Graver v. Faurot

• Decision Date: 13 April 1896
• Docket Number: No. 779,779
• Parties: GRAVER v. FAUROT
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

162 U.S. 435

16 S.Ct. 799

40 L.Ed. 1030

GRAVER

v FAUROT.

No. 779.

April 13, 1896.

This case coming on to be heard on appeal from the circuit court of the United States for the Northern district of Illinois, in the United States circuit court of appeals for the Seventh circuit, that court ordered that a statement of facts and a question be certified to this court for its opinion and instruction.

It appears, from the statement of facts, that William Graver filed a bill in the superior court of the county of Cook, in the state of Illinois, to impeach for fraud a decree in equity rendered by that court, July 6, 1889, in a certain suit therein depending, wherein William Graver was complainant and Benjamin C. Faurot and A. O. Bailey were defendants, by which decree complainant's bill was dismissed for want of equity; and that the suit was duly and properly removed into the circuit court of the United States for the Northern district of Illinois.

The bill thus filed was set forth in haec verba, together with a demurrer thereto, the decree of the circuit court sustaining the demurrer and dismissing the bill, and the opinion rendered by the circuit court on entering that decree.

The certificate then proceeded thus: 'In view of the decisions of the supreme court of the United States in the cases of U. S. v. Throckmorton, 98 U. S. 61, and Marshall v. Holmes, 141 U. S. 589, 12 Sup. Ct. 62, this court is in doubt touching the case in hand, and desires advice and instruction upon the following question: Whether (assuming the bill of complaint to be in other respects sufficient) the alleged false swearing and perjury in the respective answers of defendants in the original suit in the superior court of the county of Cook, state of Illinois, are, in the law, available in this suit as ground for a decree setting aside and declaring void the decree so rendered in the superior court of the county of Cook.'

Robert Rae, for appellant.

Frank L. Wean, for appellee.

Mr. Chief Justice FULLER, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.

It appears from the opinion of the circuit court, sent up as part of the certificate, and reported in 64 Fed. 241, that that court was impressed with the conviction that the complainant had been defrauded, but that the court could see no way to accord relief under the decision in U. S. v. Throckmorton, 98 U. S. 61, although the result might be different if the decision in Marshall v. Holmes, 141 U. S. 589, 12 Sup. St. 62, were followed. In other words, the circuit court indicated that it could have proceeded without difficulty on the principles expounded in either case if the other were out of the way. Finding it impossible to reconcile these cases, or to make a definitive choice between them, because U. S. v. Throckmorton was cited without disapproval in Marshall v. Holmes, the circuit court sustained the demurrer pro forma, and the case was transferred to the circuit court of appeals. But when this had been accomplished the court of appeals apparently found itself in a similar quandary, and this resulted in the certificate under consideration.

Doubtless the determination of contested questions in cases properly brought before us involves the resolution of doubts if any are entertained, in respect of the scope of particular decisions; but we cannot approve of the mode adopted in this case of ascertaining the precise bearing of former judgments.

In civil cases the intention of congress, as to the certification provided for in sections 5 and 6 of the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 826, c. 517), is to be arrived at in the light of the rules prevailing...