Commonwealth of Virginia v. State of West Virginia
| Citation | 38 S.Ct. 400,246 U.S. 565,59 L.Ed. 1272 |
| Decision Date | 22 April 1918 |
| Docket Number | No. 2,2 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA v. STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA et al |
| Court | United States Supreme Court |
[Syllabus from pages 565-567 intentionally omitted] Messrs. John Garland Pollard, of Richmond, Va., Wm. A. Anderson, of Lexington, Va., Randolph Harrison, of Lynchburg, Va., John G. Johnson, of Oneonta, N. Y., Sanford Robinson, of New York City, Holmes Conrad, of Washington, D. C., and Samuel W. Williams, of Bluefield, W. Va., for Commonwealth of Virginia.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 568-583 intentionally omitted]
Messrs. E. T. England, Atty. Gen., of Charleston, W. Va., John H. Holt, of Huntington, W. Va., W. Mollohan, G. W. McClintic, and C. W. May, all of Charleston, W. Va., Chas. E. Hogg, of Point Pleasant, W. Va., J. G. Carlisle, of Washington, D. C., and John C. Spooner, of New York City, for State of West Virginia.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 583-588 intentionally omitted]
A rule allowed at the instance of Virginia against West Virginia to show cause why in default of payment of the judgment of this court in favor of the former state against the latter, an order should not be entered directing the levy of a tax by the Legislature of West Virginia to pay such judgment, and a motion by West Virginia to dismiss the rule is the matter before us.
In the suit in which the judgment was rendered Virginia, invoking the original jurisdiction of this court, sought the enforcement of a contract by which it was averred West Virginia was bound. The judgment which resulted was for $12,393,929.50 with interest and it was based upon three propositions specifically found to be established: First, that when territory was carved out of the dominion of the state of Virginia for the purpose of constituting the area of the state of West Virginia, the new state, coincident with its existence, became bound for and assumed to pay its just proportion of the previous public debt of Virginia. Second, that this obligation of West Virginia was the subject of a contract between the two states made with the consent of Congress and was incorporated into the Constitution by which West Virginia was admitted by Congress into the Union and therefore became a condition of such admission and a part of the very governmental fiber of that state. Third, that the sum of the judgment rendered constituted the equitable proportion of this debt due by West Virginia in accordance with the obligations of the contract.
The suit was commenced in 1906 and the judgment rendered in 1915. The various opinions expressed during the progress of the cause will be found in the reported
cases cited in the margin,1 in the opinion in one of which (234 U. S. 117, 34 Sup. Ct. 889, 58 L. Ed. 1243) a chronological statement of the incidents of the controversy was made.
The opinions referred to will make it clear that both states were afforded the amplest opportunity to be heard and that all the propositions of law and fact urged were given the most solicitous consideration. Indeed, it is also true that in the course of the controversy, as demonstrated by the opinions cited, controlled by great consideration for the character of the parties, no technical rules were permitted to frustrate the right of both of the states to urge the very merits of every subject deemed by them to be material.
And controlled by a like purpose before coming to discharge our duty in the matter now before us we have searched the record in vain for any indication that the assumed existence of any error committed has operated to prevent the discharge by West Virginia of the obligations resulting from the judgment and hence has led to the proceeding to enforce the judgment which is now before us. In saying this however we are not unmindful that the record contains a suggestion of an alleged claim of West Virginia against the United States, which was not remotely referred to while the suit between the two states was undetermined, the claim referred to being based on an assumed violation of trust by the United States in the administration of what was left of the great domain of the Northwest Territory—a domain as to which, before the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, Virginia at the request of Congress transferred to the government of the Confederation all her right, title and interest in order to allay discord between the states, as New York had previously done and as Massachusetts, Connecticut, South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia
subsequently did.2 It is obvious that the subject was referred to in connection with the duty of West Virginia to comply with the requirements of the judgment upon the hypothesis that if the United States owed the claim and if in a suit against the United States recovery could be had, and if West Virginia received its share, it might be used, if sufficient, for discharging the judgment and thus save West Virginia from resorting to other means for so doing.
That judicial power essentially involves the right to enforce the results of its exertion is elementary. Wayman v. Southard, 10 Wheat. 1, 23, 6 L. Ed. 253; Bank of the United States v. Halstead, 10 Wheat. 57, 6 L. Ed. 264; Gordon v. United States, 117 U. S. 697, 702. And that this applies to the exertion of such power in controversies between states as the result of the exercise of original jurisdiction conferred upon this court by the Constitution is therefore certain. The many cases in which such controversies between states have been decided in the exercise of original jurisdiction make this truth manifest.3 Nor is there room for con-
tending to the contrary because in all the cases cited the states against which judgments were rendered conformably to their duty under the Constitution voluntarily respected and gave effect to the same. This must be unless it can be said that because a doctrine has been universally recognized as being beyond dispute and has hence hitherto in every case from the foundation of the government been accepted and applied, it has by that fact alone now become a fit subject for dispute.
It is true that in one of the cited cases (South Dakota v. North Carolina, 192 U. S. 286, 24 Sup. Ct. 269, 48 L. Ed. 448) it was remarked that doubt had been expressed in some instances by individual judges as to whether the original jurisdiction conferred on the court by the Constitution embraced the right of one state to recover a judgment in a mere action for debt against another. In that case, however, it is apparent that the court did not solve such suggested doubt, as that question was not involved in the case then before it and that subject was hence left open to be passed on in the future when the occasion required. But the question thus left open has no bearing upon and does not require to be considered in the case before us, first, because the power to render the judgment as between the two states whose enforcement is now under consideration is as to them foreclosed by the fact of i § rendition. And second, because while the controversy between the states culminated in a decree for money and that subject was within the issues, nevertheless the generating cause of the controversy was the carving out of the dominion of one of the states the area composing the other and the resulting and expressly assumed obligation of the newly created state to pay the just proportion of the pre-existing debt, an ob-
ligation which as we have seen rested in contract between the two states, consented to by Congress and expressed in substance as a condition in the Constitution by which the new state was admitted into the Union. In making this latter statement we do not overlook the truism that the Union under the Constitution is essentially one of states equal in local governmental power which therefore excludes the conception of an inequality of such power resulting from a condition of admission into the Union. Ward v. Race Horse, 163 U. S. 504, 16 Sup. Ct. 1076, 41 L. Ed. 244. But this principle has no application to the question of power to enforce against a state when admitted into the Union a contract entered into by it with another state with the consent of Congress since such question but concerns the equal operation upon all the states of a limitation upon them all imposed by the Constitution and the equal application of the authority conferred upon Congress to vivify and give effect by its consent to contracts entered into between states.
Both parties admit that West Virginia is the owner of no property not used for governmental purposes and that therefore from the mere issue of an execution the judgment is not susceptible of being enforced if under such execution property actually devoted to immediate governmental uses of the state may not be taken. Passing a decision as to the latter question, all the contentions on either side will be disposed of by considering two subjects: first, the limitations on the right to enforce inhering in the fact that the judgment is against a state and its enforcement against such governmental being; and second, the appropriateness of the form of procedure applicable for such enforcement. The solution of these subjects may be disposed of by answering two questions which we propose to separately state and consider.
1. May a judgment rendered against a state as a state be enforced against it as such, including the right to the ex-
tent necessary for so doing of exerting authority over the governmental powers and agencies possessed by the state?
On this subject Virginia contends that as the Constitution subjected the state of West Virginia to judicial authority at the suit of the state of Virginia, the judgment which was rendered in such a suit binds and operates upon the state of West Virginia, that is, upon that state in a governmental capacity, including...
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