American Security Trust Company v. Commissioners of the District of Columbia
Citation | 32 S.Ct. 553,224 U.S. 491,56 L.Ed. 856 |
Parties | AMERICAN SECURITY & TRUST COMPANY et al., v. COMMISSIONERS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. No. ___ |
Decision Date | 29 April 1912 |
Court | United States Supreme Court |
Mr. William G. Johnson for the petition.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 491-493 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Holmes delivered the opinion of the court:
This is an application for a writ of error to the court of appeals of the District of Columbia under the new Judicial Code. Act of March 3, 1911, chap. 231. 36 Stat. at L. 1087.1 The court of appeals denied the writ. Thereupon application was made to the Chief Justice. He referred it to the court. Briefs were called for and one was submitted by the applicants. It now is to be decided whether the writ should be allowed.
By § 250 of the Code any final judgment or decree of the court of appeals may be re-examined This is the clause relied upon. The case was a suit for the condemnation of land, brought by the commissioners under a special act of February 6, 1909, chap. 75, 35 Stat. at L. 597, for the extension of New York avenue. By that act the procedure was to follow subchapter 1 of chapter 15 of the District Code, which provides, among other things, for the separate assessment of benefits. Act of March 3, 1901, chap. 854. 31 Stat. at L. 1189, 1266. The jury were instructed that, by the extension of the avenue, they were to understand its establishment, laying out, and completion for all the ordinary uses of a public thoroughfare. The applicants contended that, as there was no present provision for grading, paving, laying water mains or sewers, or otherwise opening the avenue to traffic, any advantage that would accrue from such improvements, if made, must be disregarded; and so they say that they drew the construction of the special act and perhaps of the Code in question, and that these were laws of the United States.
We do not stop to consider whether any question of construction properly can be said to have been raised, rather than a question of general law in the application of words that were colorless so far as the point in controversy was concerned. It might not be just to assume that the general averment of the application was not justified by exceptions more clearly turning on the construction of the local laws than the example given in the brief. The ground on which the writ was refused by the court of appeals was that the words quoted from § 250 should not be construed to apply to the purely local laws of the District, and with that view we agree.
Of course there is no doubt that the special act of Congress was, in one sense, a law of the United States. It well may be that it would fall within the meaning of the same words in the third clause of the same section: 'Cases involving the constitutionality of any law of the United States.' Parsons v. District of Columbia, 170 U. S. 45, 42 L. ed. 943, 18 Sup. Ct. Rep. 521. But it needs no authority to show that the same phrase may have different meanings in different connections. Some reasons for strict...
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