Cuyler v. Atlantic & N.C.R. Co.

• Decision Date: 23 July 1904
• Parties: CUYLER v. ATLANTIC & N.C.R. CO. In re DANIELS.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

131 F. 95

CUYLER v. ATLANTIC & N.C.R. CO.

In re DANIELS.

United States Circuit Court, E.D. North Carolina.

July 23, 1904

James H. Pou, Thos. J. Jarvis, T. T. Gray, and R. W. Winston, for petitioner.

Harry Skinner, opposed.

PRITCHARD Circuit Judge.

In order to determine whether the petitioner is entitled to the relief prayed for in the petition upon which the writ of habeas corpus was issued, it is necessary to determine two questions: (1) Did the court which imposed the sentence in this case have jurisdiction? (2) Does this court have jurisdiction to hear and determine this case on a writ of habeas corpus?

The section under which the court based its action is 725 of the Revised Statutes (U.S. Comp.St. 1901, p. 583), which reads as follows:

'The said courts shall have power to impose and administer all necessary oaths, and to punish, by fine or imprisonment, at the discretion of the court, contempts of their authority provided, that such power to punish contempts shall not be construed to extend to any cases except the misbehavior of any person in their presence or so near thereto as to obstruct the administration of justice, the misbehavior of any of the officers of said courts in their official transactions, and the disobedience or resistance by any such officer, or by any part, juror witness, or other person, to any lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree, or command of the said courts.'

This act not only limits the power of the court, but employs language which clearly defines the power of the courts with respect to summary punishment for contempt, and applies to all courts, except perhaps the Supreme Court. It applies to the District and Circuit Courts, inasmuch as they were created by act of Congress, their powers and duties being granted by the act creating them and subsequent acts enlarging and diminishing their jurisdiction. The act of 1831 is a chart by which these courts are to be guided in cases where summary punishment for contempt is to be inflicted.

Justice Field, in Ex parte Robinson, 19 Wall.,at page 510, 22 L.Ed. 205, in referring to the act of 1831, says:

'It limits the power of these courts, in this respect, to three classes of cases: First, where there has been misbehavior of a person in the presence of the courts, so or near thereto as to obstruct the administration of justice; second, where there has been misbehavior of any officer of the courts in his official transactions; and, third, where there has been disobedience or resistance by any officer, party, juror, witness, or other person to any lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree, or command of the courts. As thus seen, the power of these courts in the punishments of contempts can only be exercised to insure order and decorum in their presence, to secure faithfulness on the part of their officers in their official transactions, and to enforce obedience to their lawful orders, judgments, and processes.'

In Kent's Commentaries, volume 1, note on page 340, at bottom, it is said, in speaking of the act of 1831:

'That act had withdrawn from the courts of the United States the common-law power to protect their suitors, officers, witnesses, and themselves against the libels of the press, however atrocious, and though published and circulated pending the very trial of the cause.'

In the Case of Savin, U.S. 274, 9 Sup.Ct. 701, 33 L.Ed. 150, Justice Harlan, among other things, says:

'The act of 1789 did not define what were the contempts of the authority of the courts of the United States in any cause or hearing before them, nor did it prescribe any special procedure for determining a matter of contempt. Under that statute the question whether particular acts constituted a contempt, as well as the mode of proceeding against the offender, was left to be determined according to such established rules and principles of the common law as were applicable to our situation. The act of 1831, however, materially modified that of 1789, in that it restricted the power of the court to inflict summary punishment for contempt to certain specified cases, among which was misbehavior in the presence of the court, or misbehavior so near thereto as to obstruct the administration of justice.'

In Ex parte Poulston, 19 Fed.Cas.,on page 1206 (No. 11,350), Baldwin, J., says:

'On March 2, 1831 (4 Stat. 487, c. 99 (U.S. Comp.St. 1901, p. 583)), Congress passed an act declaratory of the law concerning contempt of court. * * * The history of this act, the time of its passage, its title and provisions, must be considered together, in order to ascertain its meaning and true construction. It was enacted shortly after the acquittal of Judge Peck, of Missouri, on an impeachment preferred against him for issuing an attachment against a member of the bar for making a publication in relation to a suit which had been decided by that judge. On the trial the law of contempt was elaborately examined by the learned managers of the House of Representatives and the counsel for the judge. It was not controverted that all courts had power to attach any person who should make a publication concerning a cause during its pendency, and all admitted its illegality when done while the cause was actually on trial. It had too often been exercised to entertain the slightest doubt that the courts had power, both by the common law and the express terms of Judiciary Act Sept. 24, 1789, c. 20, Sec. 17, 1 Stat. 83, as declared by the Supreme Court, to protect their suitors by the process of attachment. With this distinct knowledge and recognition of the existing law, it cannot be doubted that the whole subject was within the view of the Legislature; nor that they acted most advisedly on the law of contempt, intending to define in what cases the summary power of the courts should be exercised and to confine it to the specified cases. From the title and phraseology of the act it would seem to have been their intention to declare that it never existed in any other cases than those enumerated. It is 'a declaratory act,' which is a declaration of what the law 'was, is, and shall be hereafter taken' when put into the form usual in statutes which operate to settle the law retrospectively. * * * The acts of 1831 must be taken to be the declared construction of this and all other laws limiting its operation in the manner prescribed, and, as generally considered, Congress is to this court what the Constitution is to the Supreme Court. * * * It is in the discretion of the legislative power to confer upon the courts a summary jurisdiction to protect their suitors or itself by summary process, or to deny it. It has been thought proper to do the latter in language too plain to doubt of the meaning of the law, or, if it could have been doubted by any ordinary rule of construction, the occasion and circumstances of its enactment would most effectually remove them. It would ill become any court of the United States to make a struggle to retain any summary power the exercise of which is manifestly contrary to the declared will of the legislative power. * * * The law prohibits the issuing of an attachment except in certain cases, of which the present is not one. It would, therefore, be not only utterly useless, but place the court in a position beneath contempt, to grant a rule to show cause why an attachment should not issue, when an exhibition of the act of 1831 would show most

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