John Clellan v. John Carland

• Court: United States Supreme Court
• Citation: 54 L.Ed. 762,30 S.Ct. 501,217 U.S. 268
• Docket Number: No. 630,630
• Parties: JOHN C. McCLELLAN, James S. McClellan, William S. McClellan, et al., Petitioners, v. JOHN E. CARLAND, U. S. District Judge for the District of South Dakota
• Decision Date: 11 April 1910

217 U.S. 268 30 S.Ct. 501 54 L.Ed. 762 JOHN C. McCLELLAN, James S. McClellan, William S. McClellan, et al., Petitioners,

v.

JOHN E. CARLAND, U. S. District Judge for the District of South Dakota.

No. 630. Argued January 25, 26, 1910. Decided April 11, 1910.

Page 269

Messrs. Melvin Grigsby and Grigsby & Grigsby for petitioners.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 269-271 intentionally omitted]

Page 271

Messrs. Frederic D. McKenney, S. W. Clark, and U. S. G. Cherry for respondent.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 271-274 intentionally omitted]

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Mr. Justice Day delivered the opinion of the court:

This case comes here upon a writ of certiorari to the circuit court of appeals for the eighth circuit. In that court McClellan and others, petitioners, filed a petition for a writ of mandamus against the United States district judge for the district of South Dakota, praying a writ of mandamus to said judge, sitting as a judge of the circuit court of said district, commanding him to set aside and vacate certain orders staying proceedings in an action pending in the

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circuit court, and to proceed to try and determine the suit in the usual course of procedure, without regard to the pendency of certain proceedings, to be hereinafter referred to, in the courts of the state of South Dakota. The circuit court of appeals, upon the petition for a writ of mandamus being presented to it, denied the prayer thereof and dismissed it. Thereafter this court granted the writ of certiorari.

From the transcript of the record of the case in the circuit court of appeals it appears that petitioners and others, on the 8th day of September, 1908, commenced suit against George T. Blackman, special administrator of the estate of John C. McClellan, deceased, and others, in the circuit court of the United States for the district of South Dakota, in which suit complainants were citizens of states other than South Dakota, and respondent, George T. Blackman, a citizen of South Dakota, was sued as special administrator of the estate of John C. McClellan, deceased. The bill set up that complainants were the sole surviving heirs at law and next of kin of John C. McClellan, deceased, who died on or about the 31st of August, 1899, intestate, in the city of Sioux Falls, county of Minnehaha, South Dakota, leaving an estate of real and personal property of the value of about $33,000. The bill sets out the issuing of letters of administration to one William Van Eps, who held possession of the estate until July 12, 1906, when he died; that subsequently thereto special letters of administration were issued to George T. Blackman, the respondent. The bill further avers that there were in possession of said Blackman, as said special administrator, belonging to said estate, assets in excess of the sum of $35,000, consisting of real estate, cash on hand, etc. The bill avers that ther were no claims against the estate, and that all the creditors of John C. McClellan had been paid, and that the estate was ready for distribution according to the laws of South Dakota. The bill further prayed that the complainants might be adjudicated the sole heirs at law and next of kin of said decedent, and entitled to

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inherit the estate, real and personal, and that the said Blackman render a just and true account of the property in his hands belonging to said estate, and, after deducting his lawful fees and expenses, be required to distribute the same in certain proportions to the complainants, as heirs at law of the decedent. The defendant Blackman appeared and answered the bill, admitting certain allegations thereof, and denying others, and demanding proof thereof, and stating that he held the property described in the bill of complaint subject to the order of the court. A general replication was filed to the answer, and thereupon it appears that the state of South Dakota came, by its attorney general and its attorney for the county of Minnehaha, and special counsel, and asked leave to intervene in the case, and, upon hearing, the circuit court of the United States overruled the motion, and ordered that the further prosecution of the action then pending before it be stayed for the period of ninety days, for the purpose of allowing the state of South Dakota to commence a proper action or proceeding to establish its title and interest in and to the property in the estate of the decedent, and that, in the event that such action be commenced within that time, then the pending action to be stayed until the determination of such action brought by the state of South Dakota. Afterwards the complainants filed an application for the vacation of the orders staying the prosecution of their suit until the determination of the suit in the state court, but the same was denied, and thereafter the petition for mandamus in the circuit court of appeals was filed, with the result already stated.

The matters we have stated constitute the entire record before the circuit court of appeals. Upon that record it appears that the circuit court of the United States, having an action before it to determine the interest of the complainants in the estate of John C. McClellan, upon which issue had been joined, upon application of the state of South Dakota refused to permit it to intervene in the case to set

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up its right and title to the property in the estate of the decedent, upon the claim that he died without legal heirs, and stayed the proceedings in the case before it until the state of South Dakota could bring an action in the state court for the purpose of determining such rights; and afterwards, it appearing that the state had commenced such action against all persons having or claiming a right, title, or interest therein, stayed the pending action until the determination of the action in the state court.

It is first objected on behalf of the respondent herein that this is not a case in which this court has the authority to issue the writ of certiorari. It is contended that the application for the writ in this case was under the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. at L. 826, chap. 517, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 488), and that the right to grant writs of certiorari to the circuit court of appeals is limited by the act to certain cases made final in the circuit court of appeals, and that by § 10 of the court of appeals act it is declared that whenever on appeal, writ of error, or otherwise, a case coming from the circuit court of appeals shall be reviewed and determined in the Supreme Court, it shall be remanded to the proper district or circuit court for further proceedings in pursuance of such determination.

These provisions, it is contended, show that a writ of certiorari is not warranted in this case, it being an original application in mandamus in the court of appeals, and the...