Court Opinion

ID: 9808174
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 20:29:39.169283+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:09:41.751790
License: Public Domain

MoNtgomery, J.,
dissenting: The defendant undertakes to defend himself by urging that, as great a - number as 861 *561bills were signed by the Speakers on the day when this one was signed; that there was a great rush and mighty confusion in the House that day; that he was frequently away from his office in the discharge of his duties, and that his assistant clerks, five or six in number, were not of his own choosing, but appointed for him by the House. But all of these things combined could- not relieve him from the obligation of exercising reasonable care in performing his duty in connection with this particular bill. Indeed they should have made him more «.ireful. If there had been a thousand bills instead of 361 and the House had been a Bedlam and the number of his clerks, twice as great as they were, he could easily enough have taken this one bill out of the batch, after his attention was called to it, and called to it as a bill that had been tabled, and have placed it where it could not have been enrolled. Although others of his duties might have been impossible of performance on that day, owing to the matters he mentions, yet there could have been no excuse for a failure to make an effort to prevent this tabled bill from being enrolled after his attention had been called to it.
The indictment contained two counts, the first one charging that he permitted the enrollment negligently, and the second that he did it or had it done knowingly, wilfully and corruptly. He was convicted on the first count. The only question necessary to be decided is whether there was any sufficient evidence tobe submitted to the jury on the question of negligence. I do not see how it admits of a doubt that there was such evidence. The following is the evidence: The bill, House bill 1018, had on its back, with others, this endorsement, “Tabled March 12, 1895,” and, in fact, it had been tabled on that day. The journal of the House showed no entry that the bill had been tabled. Books *562were kept by the defendant, as principal clerk o*f the House, in which were kept,' receipts of the enrolling clerk for all bills received by him from the principal clerk. This bill 1018 as appeared from these books was not receipted for either by title or 'number. R. L. Smith, a member of the House of tliat session, introduced the bill. Smith for the State testified that he requested the Speaker to place the bill before the House; that such course was taken and that the bill was tabled on March 11th. The witness further testified that, on the next day, the 12 th of March, he saw the defendant in the possession of the tabled bill. The following is the exact testimony of the- witness Smith on that point: “The next clay, 12th March, I met Satterfield, Chief Clerk, just at the left of the Speaker’s chair and he said he had one of my bills. I asked him to let vie see it and what he, ivas going to do with iff He showed me the bill, he said he was going to give it to the enrolling clerk. I told him it was tabled last night. He said he would go back and see about it. lie turned back towards the desk of the principal clerk which is in front of the Speaker’s chair. Since then he asked me where it was I met him, I told him and he admitted it.” The defendant, after having been seen in the possession of the bill as described in the testimony of the witness Smith on his way to the enrolling clerk’s office and after he had been cautioned about it, when he came upon the stand as a witness for himself, did not give out one word as to what he did with the bill after that time or as to whether he took any precautions to have it put in the possession of Mr. Lillington, the assistant clerk, whose duty it was to place the bills into proper apartments in a desk which he kept for that purpose, and which desk Lillington kept locked, keeping the key himself. By the testimony, Lillington was the custodian of the bills, such as had been-passed and such as had been tabled, and the bill was never *563placed in his possession as far as the evidence discloses. The defendant, it is true, contradicted the witness Smith as to the nature of the conversation which they had when Smith discovered him going to the enrolling Clerk’s office to have the tabled bill enrolled. The defendant was aware of the importance of that testimony. There was a conflict, but both sides of it was a matter for the consideration of the jury.
The evidence, including the defendant’s own testimony, tended strongly to show that he did not use one particle of care to prevent the enrollment of this tabled bill.
I think the verdict of the jury and the judgment of the Court below ought to stand, for the verdict was justified by the evidence, and the judgment according to the law.
Clark:, J.: T concur in the dissenting opinion.