Jackson v. Cravens

• Decision Date: 15 December 1916
• Docket Number: 2916.
• Citation: 238 F. 117
• Parties: JACKSON et al. v. CRAVENS, Supervising Inspector of Naval Stores, et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

238 F. 117

JACKSON et al. v. CRAVENS, Supervising Inspector of Naval Stores, et al.

No. 2916.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

December 15, 1916

Chas M. Cooper and Chas. P. Cooper, both of Jacksonville, Fla for appellants.

Thomas F. West, Atty. Gen., John C. Cooper, of Jacksonville, Fla and W. H. watson and S. Pasco, Jr., both of Pensacola, Fla for appellees.

Before PARDEE, Circuit Judge, and FOSTER and GRUBB, District Judges.

GRUBB District Judge.

This cause was submitted upon the motion of the appellees to dismiss the appeal. The order appealed from was an order of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida, denying an interlocutory injunction applied for by the plaintiffs. The bill was filed to restrain the supervising inspector of naval stores for the state of Florida from taking steps to enforce an alleged unconstitutional statute of that state. As provided by section 266 of the Judicial Code, the District Judge, upon presentation of the application for a temporary injunction, called to his assistance a Circuit Judge and another District Judge, before whom the application was heard, and by whom it was denied. Thereupon the plaintiffs took an appeal from the order of the District Court, composed of the three judges, to this court. Section 266 provides that:

'An appeal may be taken direct to the Supreme Court of the United States from the order granting or denying, after notice and hearing, an interlocutory injunction in such case.'

The contention of the plaintiffs (appellants) is that this provision is permissive only, and does not provide an exclusive remedy for an appeal, but that resort may be had, at the election of the plaintiffs, to the remedy provided in section 129 of the Judicial Code by appeal to this court. The defendants (appellees) contend that the appellate remedy provided by section 266 is exclusive.

It is conceded by appellees that the terms of section 129 are broad enough to cover this appeal, unless they are to be restricted by the effect of section 266. The appellants also concede the rule of construction that where an earlier statute provides a remedy covering all cases, and a subsequent statute creates a specific remedy for a particular case, the latter is to be construed to be exclusive, unless the purpose of the Legislature or the convenience of the public demand a different rule of construction, and that this is true, though the language of the subsequent act is permissive, rather than mandatory. The appellants contend that the purpose of Congress in the enactment of the legislation now contained in section 266 was twofold: To expedite the hearing of appeals from orders granting or denying interlocutory injunctions, injunctions involving the unconstitutionality of a state statute in the federal courts, and to relieve the Supreme Court of the burden of litigation. The appellants contend that these controlling objects of the legislation require that it be given a construction that would most expedite the hearing of the appeal from the order on the application for the interlocutory injunction, and have the greater tendency to relieve the Supreme Court of litigation under it. If these were the controlling objects of Congress in enacting the statute, it may be that their accomplishment would best be subserved by a construction that gave the plaintiffs an elective appeal to the Circuit Court of Appeals under section 129, with an expedited hearing, and at the same time relieve the Supreme Court of the hearing of the appeal. We do not think that these were the controlling purposes of Congress. The effect of section 266 is to increase the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, not to diminish it; and this is true, even if it be construed as appellants contend it should be. Before its enactment, the Supreme Court was burdened with no appeals from interlocutory orders. The inevitable effect of section 266 is, therefore, to add to its jurisdiction, and there is no room for the inference that the aim of Congress in passing the act was to reduce the volume of litigation that went to the Supreme Court. Again, if the purpose of Congress was to relieve the Supreme Court, it would not have attempted to accomplish that purpose by leaving to the litigants the option to go to the Supreme Court or to the Court of Appeals, and so put in the power of the litigants, rather than in that of Congress, the accomplishment of that purpose. We therefore think that the act, codified into section 266, was not passed by Congress with the purpose of relieving the Supreme Court, as was the act of 1891, creating Circuit Courts of Appeals, and other similar acts, and should not be so construed.

Nor do we think that the expedition of the hearing of appeals from orders on applications for temporary injunctions involving the unconstitutionality of state statutes was so much the object of Congress as to provide against the issue of a temporary injunction that should remain in force till final decree upon the mandate of a single judge. The main purpose of Congress was to provide a hearing, before the granting of a temporary injunction, before a court that, numerically and by rank, should approach in authority the Courts of Appeals of the various circuits. It was rather to safeguard the original granting of the order than to expedite the hearing of an appeal from the order when granted. It was considered that the new remedy provided would satisfy litigants by reason of the character of hearing accorded by it, and thus make them willing to abide the final hearing without discontent. Section 266 provides for the expediting of the original hearing before...