Ex parte Jesse W. Uppercu, Petitioner. riginal
| Decision Date | 20 December 1915 |
| Docket Number | No. 14,O,14 |
| Citation | 36 S.Ct. 140,239 U.S. 435,60 L.Ed. 368 |
| Parties | EX PARTE JESSE W. UPPERCU, Petitioner. riginal |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Mr. Alvin Cushing Cass for petitioner.
Messrs. Frank W. Knowlton, Charles F.
Choate, Jr., and James Garfield for respondent.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 436-438 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Holmes delivered the opinion of the court:
This is a petition for a writ of mandamus to direct the judges and clerk of the district court for the district of Massachusetts to allow the petitioner access to depositions and exhibits on file in a certain case, but now sealed by order of the court. The facts alleged, shortly stated, are as follows: The case referred to was an action by the government against the Dwight Manufacturing Company for penalties under the immigration act of February 20, 1907, chap. 1134, 34 Stat. at L. 898, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 4242. On June 22, 1914, it was compromised by the payment of $50,000 and the action was discontined. In pursuance of a previous agreement with the Secretary of Commerce and Labor the petitioner was paid $25,000 for services rendered in the suit. He now is sued by one Pachinakis for 45 per cent of that sum upon an allegation of title to the amount. It is alleged that the testimony of Pachinakis in one of the depositions will show that he swore that he had 'no interest or right in or expectation to those moneys;' that Pachinakis was the principal violator of the law, and that his present claim is an attempt to profit by his own wrong, and against public policy. The petitioner also is sued by an employee of Henry C. Quinby, the attorney in both suits, upon an assigned claim of William H. Garland for $3,750, in respect of services of Garland in the former action, Garland having been a salaried Assistant United States Attorney until January, 1914, and thereafter until the end of the action special counsel for the government, and, as the petitioner believes, having been fully paid by the government. The petitioner expects to prove from the papers on file that Garland's services were rendered to the government alone, and not to him; that Garland's claim for additional compensation is against public policy; and that it is exorbitant as well as unjust. Quinby is Garland's lawyer, and is employed by Pachinakis upon Garland's advice by an arrangement between the two.
When the former action was compromised, Judge Dodge, the respondent, made an order, 'both parties consenting, that all depositions herein be sealed by the clerk and retained in the files of his office, subject to the right of either party to inspect the same, and that all exhibits be impounded with the clerk, subject to the same right of either party to inspect them.' After the first presentation of the claim of Pachinakis, the petitioner's counsel made a motion in the former action for leave to inspect the above-mentioned depositions. The United States assented, although Garland, when referred to as the Assistant Attorney...
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Com. v. Edgerly
...for the purpose of impeachment. The judge should have allowed cross-examination based on the deposition. Ex parte Uppercu, petitioner, 239 U.S. 435, 36 S.Ct. 140, 60 L.Ed. 368 (1915). The defendant has failed, however, to demonstrate that he suffered from this error. The deposition was not ......
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Carter v. Utah Power & Light Co., 870340
...could be discovered. Trail Mountain rests on the law enunciated by the United States Supreme Court in Ex Parte Uppercu, 239 U.S. 435, 36 S.Ct. 140, 60 L.Ed. 368 (1915), which determined that "absent a question of privilege a litigant who needs court records that may be of evidentiary value ......
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...305, 40 S.Ct. 543, 544, 64 L.Ed. 919; Ex parte Hudgings, 249 U.S. 378, 39 S.Ct. 337, 63 L.Ed. 656, 11 A.L.R. 333; Ex parte Uppercu, 239 U.S. 435, 36 S.Ct. 140, 60 L.Ed. 368; Matter of Heff, 197 U.S. 488, 25 S.Ct. 506, 49 L.Ed. 848; Ex parte Siebold, 100 U.S. 371, 25 L.Ed. 717; Ex parte Watk......
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