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280 S.W.2d 523

Walters v. Fowler

Court of Appeals of Kentucky

Decided June 17, 1955

Court of Appeals of Kentucky · decided 1955-06-17

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently March 1959

3 state decisions

Relies on Lakes v. Goodloe · Thompson v. Wood

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1955-06-17

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MONTGOMERY, Judge,

¶1Gerald James Walters seeks a writ of prohibition against Dan E. Fowler, Judge of the Fayette Quarterly Court. The petitioner was tried and convicted in the Fay-ette Quarterly Court upon a warrant charging breach of the peace. By this writ, he seeks to prevent the collection of a $5 fine and costs levied against him.

¶2Petitioner and about 113 other people were arrested on May 20, 1955, while attending the Donagene Club located on the Richmond Road in Fayette County, Kentucky. He complains that many prejudicial errors were committed upon the trial. He also urges that he will suffer great and irreparable damage if such a conviction is upheld, and that the commission of the trial errors, collection of the fine, and refusal of a new trial are substantial failures of due process' under ‘the United States Constitution, Amendment XIV, Section 1, and the Constitution of Kentucky, Section 11.

¶3We do not find it necessary to detail the evidence bearing upon the guilt or innocence of the petitioner or to discuss specifically each of thé errors assigned. None of the errors complained of rendered the judgment void. We feel that the recent ruling in Thompson v. Wood, Ky., 277 S.W.2d 472, decided March 4, 1955, rehearing denied April 29, 1955, is- controlling. It was' there held that the imposition- and collection of a fine for $10 and the costs by a court of competent jurisdiction was not such great injustice or great and.irreparable injury as would justify the use of the *524writ of prohibition. It is conceded in the instant case that the inferior court was proceeding within its jurisdiction.

¶4This result may seem harsh to the petitioner, and we are inclined to feel sympathetically toward him. However, the Legislature, in its wisdom, has not seen fit to authorize an appeal from a $5 fine. The proceeding used by petitioner is nothing more than an attempt to appeal from the judgment of an inferior court when no such appeal is authorized. The failure or refusal of the Legislature to provide for such an appeal is within its power and discretion. Lakes v. Goodloe, 195 Ky. 240, 242 S.W. 632.

¶5For the reasons stated in Thompson v. Wood, supra, the writ of prohibition is denied.

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