Court Opinion

ID: 9660174
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 22:07:03.926849+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:16.259551
License: Public Domain

OPINION ON STATE’S MOTION FOR REHEARING
ODOM, Judge.
This is an appeal from a conviction for theft. On original submission the judgment was reversed because the trial court denied a motion to quash the indictment for failure to give adequate notice to appellant of the acts charged against him.
In its motion for rehearing the State asserts the indictment was sufficient to give appellant fair notice; the panel opinion cannot be reconciled with Phelps v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 623 S.W.2d 936; Ferguson v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 622 S.W.2d 846, upon which the panel opinion relied, was wrongly decided; and Ferguson and the panel opinion conflict with Hunter v. State, Tex.Cr. App., 576 S.W.2d 395, which allows disjunctive pleading.
Phelps, supra, and Ferguson, supra, were decided in light of Thomas v. State, Tex.Cr. App., 621 S.W.2d 158, in which it was held that a theft indictment was not subject to motion to quash for failure to specify the nature of ownership of the stolen property and the circumstances rendering the owner’s consent ineffective. In reaching that conclusion the Thomas court emphasized that those terms did not go to an act or omission of the defendant. Id., at 164.
Phelps and Ferguson subsequently applied the “act or omission” test to determine whether motions to quash for insufficient notice should have been granted.
In Phelps it was held that the motion to quash for failure to specify the nature of the defendant’s alleged possession was properly denied because “possession” is neither an act nor an omission, and therefore denial of the motion did not deprive the defendant of notice of the acts charged against him. Phelps, supra, at footnote 1.
Ferguson, on the other hand, held it was error to deny a motion to quash that sought notice of the type of delivery alleged, because delivery is an act of the accused that may occur in several ways, and the accused is entitled to notice of the acts alleged against him.
The distinction between Phelps and Thomas on one hand and Ferguson on the other is a clear-cut line: a defendant is entitled to notice of acts or omissions he is alleged to have committed. The State argues the true test should be whether the defendant has “fair notice.” While we agree this is the ultimate test, we do not see how a defendant who has not received notice of the acts or omissions he is supposed to have committed can be said to have received fair notice of the charges against him. In other words, lack of notice of acts or omissions is by definition a denial of fair notice. In other areas of asserted denial of adequate notice, other factors must be ex*685amined to determine whether the accused has received “fair notice.”
“Although challenge to an accusation for failure to give adequate notice on which to prepare a defense must be asserted in a timely fashion (American Plant Food [v. State, Tex.Cr.App.,], [508 S.W.2d 598]), when properly asserted with adequate statement of the manner in which notice is deficient, fundamental constitutional protections are invoked. Because of the fundamental notions of fairness that require adequate notice of the nature of the charges against the accused in our system of justice, a timely claim of inadequate notice requires careful consideration. This calls for examination of the criminal accusation from the perspective of the accused, as contrasted to the measurement of its allegations against the statute that is the test for a claim that no offense is alleged.” Drumm v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 560 S.W.2d 944, 946-947. (Footnote omitted.)
In this case the panel opinion properly held that appellant was entitled to his motion to quash because the indictment did not give fair notice of the conduct alleged against him. We reject the State’s contentions that Phelps and Thomas are in conflict with the holding in this case. In those cases the motions to quash did not assert insufficient notice of the alleged conduct and did not show notice to be otherwise deficient.
In its remaining argument the State submits a conflict exists with Hunter v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 576 S.W.2d 395, which authorized disjunctive pleading. The argument advanced is that the State by disjunctive pleading may allege all variant theories included in the more general allegation which has been held subject to motion to quash, and appellant thereby would be left with no more precise notice than he has today. This argument overlooks the fact that it is the grand jury that must return the indictment.
“The right to indictment by a grand jury before answering a felony charge and the right to notice ride in tandem. No one is answerable to a felony charge except on action by a grand jury making such an accusation1—and it is from that accusation that notice must be had . .. [N]otice must come from the facts found and alleged by the grand jury in the indictment.” Brasfield v. State, 600 S.W.2d 288, 302.
The supposition that a multiplicity of variant theories will be alleged in an indictment returned after a motion to quash is granted will become a fact only in those cases where some evidence is presented to the grand jury supporting each of the “multiplicity of variant theories.” And in that rare case where there is such evidence, the accused is certainly entitled to notice of the State’s multiple theory of culpability.
The motion for rehearing is denied.
ONION, P.J., concurs.
DALLY, W. C. DAVIS and McCOR-MICK, JJ., dissent.

. Except upon waiver pursuant to Art. 1.141, V.A.C.C.P.