Court Opinion

ID: 9531561
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:12:58.298782+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:30.910575
License: Public Domain

Concurring Opinion.
Cooper, J.,
joins in this concurring opinion, with *58the additional observation that in his opinion the judgment of the East Chicago City Court did not conform to the pleadings in that the relief sought by appellee’s complaint was for damages and the judgment rendered was criminal and penal; that the criminal or penal jurisdiction of said court can only be invoked by the filing of a proper legal affidavit or information charging the violation of a statute; that by the penal penalty portion of Sec. 4-2403, Burns’ 1946 Replacement, the Legislature intended that the City Court’s penal jurisdiction should relate to misdemeanors as defined by statute and that any attempt by the Legislature to permit a city court to adjudge imprisonment in any cause which our Supreme Court has designated as a civil action would be unconstitutional as a direct violation of Article 1, Sec. 37 of the Indiana Constitution and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and that since the record conclusively shows that the said City Court, instead of adjudging a monetary penalty within the jurisdictional limits in a cause designated by our Supreme Court as “civil”, went beyond his jurisdiction in assessing imprisonment of appellant and, in so doing, denied appellant “due process of law” under Article 1, Sec. 12, of the State Constitution, and Sec. 1 of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution, and, therefore, said judgment was illegal and void.
Note. — Reported in 154 N. E. 2d 58.