STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA
OFFICE OF
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

July 8, 1974

Larry Hosmer
State's Attorney
Yankton County
Yankton, South Dakota 57078

OFFICIAL OPINION NO. 74-27

A South Dakota county coroner may maintain initial jurisdiction over any body found within his county without regard to where the actual injury or death occurred.

Dear Mr. Hosmer:

You have requested an official opinion from this office on the following factual situation:

The coroner for Yankton County has made inquiry concerning his jurisdiction authority and responsibility under the following facts: A person has suffered a fatal injury outside the State of South Dakota. Upon being rushed to a South Dakota Hospital the person is declared "dead on arrival." It is not known whether the person died before being transported to South Dakota or died sometime during the transit.

You have asked the following specific questions:

1. Under the above described facts, does the South Dakota county coroner have the responsibility and the necessary jurisdictional authority to conduct an investigation into the death or must the body be returned to the state and county where the injury was sustained?

2. Furthermore, assuming that the South Dakota coroner has the responsibility and jurisdictional authority to conduct an investigation into the death, may that jurisdiction be suspended when the said county of the state wherein the fatal injury took place requests the South Dakota coroner NOT to perform an investigation?

3. In addition, assuming that the coroner in South Dakota has the jurisdictional authority and responsibility to conduct an investigation into the death in issues (l) and (2), is the county of the investigating coroner liable for the coroner's investigation fees or is the county of the state wherein the fatal injury occurred responsible for said fees?

SDCL 23-14-3 provides for jurisdiction "when the coroner has notice of the dead body of a person supposed to have died by unlawful means, found or being in his county." Although South Dakota case law discloses no additional authority on this issue, the weight of authority in other state jurisdictions is that an inquest is proper in the county where the body is found. 15 C.J.S. Coroners § 16 states:

It is the more general rule that an inquest is properly held in the territory of the coroner in whose jurisdiction the body is found, without regard to the place where the death occurred or where the injury resulting in death was received.

The Nebraska case of Moore v. Box Butte County, III N. W. 469, states the majority rule that jurisdiction to hold an inquest is conferred upon a coroner by his finding and custody in his county of the body of a person who has apparently come to his death by violent, mysterious, or unknown means and such jurisdiction is not defeated by the mere fact that the violence was inflicted or the death occurred in another county. The Nebraska statute in question used the phrase "found or being in his county." Similarly, under an Ohio statute providing that coroners shall take inqusition over dead bodies "found within the county" it has been held that a body is found within the county, within the meaning of the statute whenever it is ascertained by any means that a body is within the county. State v. Bellows, 56 N.E. 1028.

Thus, in accordance with the weight of authority in other jurisdictions with statutes similar in wording to SDCL 23-14-3 ("found or being in his county"), it has been held that a coroner has juridiction over any body found within the county without regard to where the actual injury or death occurred. From the foregoing authority it would follow that a South Dakota coroner can maintain initial jurisdiction over any body found within his county even though the death or injury may have occurred in another state. The county of the investigating coroner would then be liable for the coroner's investigation fees.

Your second question relates to whether that jurisdiction may be suspended when the county of the state wherein the fatal injury took place requests the South Dakota coroner not to perform an investigation. In South Dakota the object of a coroner's inquest is to obtain information as to whether death was caused by some criminal act and to furnish foundation for a criminal prosecution in case the death is shown to be felonious. State v. Halvorsen, 79 S. D. 209, 110 N. W. 2d 132. Where the acts causing the death occurred in another state, it may be necessary as a practical matter to hold the coroner's inquest in the state and county where the death transpired. A full coroner's inquest requires the investigation of all the circumstances surrounding the death including the subpoena of witnesses. Such a complete inquiry would be severely limited where the death or injury occurred in another state where the South Dakota coroner would not have access to the facts surrounding the death or the authority under SDCL 23-14-7 to subpoena nonresidents as witnesses. Additionally, any civil or criminal action brought as a result of the death must be brought in the jurisdiction where the injury was inflicted.

Thus, once a body has been found within his county, the South Dakota coroner has full authority to proceed with a coroner's investigation. However, if in the course of that investigation, it is determined that death occurred in another state, the South Dakota coroner is under no further obligation to proceed with the summons of a coroner's jury to ascertain whether death was felonious. A South Dakota coroner acquires jurisdiction to commence an investigation by his findings of a body supposed to have died by unlawful means within his county. Any further investigation may be dispensed with once it has been conclusively shown from the initial investigation that the death occurred in another state.

The South Dakota county would be liable for the coroner investigation fees up to a point where it was determined that the death occurred in another state.

Respectfully submitted,

Kermit A. Sande
Attorney General

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