Opinion ID: 1270103
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Are the magistrates' orders valid?

Text: Appellant argues the magistrates' orders and returns (which incorporate the orders) are factually insufficient and therefore invalid. We disagree. In an action tried upon the facts without a jury, the court shall find the facts specially and state separately its conclusions of law thereon. Rule 52(a), SCRCP. If a party appeals the magistrate's order, the magistrate is required to make a return to the appellate court of the testimony, proceedings and judgment and file it in the appellate court. S.C.Code Ann. § 18-7-60 (1976). The magistrates in this case filed identical returns, incorporating their identical orders, which state: This matter comes before the Court pursuant to S.C.Code Ann. 12-21-2712 (Supp.1996) at the request of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, whose Agents seized the defendant's [sic] machines. These machines are now before the Court in order to determine if they are slot machines prohibited by the S.C.Code Ann. 12-21-2710 (Supp.1996). After carefully reviewing these machines, I find them to be slot machines. These machines register varying amounts of winnings depending upon which combination of various symbols are displayed after a coin is inserted and a button is pushed. They require no skill to play. I have considered the Court's reasoning in State v. Four Video Slot Machines, 317 S.C. 397, 453 S.E.2d 896 (1995) and State v. One Coin-Operated Video Game Machine, 321 S.C. 176, 467 S.E.2d 443 (1996), as well as the 1993 amendments to Title 1-2 of the South Carolina Code concerning video games. I find and conclude that the defendant machines are in violation of S.C.Code Ann. 12-21-2710 (Supp.1996), and do hereby order their destruction. The defendant machines will be destroyed thirty (30) days after the date of this order. Appellant argues these returns are invalid because they make purely conclusory statements that the machines violate the statute. Appellant cites State v. Harper, 297 S.C. 257, 376 S.E.2d 272 (1989) for the proposition that a factually inadequate magistrate's order should be reversed. Harper is distinguishable. Harper involved an attorney's contempt conviction which was reversed because the magistrate made no findings that the attorney behaved contemptuously. Here, the magistrates clearly set out what statute was violated and how the machines violated it. Appellant further complains the returns provide no detail concerning the extent of the examination, and that as far as appellant knows, the first magistrate only examined four of the nearly two hundred machines she found illegal. This argument is unpersuasive for two reasons. First, appellant admits elsewhere in its brief that only approximately five of the machines were operational. In fact, appellant relies on this fact to support its argument that the inoperable machines should not be considered illegal. The magistrate could not therefore have tested the other machines. However, testing was not required in order to find them unlawful. The inventory attached to the search warrant return provided information from which the magistrate could conclude the seized machines were illegal under State v. One Coin-Operated Video Game Machine, 321 S.C. 176, 467 S.E.2d 443 (1996), State v. Four Video Slot Machines, 317 S.C. 397, 453 S.E.2d 896 (1995), and Squires v. South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, 249 S.C. 609, 155 S.E.2d 859 (1967). The magistrates were entitled to rely on the existing statutes and case law in finding the machines unlawful and ordering their destruction. Second, and more compellingly, appellant admits in an affidavit that the machines in question had been declared illegal to operate. The legality of these machines under state law is not at issue in this case except insofar as appellant asks this Court to overrule Squires (see part I.B.1). Even if the magistrates' returns should have been more detailedand we do not see in what respect they should havethat does not invalidate the destruction orders when the machines clearly violate state law.