court of appeal vacated the wrong forgery conviction, affirming the conviction based on insufficient evidence and vacating the conviction flawed only by trial error, and that the state cannot urge this court to correct the error because that would call for a modification of the court of appeal judgment, a relief the state may not now request because it failed to apply for review. However, we believe that the defendant is mistaken as to the nature and content of the court of appeal judgment. As a general rule, the decisions, opinions or findings of a court, do not constitute a judgment or decree, but merely form the basis or reasoning upon which the judgment is rendered. Fisher v. Rollins, 231 La. 252, 260, 91 So.2d 28, 31 (1956); Delahoussaye v. D.M. Glazer & Co., Inc., 182 So. 146, 147 (La.App. 1st Cir.1938), modified on rehearing, 185 So. 644 (La.App. 1st Cir.1939); State v. Fleshman, 399 S.W.2d 56, 58 (Mo.1966); 49 C.J.S., Judgments, § 4, at 28 (1947); Calvert, Appellate Court Judgments or Strange Things Happen on the Way to Judgment, 6 Texas Tech L.Rev. 915, 920-921 (1975). Consequently, whether the defendant's forgery conviction should rest on the ground of false making rather than false issuing was merely part of the court of appeal's reasoning or basis for its judgment. The decree or judgment of the court of appeal was simply that the defendant shall be convicted of one count or conviction of forgery. The state may properly argue in this court that we should take cognizance of the false issuing evidence in order to sustain the judgment of forgery conviction against total defeat under Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). It is well accepted, that without filing a cross-appeal or cross-petition, an appellee or respondent may rely upon any matter appearing in the record in support of the judgment below. Hankerson v. North Carolina, 432 U.S. 233, 240 n. 6, 97 S.Ct. 2339, 2344 n. 6, 53 L.Ed.2d 306, 313-314 n. 6 (1977); Dayton Board of Education v. Brinkman, 433 U.S. 406, 417-419, 97 S.Ct. 2766, 2774-2775, 53 L.Ed.2d 851, 862-863 (1977); Massachusetts Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Ludwig, 426 U.S. 479, 480-481, 96 S.Ct. 2158, 2159, 48 L.Ed.2d 784, 786-787 (1976); Roger v. Estate of Moulton, 513 So.2d 1126, 1135-1137 (La. 1987); R. Stern, E. Gressman & S. Shapiro, Supreme Court Practice, § 6.35, at pp. 382-387 (6th ed. 1986); 9 J. Moore & B. Ward, Moore's Federal Practice, § 204.11[2] (2d ed. 1987). Mr. Justice Brandeis made the classic statement of this principle in United States v. American Railway Express Co., 265 U.S. 425, 435-436, 44 S.Ct. 560, 563-564, 68 L.Ed. 1087, 1093 (1924): [A] party who does not appeal from a final decree of the trial court cannot be heard in opposition thereto when the case is brought here by the appeal of the adverse party. In other words, the appellee may not attack the decree with a view either to enlarging his own rights thereunder or of lessening the rights of his adversary, whether what he seeks is to correct an error or to supplement the decree with respect to a matter not dealt with below. But it is likewise settled that the appellee may, without taking a cross-appeal, urge in support of a decree any matter appearing in the record, although his argument may involve an attack on the reasoning of the lower court or an insistence upon matter overlooked or ignored by it. See also, Roger v. Estate of Moulton, supra . We think the contentions of the state that the court of appeal chose an incorrect premise for affirming the defendant's forgery conviction fall into this category. The state does not ask us to modify the court of appeal judgment simply because it urges us to sustain it against total invalidity under Jackson v. Virginia, supra , on a different basis than the court of appeal adopted. See Blum v. Bacon, 457 U.S. 132, 137 n. 5, 102 S.Ct. 2355, 2359 n. 5, 72 L.Ed.2d 728, 783 n. 5 (1982). We therefore reject the defendant's argument that the court of appeal's mistake as to the proper reason or basis for its judgment requires his complete discharge and release.