Ginsburg v. Stern

• Citation: 125 F. Supp. 596
• Decision Date: 26 October 1954
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 12643.
• Parties: Paul GINSBURG, Plaintiff, v. Horace STERN and Patrick N. Bolsinger, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

125 F. Supp. 596

Paul GINSBURG, Plaintiff, v. Horace STERN and Patrick N. Bolsinger, Defendants.

Civ. No. 12643.

United States District Court W. D. Pennsylvania.

October 26, 1954.

Paul Ginsburg, Pittsburgh, Pa., pro se.

Elder W. Marshall, Pittsburgh, Pa., for defendants.

GOURLEY, Chief Judge.

In conjunction with a motion to dismiss now pending before this court, the plaintiff has moved that Horace Stern be ordered to answer certain interrogatories pursuant to Federal Rules of Discovery.

The interrogatories are designed to develop evidence in support of plaintiff's allegations of an alleged conspiracy on the part of Horace Stern, Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and Patrick N. Bolsinger, Prothonotary of the Western District of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, to deprive plaintiff of rights and privileges secured by the Federal Constitution and laws of the United States, more particularly the statutes known as the Civil Rights Acts, as well as to obstruct and defeat the due course of justice with intent to deny to plaintiff the equal protection of the laws.

For purpose of disposition of this motion, resolving as we must all factual issues in favor of the plaintiff, and with the consent of the contesting parties, it will be assumed that the per curiam order of Chief Justice Stern was entered on his own individual volition without consultation or consent of the other justices of said court, and the Prothonotary was directed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania not to file or docket said proceeding. Generally in the usual or common type of litigation, and without consideration of the merits of this proceeding, it would appear that said action and procedure followed was contrary to established rule and custom and would be violative of basic concepts of justice.

In view of the fact that all plaintiff's allegations are assumed to be true, for purposes of the said motion to dismiss, no useful purpose could be served at this time by answering interrogatories aimed at eliciting information which for all intents and purposes are now construed in a light most favorable to plaintiff.

It would, therefore, appear appropriate that plaintiff's motion to compel Horace Stern to answer said interrogatories be refused, without prejudice to revive the same in the event that future circumstances may so justify.

An appropriate Order is entered.

On Motion to Dismiss

This action is by a Pittsburgh attorney against the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and the Prothonotary of that court for its Western District, and premises jurisdiction in this court upon the Civil Rights Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C.A. §§ 1983, 1985, 1986.¹

The matter comes before the court on defendants' motion to dismiss the action on the basis that the complaint states no cause of action upon which relief can be granted.

In considering a motion to dismiss, the complaint must be viewed in a light most favorable to the plaintiff, and should not be dismissed unless it appears to a certainty that plaintiff would not be entitled to relief under any state of facts which could be proved in support of the plaintiff's claim, and no matter how likely it may seem that the plaintiff would be unable to prove its case, it is entitled upon averring a claim to an opportunity to prove it. The truth of all facts well pleaded is admitted, including facts alleged on information and belief. Frederick Hart & Co., Inc., v. Recordgraph Corp., 3 Cir., 169 F.2d 580.

The complaint charges the defendants with having conspired to deprive him of rights and privileges secured by the Federal Constitution and laws of the United States, more particularly the statutes known as the Civil Rights Acts, as well as to obstruct and defeat the due course of justice with intent to deny to plaintiff the equal protection of the laws.

The defendants' conduct of which the plaintiff complains was their refusal to file of record in the office of said Prothonotary, with an assigned number, a certain petition of the plaintiff, addressed to the judges of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, wherein the plaintiff sought disciplinary action against a judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, the fifteen members of the Committee on Offenses of the latter court, and four individual members of the bar of said court.

The basic allegations of the complaint are that Chief Justice Stern ordered that the petition be not filed; that the Prothonotary complied with said order, has not filed the petition of record or given it a docket number, and informed the plaintiff that the petition would be retained by him personally; and that the conduct of the defendants was conspiratorial and has deprived the plaintiff of his rights and privileges as a citizen of the United States and of Pennsylvania.

The present complaint discloses that the petition in question was presented under Rule 17 of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court;² that it was transmitted by the Prothonotary to the Chief Justice; and that thereafter it was returned to the Prothonotary with an order of the court endorsed thereon in longhand, as follows:

"Petition dismissed. Per Curiam. June 28, 1954."

For purpose of disposition of this motion, resolving as we must all factual issues in favor of the plaintiff and with the consent of the contesting parties, it will be assumed that the Per Curiam Order of Chief Justice Stern was entered on his own individual violation without consultation or consent of the other justices of said court, and that the Prothonotary was directed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania not to file or docket said proceeding. Generally in the usual or common type of litigation, and without consideration of the merits of this proceeding, it would appear that said action and procedure followed was contrary to established rule and custom and would be violative of basic concepts of justice.

The instant complaint specifically charges that the matters complained of are directed against the defendants as having acted in their official capacities for the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

The principle, which exempts judges of courts of superior or general authority from liability in a civil action for acts done by them in the exercise of their judicial functions, obtains in all countries where there is any well ordered system of jurisprudence. It has been the settled doctrine of the English courts for many centuries, and had never been denied in the courts of this country prior to the adoption of the Civil Rights Statutes in the United States.

It was considered essential in all courts that the judges who are appointed to administer the law should be permitted to administer it under the protection of the law, independently and freely, without favor and without fear. Said firmly embedded rule of law was considered not for the protection or benefit of the public, whose interest it is that the judges should be at liberty to exercise their functions with independence and without fear of consequences. It was reasoned that a judge could not exercise his office if he were in daily and hourly fear of an action being brought against him, and of having the question submitted to a jury whether a matter on which he had commented judicially was or was not relevant to the case before him.

A defeated party to litigation may not only think himself wronged, but may attribute wrong motives to the judge whom he holds responsible for his defeat. He may think that the judge has allowed passion or prejudice to control his decision. To allow a judge to be sued in a civil action on a complaint charging the judge's acts were the result of partiality, or malice, or corruption, would deprive the judges of the protection which is regarded as essential to judicial independence. It was not in the public interests that such a suit should be maintained; and it was a fundamental principle of English and American jurisprudence that such an action could not be maintained. Yaselli v. Goff, 2 Cir., 12 F.2d 396, 399.

Prior to the Civil Rights Statutes, in our system of jurisprudence it, therefore, appeared a time-honored immunity of judges existed from civil liability for their official or judicial acts, no matter how erroneous, malicious or corrupt they may have been. Bradley v. Fisher, 13 Wall. 335, 349, 80 U.S. 335, 349, 20 L.Ed. 646; Papagianakis v. The Samos, 4 Cir., 186 F.2d 257; Tinkoff v. Holly, 7 Cir., 209 F.2d 527.

Civil Rights Statutes and Their Effect Upon the Judiciary

The question now posed before this court is whether or not such immunity continues in effect after the enactment of the Civil Rights Statutes.

As an aftermath of Civil War and national convulsion, the Civil Rights Statutes were forged by the great statesmen and lawyers of both Houses of Congress.

It must be considered whether these stalwart defenders of constitutional government intended to employ the Civil Rights Statutes as a bludgeon to strike asunder the fundamental and basic concept of judicial independence — which by and large feeds life blood to the arteries of the organism of free government.

The apparently sweeping and unqualified language of the old Civil Rights Act, 8 U.S.C.A. § 43 and more recently changed to 42 U.S.C.A. §§ 1983, 1985, 1986, as amended, seems to say that every person in official position, whether executive, legislative, or judicial, who under color of state law subjects or causes to be subjected any person to the deprivation of any rights secured by the Constitution of the United States, shall be liable in damages to the person injured. The enactment in terms contains no recognition of possible defenses or exemptions, by way of privilege, even where the defendants may have acted in good faith, in compliance with what they believed to be their official duty. Reading the language of the Act in its broadest sweep, it would seem to make no difference that the conduct of the defendants might...