Court Opinion

ID: 9856887
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 07:04:45.576369+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:37:31.056578
License: Public Domain

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE ADAIR:
(dissenting in part but concurring in the result).
This is not an appeal. On the contrary it is an original proceeding commenced in this court by the filing herein of a petition designated “Application and Petition for a Writ of Error Coram Nobis or Other Appropriate Writ.” The proceeding is entitled “The State of Montana on the Relation of Jack C. Estes, Relator, v. The Justice Court of Jefferson County, Boulder, Montana, and William J. Pendergast, Judge thereof, Respondents. ’ ’
*141The relator here seeks a writ commanding the respondent court and justice of the peace to certify to this court the record in a criminal case entitled “The State of Montana v. Jack C. Estes,” —to annul relator’s plea of guilty, — to vacate the sentence imposed upon him and to cause relator to be rearraigned.
"Writs of coram nobis and coram vobis are of ancient origin. Their function has not changed materially from their earliest use in the sixteenth century until the present day. They embody a plea for the court to take cognizance of errors of fact and to correct the judgment entered to the end that due process be not denied. See Powell v. Alabama (the “Scottsboro Case”), 287 U.S. 45, 53 S. Ct. 55, 77 L. Ed. 158; Mooney v. Holohan, 294 U.S. 103, 55 S. Ct. 340, 79 L. Ed. 791, 98 A.L.R. 406, affirming In re Mooney, 9 Cir., 72 F. (2d) 503 and Mooney v. Holohan, 7 F. Supp. 385.
In the Mooney case, supra, the Supreme Court of the United States held that each state is required to provide some corrective judicial process or remedy that will afford a means for testing in the state courts claimed violations of the federal guaranty of due process. In other words, the Supreme Court has declared that each state must provide some adequate judicial procedure that will enable a convicted person to test the legality of his conviction notwithstanding that at first glance it may appear that the conviction was proper to the end that, “Questions of fundamental justice protected by the Due Process Clause may be raised, to use lawyers’ language, dehors the record.” Carter v. Illinois, 329 U.S. 173, 175, 67 S. Ct. 216, 218, 91 L. Ed. 172.
There must be a remedy available in the state courts wherein errors in fact which do not appear in the record of the trial and which therefore could not be examined and determined on appeal, may be reviewed without resorting to the federal courts for relief.
When human liberty is at stake, Montana, like the other states of the Union, must provide a remedy, be it contemporary or ancient, in order that due process be accorded and justice be done.
*142In tbe past this court has recognized its power and right in proper cases to entertain and determine applications for writs of coram nobis as well as for writs of coram vobis for we may not ignore the clear pronouncements of the Supreme Court of the United States nor may we decline to adopt the necessary procedure that will enable us to afford adequate relief in a proper case presented.
I therefore am unable to agree with much that is said in the majority opinion and particularly with what is there said concerning the self-imposed restrictions and limitations on this court’s jurisdiction, although I concur in the result reached in this particular original proceeding.