Lewis Jacobs v. Dora Marks

• Citation: 45 L.Ed. 1241,182 U.S. 583,21 S.Ct. 865
• Decision Date: 27 May 1901
• Docket Number: No. 410,410
• Parties: LEWIS JACOBS, plff. in Err. , v. DORA MARKS
• Court: United States Supreme Court

182 U.S. 583

21 S.Ct. 865

45 L.Ed. 1241

LEWIS JACOBS, plff. in Err.,

v DORA MARKS.

No. 410.

Submitted January 7, 1901.

Decided May 27, 1901.

In June, 1896, Dora Marks brought an action in the circuit court of Cook county, Illinois, against Lewis Jacobs, for false representations and deceit whereby the plaintiff had been induced to become a member of a corporation known as the Chicago Furniture & Lumber Company of Escanaba, Michigan, composed of said Jacobs and one Nathan Neufeldt, and to pay into such concern the sum of $5,000. The plaintiff sought to recover in this action the money so expended by her, alleging that the shares of stock so taken by her in said company were worthless.

The defendant filed a demurrer to the declaration, which was overruled, and thereupon he filed a plea of not guilty, and also several special pleas, in which he set up, in substance, that the plaintiff, on or about December 4, 1893, instituted an action in the circuit court of Delta county, Michigan, against the Chicago Furniture & Lumber Company, to recover the sum claimed in the present suit; that service was duly had upon said company, which entered its appearance, and said court acquired jurisdiction of the parties to said cause and the subject-matter thereof; that afterwards the said parties came to a settlement of said cause; that on July 25, 1894, the said court entered the following order: 'This cause having been settled, it is hereby discontinued by consent of both parties, without cost to either party;' and that the said plaintiff had, therefore, received full satisfaction of the claim upon which the present suit is based. These special pleas were traversed, and the trial resulted in a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for $4,000. At the trial of the present case the plaintiff put in evidence a written agreement between the Chicago Furniture & Lumber Company and Dora Marks, in the following terms:

'Articles of agreement made and entered into this 14th of July, A. D. 1894, by and between the Chicago Furniture & Lumber Company, a corporation, of the city of Escanaba, Delta county, Michigan, parties of the first part, and Dora Marks, of Denver, Colorado, party of the second part. Party of the first part agrees to purchase the twenty thousand dollars' ($20,000) worth of stock of the said Chicago Furniture & Lumber Company, which the party of the second part holds, for the sum of $4,000, to be paid for as follows: $1,000 to Mead & Jennings, attorneys for said party of the second part, as soon as the parties of the first part dispose of their treasury stock to the amount of $1,000 or interest other capital in said company to the amount of $1,000, and $3,000 to said party of the second part, on the day that the plant now occupied by the parties of the first part in said city of Escanaba is turned over to them, and a clear title to the property earned by them. Parties of the first part further agree to discontinue the damage suit now pending against the party of the second part, without cost. Said parties of the first part further agree to release said party of the second part from all liability of said second party for the balance due on unpaid stock. Party of the second part agrees to sell her said stock of $20,000 to the parties of the first part and accept payment as aforesaid mentioned. Party of the second part also agrees to discontinue the suit now pending under attachment proceedings against party of the first part, without cost. Said stock to be transferred as paid for.

'In witness whereof the parties have hereunto set their hands and seals the day and year first above written.'

Thereupon, over the objections of the defendant Jacobs, the plaintiff was permitted to testify that the company never carried out the agreement under which the suit was brought, and that she never recovered a single dollar in satisfaction of her claim. The defendant requested the court to instruct the jury that the settlement of the Michigan case constituted a bar to this action. These instructions were refused, and the trial resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiff in the sum of $4,000.

The cause was taken to the appellate court of Illinois, which first reversed, and then, on rehearing, affirmed, the judgment of the trial court; and afterwards to the supreme court of Illinois, which, on December 18, 1899, affirmed the judgment of the appellate court. A writ of error was thereupon allowed by this court.

Messrs. Louis J. Blum and Edgar C. Blum for plaintiff in error.

Messrs. John F. Dillon, Andrew J. Hirschl, and John W. Byam for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice Shiras delivered the opinion of the court:

The plaintiff in error alleges error in the action of the Illinois courts in failing to give full faith and credit to the judicial record and proceedings of the circuit court of Delta county, Michigan.

A contention is made on behalf of the defendant in error that the decision of the state supreme court did not rest on a Federal question, and that, hence, under the doctrine of Seeberger v. McCormick, 175 U. S. 274, 44 L. ed. 161, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 128, and cases therein cited, we have no jurisdiction to review it.

But the record discloses that, at the trial in the circuit court of Cook county, the defendant, after having put in evidence the record of proceedings in the circuit court of Delta county, Michigan, wherein Dora Marks was plaintiff and the Chicago Furniture & Lumber Company was defendant, asked the court to give the following instruction:

'You are instructed that if you find from the evidence that the plaintiff herein instituted a suit in the circuit court of Delta county, Michigan, against the Chicago Furniture & Lumber Company, for the purpose of recovering the $4,000 involved in this suit now before you, and that she made a settlement of this cause with the defendant therein or anyone else, that the plaintiff is barred from the further prosecution of this suit, and the verdict of the jury must be for the defendant.' And in support of the motion for a new trial it appears that the defendant alleged that 'the verdict and the action of the court fail to give full faith and credit to the judgment of the circuit court of Delta county, Michigan, in the case of Dora Marks v. The Chicago Furniture & Lumber Company, contrary to article 4, § 1, of the Constitution of the United States, which provides: 'Full faith and credit shall be given in every state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state."

It also appears that, in the 10th assignment of error filed in the appellate court it was alleged that the circuit court had erred in failing to give full faith and credit to the judgment, records, and judicial proceedings of the circuit court of Delta county, Michigan, as required by the Constitution of the United States.

It further appears that, in the assignment of errors filed in the supreme court of Illinois to the judgment and action of the appellate court, it was alleged that the appellate court erred in 'not reversing said judgment by reason of the error of the circuit court in failing to give full faith and credit to the judgment record, and judicial proceedings of the circuit court of Delta county, Michigan,' and also error was alleged in that 'the appellate court erred, as did the circuit court, in failing to give full faith and credit to the judgment of the circuit court of Delta county, Michigan, rendered in the case of Dora Marks v. The Chicago Furniture & Lumber Company, and introduced in evidence in this cause, which judgment is as follows: 'This cause having been settled, it is hereby discontinued by consent of both parties without cost to either party,' as required by said article 4, § 1, of the Constitution of the United States.'

And it is assigned for error in this court that the courts below failed to give full faith and credit to the judicial records and proceedings of the circuit court of Delta county, Michigan, in the case of Dora Marks v. The Chicago Furniture & Lumber Company, and thus deprived the plaintiff in error of his rights and privileges under said article 4, § 1, of the Constitution of the United States; and, indeed, this is the sole error relied on here by the plaintiff in error.

We think, therefore, that the question whether the record and judicial proceedings in the Michigan court received full faith and credit in the courts of Illinois is one for us to consider and determine, and we hence decline to dismiss the writ of error. Green v. Van Buskirk, 5 Wall. 314, 18 L. ed. 601; Carpenter v. Strange, 141 U. S. 87, 103, 35 L. ed. 640, 646, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 960; Huntington v. Attrill, 146 U. S. 657, 684, 36 L. ed. 1123, 1133, 13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 224.

We come, then, to the question whether, upon the facts disclosed in this record, the courts of Illinois gave full faith and credit, within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States, to the judgment and judicial proceedings of the state court of Michigan.

And, first, What was the case made by the pleadings?

The declaration was in action on the case, and alleged that the defendant induced the plaintiff, by false and fraudulent representations, to join him and one Neufeldt in a scheme to form a corporation for the purpose of carrying on the business of the manufacture and sale of furniture in the town of Escanaba, in the state of Michigan, and to furnish and pay to the defendant the sum of $5,000, for which the plaintiff was to receive shares of stock in the proposed company; that, relying on the said false and fraudulent representations (the nature of which were stated in the declaration), the plaintiff paid over the said sum of $5,000, and became a member of the corporation known as the Chicago Furniture & Lumber Company, composed of the plaintiff, the defendant, and said Neufeldt; that, owing to the fact that the said representations as to the defendant and Neufeldt putting in large sums...