Allen v. Biggs
| Decision Date | 05 April 1945 |
| Docket Number | No. 4208.,4208. |
| Parties | ALLEN v. BIGGS, Circuit Judge, et al. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Pennsylvania |
James R. Allen, of Wilmington, Del., in pro. per.
Gerald A. Gleeson, U. S. Dist. Atty., and James P. McCormick, Asst. U. S. Dist. Atty., both of Philadelphia, Pa., for defendants.
This is a motion to dismiss filed on behalf of all the defendants, based on the contention that the plaintiff's complaint does not state a cause of action.
The plaintiff here seeks to recover damages from all of the defendants in the sum of Twenty-Five Million Dollars ($25,000,000) for conspiring, as the complaint avers, to deprive the plaintiff of his liberty, because of his having exercised his right of freedom of the press, in defense of the provisions of the Thirteenth Amendment prohibiting involuntary servitude, and to hinder, impede and obstruct his appeal from the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to the Supreme Court of the United States.
In support of his charge of conspiracy, plaintiff alleges that on October 4, 1942, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Delaware, he was convicted of "counselling evasion of service in the armed forces by distribution of circulars"; that on October 14, 1942, as a result of such conviction he was sentenced to undergo imprisonment for the term of one year and one day; that he appealed the judgment of sentence to the United States Circuit Court for the Third Circuit, and that on March 22, 1943, said Circuit Court, then composed of John Biggs, Jr., Albert B. Maris, and Charles Alvin Jones, affirmed the judgment of the District Court and dismissed his appeal.
On April 3, 1943, the plaintiff presented his petition to the said Circuit Court, then composed of Judges John Biggs, Jr., Albert B. Maris, Charles Alvin Jones, and Herbert F. Goodrich, for "Reversal of Opinion," which petition the said court denied. The plaintiff contends that had the judges, sitting as the Circuit Court, sustained his appeal and reversed the judgment of the District Court on March 22, 1943, instead of dismissing his appeal, he would have been set at liberty; that by their action, said Judges maliciously and knowingly deprived him of his right of freedom of the press because they had sustained his conviction by the District Court. In further support of his charge of conspiracy, he alleges he forwarded to the defendant, William P. Rowland, on April 8, 1943, a "Notice of Appeal to the Supreme Court" and that on April 16, 1943, the said William P. Rowland, in his capacity as Clerk, advised him by letter, that in cases such as his an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States was no longer a matter of right, but that he could only perfect such an appeal by filing a petition for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court accompanied by a certified copy of the record. This letter, plaintiff contends, was written for the purpose of obstructing and defeating the orderly course of justice and that the said William P. Rowland succeeded in his purpose, since the Supreme Court of the United States on June 7, 1943, after having granted leave to the plaintiff to proceed in forma pauperis, denied the application for certiorari on the ground that it was not timely presented. 63 S.Ct. 1331.
To the plaintiff's complaint embodying substantially the facts here related the defendants filed a motion to dismiss. The plaintiff then...
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