# Webb v. State

> Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee · August 11, 1971 · 4 Tenn. Crim. App. 723

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/5038406

## Case

- **Full name:** Richard WEBB v. STATE of Tennessee
- **Court:** Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
- **Decided:** August 11, 1971
- **Citations:** 4 Tenn. Crim. App. 723; 475 S.W.2d 228; 1971 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 444
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Galbreath
- **Judges:** Galbreath, Mitchell, Russell
- **Cited by:** 9 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/5038406

## Opinion text

GALBREATH, Judge
(dissenting).
In Brown v. State, Tenn.Cr.App., 445 S.W.2d 669 , Judge W. Wayne Oliver, writing unanimously for this Court, said:
“Without a clear and detailed finding of fact by the trial judge, the petitioner and his counsel and the appellate court are at a complete loss to know the basis of the trial judge’s decision and judgment; assignment of errors and appellate review are seriously frustrated if not completely thwarthed by lack of a definitive finding of fact by the trial judge. These official shortcomings alone would require reversal of the judgment of the trial court and remand for a new trial upon the petition.”
As noted in Judge Mitchell’s opinion it was necessary for him to sort out the facts developed at the evidentiary hearing in order for this Court to decide the appeal. But this was, under the law, the sole function of the trial judge, and the case should have been remanded with an appropriate mandate to comply with the law. Failure to have the trial judge’s finding of fact in the record leaves it incomplete and the action below reversible. Bound by a like mandate to observe the law as it is impressed on me forces me to reluctantly dissent from the majority holding that the error involved is harmless.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/5038406. Public record. Not legal advice.