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116 Ohio St. 3d 30

Griffin v. McFaul

Ohio Supreme Court

Decided October 23, 2007

Ohio Supreme Court · decided 2007-10-23

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“(A) At the time that an inmate commences a civil action or appeal against a government entity or employee, the inmate shall file with the court an affidavit that contains a *Page 9 description of each civil action or appeal of a civil action that the inmate has filed in the previous five years in any state or federal court. The affidavit shall include all of the following for each of those civil actions or appeals: (1) A brief description of the nature of the civil action or appeal; (2) The case name, case number, and the court in which the civil action or appeal was brought; (3) The name of each party to the civil action or appeal; (4) The outcome of the civil action or appeal, including whether the court dismissed the civil action or appeal as frivolous or malicious under state or federal law or rule of court, whether the court made an award against the inmate or the inmate's counsel of record for frivolous conduct under section 2323.51 of the Revised Code, another statute, or a rule of court, and, if the court so dismissed the action or appeal or made an award of that nature, the date of the final order affirming the dismissal or award.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Thorpe v. Kerns, 1-08-31 (12-15-2008)

Relies on Chari v. Vore · State ex rel. Foster v. Belmont County Court of Common Pleas · 100 Ohio St. 3d 315 - Jackson v. Wilson

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 2007-10-23

How this case has been cited

Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently January 2023

14 state decisions

50200720102020decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Per Curiam.

¶1{¶ 1} This is an appeal from a judgment denying a writ of habeas corpus. Because the petition seeking the writ is fatally defective, we affirm.

¶2{¶ 2} In March 2007, appellant, Theron Griffin, filed a petition in the Court of Appeals for Cuyahoga County for a writ of habeas corpus to compel appellee, Cuyahoga County Sheriff Gerald T. McFaul, to release him from confinement in the county jail. Griffin did not attach any commitment papers, and his “affidavit of verification” was not notarized. Griffin’s purported R.C. 2969.25(A) affidavit, describing each civil action or appeal of a civil action that he had filed in the previous five years in any state or federal court, was also not notarized. And although Griffin claimed indigency, he did not file an affidavit containing the statement required by R.C. 2969.25(C)(1) setting forth the balance in his inmate account “for each of the preceding six months, as- certified by the institutional cashier.”

¶3{¶ 3} The court of appeals granted Sheriff McFaul’s motion for summary judgment and denied the writ. The court of appeals specified several reasons supporting denial of the writ in its judgment.

¶4{¶ 4} We affirm the judgment of the court of appeals. Griffin’s petition was fatally defective and subject to dismissal because he failed to comply with the commitment-paper and verification requirements of R.C. 2725.04. State ex rel. Winnick v. Gansheimer, 112 Ohio St.3d 149, 2006-Ohio-6521, 858 N.E.2d 409, ¶ 5-6. Griffin’s purported verification was ineffective because it was not notarized. Chari v. Vore (2001), 91 Ohio St.3d 323, 327, 744 N.E.2d 763. Griffin also failed to comply with R.C. 2969.25(A) and (C)(1). Fortson v. Bradshaw, 109 Ohio St.3d 250, 2006-Ohio-2291, 846 N.E.2d 1258, ¶ 12; State ex rel. Foster v. Belmont Cty. Court of Common Pleas, 107 Ohio St.3d 195, 2005-Ohio-6184, 837 N.E.2d 777, ¶ 5. We need not address the propriety of the court of appeals’ other reasons for *31denying the writ. Jackson v. Wilson, 100 Ohio St.3d 315, 2003-Ohio-6112, 798 N.E.2d 1086, ¶ 10.

Theron Griffin, pro se.

¶5Judgment affirmed.

Moyer, C.J., and Pfeifer, Lundberg Stratton, O’Connor, O’Donnell, Lanzinger, and Cupp, JJ., concur.
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