Jones v. Jones

Decision Date05 March 1969
Docket NumberNo. 16765.,16765.
Citation410 F.2d 365
PartiesJ. Edward JONES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Evelyn S. JONES et al., Defendants-Appellees.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

J. Edward Jones, appellant pro se.

John J. Stamos, State's Atty., Donald J. Veverka, Asst. State's Atty., Chicago, Ill., William G. Clark, Atty. Gen., John J. O'Toole, Asst. Atty. Gen., of counsel, for defendants-appellees McCormick, Schwartz and Dempsey.

Louis C. Warchol, Chicago, Ill., pro se.

Bernard B. Brody, Chicago, Ill., pro se and for Gerald Lee Turek.

Richard G. Stege, Jr., Gertrude Stege, River Forest, Ill., for appellee Evelyn Jones.

Before CASTLE, Chief Judge, and KILEY and KERNER, Circuit Judges.

KERNER, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff-appellant Jones seeks a review of an order of the District Court dismissing his complaint which alleged a violation of his civil rights and was brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

The Court takes judicial notice of a series of legal actions between the Jones' in the Illinois courts beginning in the middle 1950's. Plaintiff-appellant Jones and defendant-appellee Jones were husband and wife and the various actions filed dealt with their marital matters. One of the actions involved a petition by Evelyn Jones for alimony and child support. An order for temporary child support was entered in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. J. Edward Jones refused to make any payments and was held in contempt and committed to jail. On appeal before the Illinois Appellate Court, First District, certain aspects of the proceedings were reversed and the contempt and commitment orders were sustained. Jones v. Jones, 40 Ill.App.2d 217, 189 N.E.2d 33 (1963).

The civil rights action filed in the United States District Court named as defendants, Evelyn S. Jones, members of her family, her lawyers, judges of the Circuit Court and judges of the Illinois Appellate Court, and alleged that these defendants had combined to unconstitutionally deprive him of his constitutional rights. Motions to dismiss were filed and were granted on January 5, 1967. Notices of the dismissal were mailed.

Appellant filed a motion to vacate the order of dismissal under Rule 60(b) on January 3, 1968. This motion to vacate was denied and plaintiff-appellant appeals.

Circuit Judges David A. Canel, Raymond P. Drymalski and Alphonse A. Wells, and Appellate Judges Ulysses S. Schwartz, John V. McCormick and John T. Dempsey are named defendants. Each of these judges performed judicial functions in matters involving the various suits of the Jones.' The immunity of judges from liability in the regular performance of their official duties under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, is well established and finds its root in the common law and was most recently confirmed in Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 554, 87 S.Ct. 1213, 18 L.Ed.2d 288 (1966); Brown v. Dunne, 409 F.2d 341 (7th Cir. Feb. 13, 1969); Stambler v. Dillon, 288 F.Supp. 646 (S.D.N.Y.1968).

Attorneys Warchol, Brody and Turek are lawyers who represented Evelyn Jones in proceedings before the Circuit and Appellate Courts of Illinois in private litigation. Lawyers who are not also parties in interest and are engaged in private litigation on behalf of clients do not act under color of state law within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Every litigant is entitled to a zealous advocate in the presentation of his matters before the court. The state merely provides a forum for the litigants and although lawyers are considered "officers of the court," they are not officers of the state within the meaning of the Civil Rights Act. See Skolnick v. Spolar, 317 F.2d 857 (7th Cir. 1963), cert. denied, 375 U.S. 904, 84 S.Ct. 195, 11 L.Ed.2d 145, reh. denied, 375 U.S. 960, 84 S.Ct. 439, 11 L.Ed.2d 318; Skolnick v. Martin, 317 F.2d 855 (7th Cir. 1963); Meier v. State Farm Mutual Auto Ins. Co., 356 F.2d 504 (7th Cir. 1966), cert. denied, 385 U.S. 875, 87 S.Ct. 151, 17 L.Ed.2d 102, and United States v. Price, 383 U.S. 787, 86 S.Ct. 1152, 16 L.Ed.2d 267 (1966). Cf. Link v. Greyhound Corp., 288 F.Supp. 898 (E.D.Mich.1968). Moreover, it would be improper for attorneys and judges who were not parties in interest to be joined with the other parties defendant. Brown v. Dunne, supra.

Evelyn S. Jones, Richard G. Stege and Gertrude Stege, his wife, are the only other defendants not previously dealt with in this opinion. Plaintiff-appellant Jones' allegations involving these defendants refer back to the year 1962, four years prior to the filing of his action in the federal District Court.

Neither federal common law nor the federal Civil Rights statute fixes a time limit within which suits for alleged violations must be commenced. The cases are clear that there being no federal statute fixing a limitation, the applicable statute of the forum state which governs the closest analogous state action will control. These last named defendants filed motions to dismiss the complaint and among other motions, pleaded the statute of limitations. O'Sullivan v. Felix, 233 U.S. 318, 322, 34 S.Ct. 596, 58 L.Ed. 980 (1913); Wilson v....

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    • United States
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    ...liability even where their client's adversary is committed to jail as a collateral result of the civil proceedings, see Jones v. Jones, 410 F.2d 365, 366 (7th Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 396 U.S. 1013, 90 S.Ct. 547, 24 L.Ed.2d 505 (1970). The attorneys in Jones had obtained an order requiring......
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    ...to abolish the doctrine." 386 U.S. at 554-555, 87 S.Ct. at 1218. 36 Brown v. Dunne, 409 F.2d 341 (7th Cir. 1969), and Jones v. Jones, 410 F.2d 365 (7th Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 396 U.S. 1013, 90 S.Ct. 547, 24 L.Ed.2d 505 37 It should be noted that the court did not issue an injunction agai......
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    ...relevant elements of each lawsuit must be considered before characterizing it for statute of limitations purposes. Thus in Jones v. Jones, 410 F.2d 365 (7th Cir. 1969), we applied the two-year limitations period of Ill.Rev.Stats.1971, ch. 83, § 15, to an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Altho......
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