Opinion
No. 27,615.
Filed October 7, 1941.
MANDAMUS — Grounds — Compelling Trial of Action in Lower Court — Request for Trial Not Shown — Effect. — The Supreme Court will not mandate a trial court to act upon a petition for writ of error coram nobis where no request had been made that the petition be assigned for trial, since a trial court will not be mandated to perform some duty which it has not been requested to perform.
Original action in the Supreme Court for a writ of mandate.
Petition by the State of Indiana on the relation of Arthur Tonan for a writ of mandate against Judge J.L. Bottorff, Circuit Court of Clark County, to compel respondent to act upon relator's petition for a writ of error coram nobis pending in such court.
Writ denied.
Arthur Tonan, of Michigan City, for relator.
George N. Beamer, Attorney General, and John R. Walsh, Deputy Attorney General, for respondent.
The relator alleges that he is serving a sentence of life imprisonment upon a conviction of kidnapping; that he filed a petition for a writ of error coram nobis in the Clark Circuit Court, in which he was convicted, but that the judge of said court has refused to act upon his petition. In a verified return it appears that, while a petition was filed, there has never been a request that it be assigned for trial.
It is a common practice in many of our courts of general jurisdiction that causes are not assigned for trial until a request for an assignment is made, and, under such circumstances, it cannot be said that the court has refused a trial. This court will not mandate the trial court to perform some duty which it has not been requested to perform.
Petition for writ of mandate denied.
NOTE. — Reported in 36 N.E.2d 766.