Charles Simms v. Hannah Simms

• Decision Date: 20 November 1899
• Docket Number: No. 16,16
• Parties: CHARLES F. SIMMS and George T. Brosius, Executors of the Will of James T. Simms, Deceased, Appts. , v. HANNAH T. SIMMS, Appellee
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

175 U.S. 162

20 S.Ct. 58

44 L.Ed. 115

CHARLES F. SIMMS and George T. Brosius, Executors of the Will of James T. Simms, Deceased, Appts.,

v HANNAH T. SIMMS, Appellee.

No. 16.

Submitted October 10, 1899.

Decided November 20, 1899.

The suit was commenced by a complaint filed October 6, 1894, in a district court of the territory of Arizona, by a hus- matrimony for the cause of desertion on and ever since December 18, 1893. The wife's answer denied the desertion alleged, and set up desertion by the husband on and ever since December 14, 1893, as well as cruelty on his part.

The Revised Statutes of 1887 of the territory of Arizona, title 34, chap. 4, vest the jurisdiction of suits for divorce in the district courts of the territory, and the only provisions thereof touching alimony, counsel fees, or costs, are copied in the margin.

Pending this suit, the wife, by her counsel, moved the court to order the husband to pay her the sum of $5,000 as provisional alimony to enable her to employ counsel and defend the suit. The court made no order on the motion until its final decision of the cause upon its merits; and then, on a review of the whole evidence (which had been taken by a referee and made part of the record), held that the suit could not be maintained, overruled a motion for a new trial, allowed a bill of exceptions, and by a decree entered June 13, 1896, adjudged that the complaint be dismissed and the issues therein decided in favor of the defendant, and that she recover $750 counsel fees, and $150 a month for her maintenance from December 14, 1893, amounting in all to the sum of $5,250, exclusive of costs. On June 30, 1896, the husband appealed to the supreme court of the territory, and gave bond to prosecute his appeal.

The record of the supreme court of Arizona (a copy of which, duly certified by its clerk, was transmitted to this court) stated that on the 11th and 13th days of January, 1897, respectively, each described as 'being one of the judicial days of the January term, 1897, of the supreme court of Arizona,' orders were made fixing the times of filing briefs. The record then stated that 'on the 26th day of January, 1897, a release of part of the judgment of the lower court for alimony was filed in said court in said cause by said appellee,' and set forth a copy thereof, by which it appeared to have been signed by her attorneys of record, with no other attestation than this blank form: 'Attest, _____ _____, Clerk of the Supreme Court of Arizona.' And the release was indorsed by the clerk as filed on that day. By the release so filed and recorded, the wife 'remits, from the judgment for alimony and counsel fees recovered by the said defendant and appellee against the plaintiff and appellant herein in this cause in the district court, all of the said judgment for alimony and counsel fees in excess of the sum of $5,000, to wit, the sum of $250.'

The provisions of the Revised Statutes of Arizona of 1887, on the subject of the right of a party to remit part of the sum awarded by verdict or judgment, are copied in the margin.

On January 30, 1897, the case was submitted on briefs to the supreme court of the territory, and on February 23, 1897, that court affirmed the judgment of the district court for $5,250. The husband took an appeal to this court, which has been prosecuted by his executors since his death; and the whole case was submitted to this court on briefs.

The appellee moved to dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction, 'because the judgment or decree, from which said appeal purports to have been taken, is the judgment or decree of the supreme court of one of the territories of the United States, to wit, the supreme court of the territory of Arizona, affirming a judgment or decree of a district court of said territory, dismissing a bill for divorce brought by said appellant against said appellee in said district court, and awarding appellee alimony and counsel fees pendente lite; and for the further reason that the matter in dispute does not exceed the sum of $5,000 exclusive of costs.'

Messrs. L. E. Payson, A. H. Garland, and R. C. Garland for appellants.

Mr. William H. Barnes for appellee.

Mr. Justice Gray, after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court:

The motion to dismiss this appeal for want of jurisdiction is made upon two grounds: 1st. That the decree appealed from is a decree dismissing a suit for divorce, and awarding to the appellee alimony and counsel fees pending that suit. 2d. That the matter in dispute does not exceed the sum of $5,000 exclusive of costs.

The revised Statutes of the United States conferred on this court jurisdiction, upon writ of error or appeal, to review and reverse or affirm the final judgments and decrees of the supreme court of any territory except Washington, 'in cases where the value of the matter in dispute [or as elsewhere described, 'where the value of the property or the amount in controversy'], to be ascertained by the oath of either party, or of other competent witnesses, exceeds one thousand dollars,' and, in the territory of Washington, two thousand dollars; and also in all cases in any territory, arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States, or in which the Constitution or a statute or treaty of the United States is brought in question; and in all cases upon writs of habeas corpus involving the question of personal freedom. Rev. Stat. §§ 702, 1909-1911. By the act of March 3, 1885, chap. 355, except in cases in which is involved the validity of a patent or a copyright, or in which is drawn in question the validity of a treaty or statute of, or an authority exercised under, the United States, 'no appeal or writ of error shall hereafter be allowed from any judgment or decree in any suit at law or in equity in the supreme court of the District of Columbia, or in the supreme court of any of the territories of the United States, unless the matter in dispute, exclusive of costs, shall exceed the sum of five thousand dollars.' 23 Stat. at L. 443. This act has not repealed the provision of the Revised Statutes giving an appeal from the supreme court of a territory in cases of habeas corpus. Gonzales v. Cunningham, 164 U. S. 612, 41 L. ed. 572, 17 Sup. Ct. Rep. 182. The act of March 3, 1891, chap. 517, transferring to the circuit courts of appeals the appellate jurisdiction from the supreme courts of the territories in cases founded on diversity of citizenship, or arising under the patent, revenue, or criminal laws, or in admiralty, has not otherwise affected the appellate jurisdiction of this court from the territorial courts. 26 Stat. at L. 828, 830; Shute v. Keyser, 149 U. S. 649, 37 L. ed. 884, 13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 960; Aztec Min. Co. v. Ripley, 151 U. S. 79, 38L. ed. 80, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 236.

Under the existing acts of Congress, therefore (except in the cases so transferred to the circuit courts of appeals, and in cases of habeas corpus, cases involving the validity of a copyright, and cases depending upon the Constitution or a statute or treaty of the United States—none of which classes includes the case at bar), the appellate jurisdiction of this court to review and reverse or affirm the final judgments and decrees of the supreme court of a territory includes those cases, and those cases only, at law or in equity, in which 'the matter in dispute, exclusive of costs, shall exceed the sum of five thousand dollars.'

In order to sustain the appellate jurisdiction of this court, under such an enactment, the matter in dispute must have been money, or something the value of which can be estimated in money. Kurtz v. Moffitt, 115 U. S. 487, 495, 496, 29 L. ed. 458, 459, 6 Sup. Ct. Rep. 148, and cases there cited; Durham v. Seymour, 161 U. S. 235, 40 L. ed. 682, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 452; Perrine v. Slack, 164 U. S. 452, 41 L. ed. 510, 17 Sup. Ct. Rep. 79.

In support of the motion to dismiss this appeal because the decree below concerned divorce and alimony only, the appellee relied on Barber v. Barber, 21 How. 582, 16 L. ed. 226. In that case, a majority of this court held that a wife who had obtained against her husband, in the courts of the state of their domicil, a decree divorcing them from bed and board and awarding alimony to her, might sue the husband for such alimony in a circuit court of the United States held in a state in which he had since become domiciled. Mr. Justice Wayne, in delivering judgment, said: 'We disclaim altogether any jurisdiction in the courts of the United States upon the subject of divorce, or for the allowance of alimony, either as an original proceeding in chancery or as an incident to divorce a vinculo, or to one from bed and board.' 21 How. 584, 16 L. ed. 226. And from that proposition there was no dissent. It may therefore be assumed as indubitable that the circuit courts of the United States have no jurisdiction, either of suits for divorce, or of claims for alimony, whether made in a suit for divorce, or by an original proceeding in equity, before a decree for such alimony in a state court. Within the states of the Union, the whole subject of the domestic relations of husband and wife, parent and child, belongs to the laws of the state, and not to the laws of the United States. Re Burrus, 136 U. S. 586, 593, 594, 34 L. ed. 500, 503, 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 850.

But those considerations have no application to the jurisdiction of the courts of a territory, or to the appellate juris- diction of this court over those courts. In the territories of the United States, Congress has the entire dominion and sovereignty, national and local, Federal and state, and has full legislative power over all subjects upon which the legislature of a state might legislate within the state; and may, at its discretion, intrust that power to the legislative assembly of a territory. Shively v. Bowlby, 152 U. S. 1, 48, 38 L. ed. 331, 349, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 548, and cases cited; Utter v. Franklin, 172 U. S....