Parker v. United States

• Citation: 153 F.2d 66
• Decision Date: 11 January 1946
• Docket Number: No. 4083.,4083.
• Parties: PARKER v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (1st Circuit)

153 F.2d 66 (1946)

PARKER v. UNITED STATES.

No. 4083.

Circuit Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

January 11, 1946.

Richard Wait, of Boston, Mass., for appellant.

Joseph M. Hargedon, of Boston, Mass. (Edmund J. Brandon, of Boston, Mass., and J. Stephen Doyle, of Boston, Mass., and Handley C. Harrison, both of Washington, D. C., with him on the brief), for appellee.

Before MAGRUDER, MAHONEY, and WOODBURY, Circuit Judges.

MAGRUDER, Circuit Judge.

Howard B. Parker is here again, this time on appeal from an order of the District Court denying his petition to be finally discharged from further commitment and liability for civil contempt. The petition was based upon the legal proposition, which the court below rejected, that Parker's supervening discharge in bankruptcy had relieved him from further liability for the unpaid amount of a compensatory fine which had been imposed upon him in civil contempt proceedings.

The contempt proceedings grew out of a suit in equity brought by the United States of America and the Secretary of Agriculture against Green Valley Creamery, Inc., to obtain a mandatory injunction requiring the said corporation to comply with the provisions of Order No. 4, as amended, issued by the Secretary of Agriculture pursuant to the provisions of the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, 50 Stat. 246, 7 U.S.C.A. § 601 et seq. The equity suit went in complainant's favor, and the final decree therein was upheld by us on appeal in Green Valley Creamery, Inc., v. United States, 1 Cir., 1939, 108 F.2d 342.

Thereafter, a petition for attachment for contempt was filed by the United States against Green Valley Creamery, Inc., and Howard B. Parker, its sole stockholder and dominant officer, alleging disobedience of and failure to comply with the decree of the District Court. An order was entered on January 27, 1941, adjudging Parker in civil contempt and committing him to jail until Green Valley Creamery, Inc., should effect compliance with the Act and the mandatory injunction theretofore issued against the said corporation. On appeal, we vacated this order and remanded the case to the District Court for further proceedings in conformity with directions contained in our opinion. Parker v. United States, 1 Cir., 1942, 126 F.2d 370.

After appropriate proceedings upon remand, the District Court entered an order on June 16, 1942, adjudging Parker in civil contempt of both the interlocutory and final decree in the aforementioned equity suit, and as reparation for the contempt imposing a compensatory fine upon Parker, for the benefit of the Market Administrator, in the sum of $42,236.74, which was computed to be the amount of the loss caused to the Market Administrator by Parker's disobedience of the court decrees. The order required payment of this sum within ten days, in default of which it was directed that Parker be committed to jail until payment was made, or until a further order of the court.

Parker appealed from this order of June 16, 1942, filing a supersedeas bond in the sum of $20,000.¹ We affirmed the order imposing the compensatory fine, in Parker v. United States, 1 Cir., 1943, 135 F.2d 54, certiorari denied 1943, 320 U.S. 737, 64 S.Ct. 35, 88 L.Ed. 436. Our opinion in that case describes the conduct of Parker constituting the contempt, and explains how the amount of the compensatory fine was calculated. It is unnecessary to repeat the discussion of these matters in the present opinion. After our mandate affirming the order went down, the said sum of $20,000 was paid over to the Market Administrator in partial settlement of the fine.

On October 18, 1943, Parker filed a voluntary petition in bankruptcy in the court below and was thereupon duly adjudicated a bankrupt. On the same day, he surrendered himself to the United States marshal for commitment pursuant to the contempt order of June 16, 1942, but he was forthwith released from the custody of the marshal upon the filing in the District Court of a memorandum of recognizance in the amount of $5,000.

The trustee in bankruptcy of Parker's estate took possession of all his property and administered the same for the benefit of creditors. The Market Administrator filed with the trustee a proof of claim for the balance of the compensatory fine, the same was allowed, and a dividend in the amount of $1,950.16 was paid to the Market Administrator thereon. On May 15, 1944, Parker received his discharge in bankruptcy. The unpaid balance of the compensatory fine now stands at $20,286.58.

Subsequent to his discharge in bankruptcy, Parker filed his petition in the contempt proceedings, praying "that an appropriate order be entered discharging him from further commitment and continued liability and finally disposing of the said petition for attachment for contempt. * * *" The petition was denied by order entered February 20, 1945, from which order the present appeal was taken. In a memorandum opinion accompanying the order (United States v. Green Val. Creamery, 59 F.Supp. 153, 154), the District Court, after citing certain cases, stated:

"The reasoning of these decisions seems to be that, while the fine imposed by the court may be a provable debt as between the contemnor and the person for whose benefit it has been ordered paid, it is not a debt within the meaning of the Bankruptcy Act * * * as between the court and the contemnor, and for that reason a discharge granted by the bankruptcy court will not affect the fine imposed. In other words, the fine has the character of a debt as between the bankrupt and the person for whose benefit it was owed and, in addition, is a penalty levied by the court for a contumacious act. The discharge in bankruptcy can only affect the fine in the first-described status.

"A discharge in bankruptcy does not operate to affect a power inherent in the courts of justice to suppress contempts by an immediate attachment of the offender. To hold otherwise would seriously affect the orderly administration of justice and deprive the court of one of its most elementary powers.

"I therefore find and rule that, as a matter of law, the discharge in bankruptcy issued to the petitioner Parker does not operate to bar a collection of the unpaid balance of the compensatory fine imposed by this Court. The petitioner's claim for an order barring the collection of the balance of his fine is denied."

Though the question of our jurisdiction was not raised or discussed in the briefs or oral argument, it occurred to us that maybe the order appealed from was not a "final decision" within the meaning of 28 U.S.C.A. § 225. The order, which adjudged and decreed "That the said petition of Howard B. Parker for final order upon petition for attachment for contempt be and the same hereby is denied", seemed to us to be, superficially at least, of an interlocutory character. At our suggestion, the parties submitted supplemental memoranda on the jurisdictional point. The memorandum filed by the United States as appellee expresses the view that this court has jurisdiction of the appeal, and states that the government would welcome a decision on the merits.

We have not always correctly understood what constitutes a "final decision" under 28 U.S.C.A. § 225. See Puerto Rico Railway Light & Power Co. v. United States, 1 Cir., 1942, 131 F.2d 491, 494, disapproved in Catlin v. United States, 1945, 324 U.S. 229, 233, 65 S.Ct. 631, with which compare Radio Station WOW v. Johnson, 1945, 326 U.S. 120, 126, 65 S.Ct. 1475. The cases on what is a "final decision" are legion. We do not propose to make an extended review of them in this opinion, but content ourselves with stating rather summarily our conclusion that the present appeal has been properly taken.

The requirement of finality is based upon a strong general policy against allowing piecemeal appeals. Here the original suit in equity, out of which the contempt proceedings arose, has long since gone to final decree which has been affirmed on appeal. The order now appealed from, as is apparent from the accompanying memorandum, finally adjudicated that Parker is under a liability to pay the balance of the compensatory fine notwithstanding his discharge in bankruptcy. Nothing further remains to be determined on the merits. If the order is not appealable now, it may never be appealable. Meanwhile, Parker is at liberty upon a memorandum of recognizance in the sum of $5,000, under a continuing threat that he may subsequently be taken into custody and confined to jail to coerce further payment on account of the fine, if and when he may come into funds in the future. But any such further proceedings would be in the nature of an execution, to enforce an earlier judgment on the merits. As the Supreme Court has many times laid down, a judgment is final for purposes of appeal when it terminates the litigation between the parties on the merits of the case and leaves nothing to be done but to enforce by execution what has been determined. Berman v. United States, 1937, 302 U.S. 211, 212, 213, 58 S.Ct. 164, 82 L.Ed. 204, and cases cited.

This brings us to the merits; and here we take a different view from that of the District Court.

The Supreme Court has had many occasions to emphasize the importance of the distinction between a proceeding in civil contempt and one in criminal contempt. Bessette v. W. B. Conkey Co., 1904, 194 U.S. 324, 24 S.Ct. 665, 48 L.Ed. 997; Matter of Christensen Engineering Co., 1904, 194 U.S. 458, 24 S.Ct. 729, 48 L.Ed. 1072; Doyle v. London Guarantee & Accident Co., Ltd., 1907, 204 U.S. 599, 27 S.Ct. 313, 51 L.Ed. 641; Gompers v. Bucks Stove & Range Co., 1911, 221 U.S. 418, 31 S.Ct. 492, 55 L.Ed. 797, 34 L.R.A.,N.S., 874; In re Merchants' Stock & Grain Co., 1912, 223 U.S. 639, 32 S.Ct. 339, 56 L.Ed. 584; Ex parte Grossman, 1925, 267 U.S. 87, 45 S.Ct. 332, 69 L.Ed. 527, 38 A.L.R. 131; Leman v. Krentler-Arnold Hinge Last Co., 1932, 284 U.S. 448, 52 S.Ct. 33, 76 L.Ed. 519; Lamb v. Cramer,...