Miles v. Armstrong
| Decision Date | 30 September 1953 |
| Docket Number | No. 10867.,10867. |
| Citation | 207 F.2d 284 |
| Parties | MILES v. ARMSTRONG. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
David W. Pelkey, Chicago, Ill., for appellant.
Robert A. Meier, Jr., Robert A. Meier, III, Chicago Heights, Ill., for appellee.
Before FINNEGAN, LINDLEY and SWAIM, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiff, a resident of the Village of East Chicago Heights, Illinois, sued in the District Court to recover damages from defendants, some of whom are officials of the village and others of whom are private individuals, incurred, as he averred, as a result of violation of Sections 43, 47(3) and 48, Title 8 of the United States Code Annotated. Defendants interposed a motion to dismiss on the ground that the complaint did not set forth a claim upon which relief could be had, which the court granted, dismissing the suit for want of jurisdiction. From this order plaintiff has prosecuted this appeal.
Plaintiff complains of the form of the judgment in that, whereas defendants moved to dismiss because of failure to state a valid cause of action, the court dismissed for want of jurisdiction. As we read the record, the court was of the opinion that the averments of the complaint were not sufficient to constitute a good cause of action for violation of the sections of the United States Code Annotated mentioned. Consequently, whatever plaintiff's rights might have been in the state court, the federal court was without jurisdiction to proceed. In this situation it was wholly immaterial whether the court dismissed the claim because it was insufficient to state a federal cause of action or whether, believing such to be the case, it dismissed the cause because it had no jurisdiction of the non-federal action. Obviously, however, plaintiff's rights on appeal would exist in either instance.
Section 43 of Title 8, United States Code Annotated provides that every person who, "under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory" subjects any citizen of the United States to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws shall be liable to the party injured. Obviously before any liability will attach under this section, the acts complained of must have been done under color of authority of the state. Yet we find in the complaint no averment that defendants actually acted under color of any such prerogatives. It is averred that certain defendants were authorized to act for the village, a subdivision of the state, but any averment that the acts of which complaint is made were committed under such color of such sovereignty is wholly lacking. Consequently, in so far as plaintiff relied upon Section 43, his complaint lacked this essential allegation.
A more serious question arises as to the alleged conspiracy in violation of Section 47. Under that section, if two or more persons conspire for the purpose of depriving any person of equal protection of the law or of equal privileges and immunities under the law and, in execution of such conspiracy, another is injured in his person or property or deprived of exercising any right or privilege of a citizen of the United States, the injured party may recover damages from the conspirators. This section, unlike Section 43, does not expressly require that the action of which complaint is made shall be under color of authority of the state.
Though some courts have adhered to their conviction that Section 47 (3) must, like Section 43, be limited to action by the state or acts performed under color of authority of the state, See Love v. Chandler, 8 Cir., 124 F.2d 785 and Moffett v. Commerce Trust Co., D.C., 75 F.Supp. 303, we think that the proper interpretation of this section is that a conspiracy of private persons to deprive a citizen of "the equal protection of the laws, or of equal privileges and immunities under the laws" enacted under the United States Constitution is within the section, provided the conspirators commit an act in furtherance of the conspiracy whereby the citizen is injured in his person or property, irrespective of whether the conspirators proceed under color of authority of the state or otherwise. However, it would appear that to be valid the act must be held to apply only to deprivation of federal rights. If it be so construed as to include deprivation of purely state rights, it would not seem to be within the Constitution. Thus, in United States v. Harris, 106 U.S. 629 at page 644, 1 S.Ct. 601, at page 613, 27 L.Ed. 290, the court said: "It was never supposed that the section under consideration conferred on congress the power to enact a law which would punish a private citizen for an invasion of the rights of his fellow-citizen, conferred by the state of which they were both residents". However, we do not reach the constitutional question, See Collins v. Hardyman, 341 U.S. 651, at page 662, 71 S.Ct. 937, at page 942, 95 L. Ed. 1253, for we think that the rights of which plaintiff avers he has been deprived are those...
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Joyce v. Joyce
...a dismissal for want of jurisdiction, see supra note 3, we nevertheless would sustain its disposition of the case. See Miles v. Armstrong, 207 F.2d 284, 286 (7th Cir.1953). In the circumstances here, the complaint could not have been amended to state a claim to which the Limitation of Liabi......
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Taylor v. Nichols
...the pale of both federal court jurisdiction and the substantive remedial provisions of the Civil Rights Act. E.g., Miles v. Armstrong, 207 F.2d 284 (7th Cir. 1953); Egan, supra. Finally, in resolving whether a particular right asserted by a plaintiff does fall within the protective ambit of......
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Hoffman v. Halden
...183 F.2d 308 which was in turn reversed by the Supreme Court, 341 U.S. 651, 71 S.Ct. 937, 95 L.Ed. 1253. Contra: Miles v. Armstrong, 7 Cir., 1953, 207 F.2d 284, at page 286 states there can be a conspiracy under § 1985 (3) by private persons without an allegation as to color of 9 See Collin......
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Koch v. Zuieback
...501, 506-507; see, also, Collins v. Hardyman, 1951, 341 U.S. 651, 655, 659, 661, 71 S.Ct. 937, 95 L.Ed. 1253. Contra: Miles v. Armstrong, 7 Cir., 1953, 207 F.2d 284, 286, which, nevertheless, refused recovery by limiting § 1985(3) to cases involving deprivations of federal rights; Hardyman ......