United States, Petitioner v. James Regan

• Decision Date: 05 January 1914
• Docket Number: No. 503,503
• Parties: UNITED STATES, PETITIONER, v. JAMES B. REGAN
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

232 U.S. 37

34 S.Ct. 213

58 L.Ed. 494

UNITED STATES, PETITIONER,

v JAMES B. REGAN.

No. 503.

Argued October 22, 1913.

Decided January 5, 1914.

Assistant Attorney General Denison and Assistant Attorney General Harr for petitioner.

[Argument of Counsel from page 38 intentionally omitted] Messrs. David L. Podell and Max D. Steuer for respondent.

[Argument of Counsel from page 39 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Van Devanter delivered the opinion of the court:

This was an action of debt prosecuted by the United States, under § 5 of the act of February 20, 1907 (34 Stat. at L. 898, chap. 1134, U. S. Comp. Stat. Supp. 1911, p. 499), known as the alien immigration act, to recover $1,000 as a penalty for an alleged violation by the defendant of § 4 of that act; and the question now to be considered is whether it was essential to a recovery that the evidence should establish the violation beyond a reasonable doubt. The district court instructed the jury that this measure of proof was required, and the instruction was approved by the circuit court of appeals. 31 L.R.A.(N.S.) 1073, 105 C. C. A. 505, 183 Fed. 293, 121 C. C. A. 543, 203 Fed. 433. The two sections are as follows:

'Sec. 4. That it shall be a misdemeanor for any person, company, partnership, or corporation, in any manner whatsoever, to prepay the transportation or in any way to assist or encourage the importation or migration of any contract laborer or contract laborers into the United States, unless such contract laborer or contract laborers are exempted under the terms of the last two provisos contained in section two of this act.

'Sec. 5. That for every violation of any of the provisions of section four of this act the persons, partnership, company, or corporation violating the same by knowingly assisting, encouraging, or soliciting the migration or importation of any contract laborer into the United States shall forfeit and pay for every such offense the sum of one thousand dollars, which may be sued for and recovered by the United States, or by any person who shall first bring his action therefor in his own name and for his own benefit, including any such alien thus promised labor or service of any kind as aforesaid, as debts of like amount are now recovered in the courts of the United States; and separate suits may be brought for each alien thus promised labor or service of any kind as aforesaid. And it shall be the duty of the district attorney of the proper district to prosecute every such suit when brought by the United States.'

These sections are largely copied from the like-numbered sections of the act of March 3, 1903 (32 Stat. at L. 1213, chap. 1012), the words 'shall be unlawful' in § 4 being changed to 'shall be a misdemeanor,' and the words 'shall forfeit and pay for every such offense,' § 5, with what follows them, remaining as before.

Whether cases like this are civil or criminal, and whether they are attended by the incidents of the one or the other, have been so often considered by this court that out present duty, as we shall see, is chiefly that of applying settled rules of decision.

In Stockwell v. United States, 13 Wall. 531, 20 L. ed. 491, the question arose whether the United States could maintain a civil action of debt to recover a penalty incurred under the act of March 3, 1823 (3 Stat. at L. 781, chap. 58), providing that any person receiving, concealing, or buying merchandise, knowing that it was illegally imported and subject to seizure, should, 'on conviction thereof,' forfeit and pay double the value of the merchandise, there being also a provision that the penalty might be 'sued for and recovered,' in the name of the United States, in any court of competent jurisdiction; and this court held that the civil action was maintainable, saying (p. 542): 'But it is insisted that when the government proceeds for a penalty based on an offense against law, if must be by indictment or by information. No authority has been adduced in support of this position, and it is believed that none exists. It cannot be that whether an action of debt is maintainable or not depends upon the question who is the plaintiff. Debt lies whenever a sum certain is due to the plaintiff, or a sum which can readily be reduced to a certainty,—a sum requiring no future valuation to settle its amount. It is not necessarily founded upon contract. It is immaterial in what manner the obligation was incurred, or by what it is evidenced, if the sum owing is capable of being definitely ascertained.' And again (p. 543): 'The expression 'sued for and recovered' is primarily applicable to civil actions, and not to those of a criminal nature.'

In United States v. Zucker, 161 U. S. 475, 40 L. ed. 777, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 641, the government, by an action of debt, sought to recover, as a penalty, the value of imported merchandise the entry of which had been fraudulently secured in violation of § 9 of the act of June 10, 1890 (26 Stat. at L. 131, chap. 407, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 1886), which subjected one committing that offense to a forfeiture of the merchandise, or its value, and to a fine and imprisonment. At the trial the United States sought to read in evidence the deposition of an absent witness, theretofore taken in the cause, but the deposition was excluded upon the theory that the case, though civil in form, was in substance criminal, and therefore that the defendants were entitled, under the 6th Amendment to the Constitution, to be confronted with the witnesses against them. This resulted in a judgment for the defendants, and when the case came here this court pronounced the trial court's theory untenable, sustained the government's right to read the deposition, and reversed the judgment, saying (p. 481): 'A witness who proves facts entitling the plaintiff in a proceeding in a court of the United States, even if the plaintiff be the government, to a judgment for money only, and not to a judgment which directly involves the personal safety of the defendant, is not, within the meaning of the 6th Amendment, a witness against an 'accused' in a criminal prosecution; and his evidence may be brought before the jury in the form of a deposition, taken as prescribed by the statutes regulating the mode in which depositions to be used in the courts of the United States may be taken. The defendant, in such a case, is no more entitled to be confronted at the trial with the witnesses of the plaintiff than he would be in a case where the evidence related to a claim for money that could be established without disclosing any facts tending to show the commission of crime.'

In Hepner v. United States, 213 U. S. 103, 53 L. ed. 720, 29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 474, 16 Ann. Cas. 960, the government had brought an action of debt, under § 5 of the alien immigration act of 1903, to recover the penalty prescribed for a violation of § 4 of that act, they being the sections from which those now under consideration are largely copied,—and in the progress of the cause it became necessary for this court to consider whether a verdict for the government could be directed under the rule applicable in civil actions. Upon an extended review of the cases bearing upon the subject, including Atcheson v. Everitt, Cowp. pt. 1, p. 382, the question was answered in the affirmative, and it was said:

(p. 108) 'It must be taken as settled law that a certain sum, or a sum which can readily be reduced to a certainty, prescribed in a statute as a penalty for the violation of law, may be recovered by civil action, even if it may also be recovered in a proceeding which is technically criminal. Of course, if the statute by which the penalty was imposed contemplated recovery only by a criminal proceeding, a civil remedy could not be adopted. United States v. Claflin, 97 U. S. 546, 24 L. ed. 1082. But there can be no doubt that the words of the statute on which the present suit is based are broad enough to embrace, and were intended to embrace, a civil action to recover the prescribed penalty. It provides that the penalty of one thousand dollars may be 'sued for' and recovered by the United States or by any 'person' who shall first bring his 'action' therefor 'in his own name and for his own benefit,' 'as debts of like amount are now recovered in the courts of the United States;' and 'separate suits' may be brought for each alien thus promised labor or service of any kind. The district attorney is required to prosecute every such 'suit' when brought by the United States. These references in the statute to the proceeding for recovering the penalty plainly indicate that a civil action is an appropriate mode of proceeding.

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(p. 111) 'But the decision in the Zucker Case is important in that it recognizes the right of the government, by a civil action of debt, to recover a statutory penalty, although such penalty arises from the commission of a public offense. It is important also in that it decides that an action of that kind is not of such a criminal nature as to preclude the government from establishing, according to the practice in strictly civil cases, its right to a judgment by depositions taken in the usual form, without confronting the defendant with the witnesses against him.

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(p. 115) 'The defendant was, of course, entitled to have a jury summoned in this case, but that right was subject to the condition, fundamental in the conduct of civil actions, that the court may withdraw a case from the jury and direct a verdict, according to the law, if the evidence is uncontradicted and raises only a question of law.'

In Atcheson v. Everitt, approvingly cited in that case, the question for decision was whether certain testimony, admissible by statute in civil, but not in criminal, causes, could be received in an action of debt for the pecuniary penalty for bribery at an election of a member of Parliament,—an act not merely prohibited, but indictable as a crime. Notwithstanding the...