Church v. Pearne

• Decision Date: 07 January 1903
• Citation: 75 Conn. 350,53 A. 955
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: CHURCH v. PEARNE et al.

53 A. 955

75 Conn. 350

CHURCH

v. PEARNE et al.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

Jan. 7, 1903.

Appeal from superior court, Middlesex county; William S. Case, Judge.

Action by Ezra C. Church against Wesley U. Pearne and another. Prom a judgment for defendants, plaintiff appeals. Reversed.

Action for false imprisonment, brought to the superior court for Middlesex county. The defendants answered, justifying, one as a justice of the peace and the other as a deputy sheriff, under a sentence of the plaintiff by the former to imprisonment for a contempt of court. A demurrer to the material part of this defense was overruled. The plaintiff then replied, and the reply was held insufficient on demurrer. Issues of fact were then joined by an amended reply, and found for the defendants, on which judgment was rendered in their favor.

The record of the contempt proceedings, a copy of which was attached to the answer, was as follows:

"To the Sheriff of the County of Middlesex, His Deputy, or Either Constable of the Town of Chester, within Said County—Greeting: By authority of the state of Connecticut, you are hereby commanded to arrest the body of Ezra C. Church, of said Chester, and him have to appear forthwith before me, the subscriber, a justice of the peace duly elected and qualified in and for the county of Middlesex, now holding court for the trial of criminal causes in the town of Chester, at the town hall in said Chester, to show cause, if any he have, why he should not be adjudged guilty of contempt, and punished therefor, toward W. U. Pearne, justice of the peace, on the 20th day of May, 1898, while said justice of the peace, having been duly elected and sworn in and for said Middlesex county, was holding a court at said Chester, in which the trial of Egbert C. Emmons for the crime of perjury committed in said town of Chester before said justice court prior thereto was pending by legal continuance from the 21st day of May, 1898, at the town hall of said Chester, to the 26th day of May at the same place at half past eight o'clock in the morning, by refusing and neglecting, as one of the selectmen of said town of Chester, and having the charge and control of said town hall, to have said town hall unlocked and opened for the purpose of continuing said trial; and by ordering and directing said town hall not to be opened for the said purpose without a written order from him, the said Church; and by refusing and neglecting to open said town hall, or to cause the same to be opened, for the purpose aforesaid, when notified so to do by a deputy sheriff of said Middlesex county, acting under the authority of said justice of the peace; and by returning a contemptuous answer to the notification so sent by the said justice as aforesaid, and delivered by said deputy sheriff. Hereof fail not, but of this precept, with your doings thereon indorsed, due service and return make. Dated at Chester this 31st day of May, 1898. Wesley U. Pearne, Justice of the Peace within and for Middlesex County."

"State of Connecticut, Middlesex County. Chester, May 31, 1898. By authority of the foregoing warrant, I arrested the body of the within-named Ezra C. Church, and have him before Justice W. U. Pearne. James A. Jones, Deputy Sheriff of Middlesex County."

"At a court holden before me on the 21st day of May, 1898, at the town hall in Chester, in Middlesex county, a certain cause then pending, wherein Egbert C. Emmons, of said Chester, was under prosecution for the crime of perjury, was continued by me until the 26th day of May following, at half past eight o'clock in the forenoon, at the said town hall. Upon endeavoring to comply with said continuance and proceed with said hearing, it was found that the said town hall was locked, and entrance barred; whereupon the hearing of said cause was adjourned to the office of Joseph P. Silliman, Esq., in said Chester, and then proceeded with, from which time and place it was further continued until May 31st following, at half past ten o'clock in the forenoon, at the said town hall, at which time and place Ezra C. Church, of said Chester, was brought before me by legal precept issued by me, to show cause, if any he had, why he should not be adjudged guilty of contempt of court, and punished therefor, in that he, the said Church, as one of the selectmen of said town of Chester, and having the charge and control of said town hall, refused and neglected to have said town hall unlocked and opened for the purpose of continuing the trial of the said Emmons, and ordered and directed said town hall not to be opened for said purpose without a written order from him, the said Church, and refused and neglected to open said town hall, or to cause the same to be opened, for the purpose aforesaid, when notified so to do by a deputy sheriff of said Middlesex county, acting under authority of me, a justice of the peace, and by returning a contemptuous answer to the notification so sent as aforesaid. Said Church, having been afforded full opportunity to purge himself of said contempt, failed and neglected so to do, and he was adjudged guilty of having committed the acts charged, with intent to im-pede and embarrass the due administration of justice, and of contempt. Whereupon it was adjudged that he be sentenced to be imprisoned in the county Jail at Haddam for the period of thirty days, unless sooner discharged by due course of law, and a mittimus was issued and delivered to the officer accordingly. Wesley U. Pearne, Justice of the Peace."

Charles E. Perkins and Rollin U. Tyler, for appellant.

E P. Arvine and Frank D. Haines, for appellees.

BALDWIN, J. (after stating the facts). A court held by a justice of the peace is in this state a court of record. His record, therefore, of any judicial proceedings which have taken place before him and were within his jurisdiction, imports verity, and its statements cannot be collaterally questioned. Hol comb v. Cornish, 8 Conn. 375, 381. Every act recited in such a record is presumed to have been properly and rightly done until the contrary appears. Fox v. Hoyt, 12 Conn. 491, 496, 31 Am. Dec. 760; O'Connell v. Hotehkiss, 44 Conn. 51, 54. The answer in the case at bar, admitting the imprisonment of which the plaintiff complains, justifies it under a record of certain proceedings in court before one of the defendants as a justice of the peace, resulting in a finding that the plaintiff had been guilty of a contempt of court, and a sentence imposed therefor of committal to the county jail. These proceedings, were an incident of a criminal prosecution against one Emmons, and were themselves of a criminal nature. "A criminal contempt is conduct that is directed against the dignity and authority of the court, and a proceeding for its punishment should conform as nearly as possible to proceedings in criminal cases. When the court has knowledge of the contempt as it occurs, it will of its own motion proceed to punish it; but, when witnesses are required to prove it, the proper course is for some informing officer to bring it to the attention of the court." Welch v. Barber, 52 Conn. 147, 157, 52 Am. Rep. 567. The record pleaded in the case at bar does not show that any information or complaint was filed, or that the original warrant was based upon any affidavit. Nor, so far as appears were any of the acts charged committed either in the presence of the court before which the cause against Emmons was pending, or of the justice of the peace by whom such court was held. If any of them had been so committed, or if any information, complaint, or affidavit had been filed, it is to be presumed that facts so important would have been stated, in view of our statute that "all courts shall keep a record of their proceedings, and cause the facts on which they found their final judgments and decrees to appear on the record."...