People of Porto Rico v. Manuel Rosaly Castillo

• Citation: 57 L.Ed. 507,227 U.S. 270,33 S.Ct. 352
• Decision Date: 24 February 1913
• Docket Number: No. 145,145
• Parties: PEOPLE OF PORTO RICO, Appts., v. MANUEL ROSALY Y CASTILLO
• Court: United States Supreme Court

227 U.S. 270

33 S.Ct. 352

57 L.Ed. 507

PEOPLE OF PORTO RICO, Appts.,

v MANUEL ROSALY Y CASTILLO.

No. 145.

Submitted January 24, 1913.

Decided February 24, 1913.

Mr. Felix Frankfurter and Mr. Wolcott H. Pitkin, Jr., Attorney General of Porto Rico, for appellants.

[Argument of Counsel from page 271 intentionally omitted] No appearance for appellee.

[Argument of Counsel from page 272 intentionally omitted] Mr. Chief Justice White delivered the opinion of the court:

The appellee was plaintiff in the first instance. The defendants were the People of Porto Rico (the government of the island) and several named individuals. Recovery was sought of property in possession of the defendants and for rents and profits. The individual defendants defaulted. The government defended, and from a judgment ousting it from the property, and for rents and profits, appealed to the supreme court. The court, giving its reasons for affirmance, thus stated the only issue presented and which was decided: 'The appeal was taken by the People of Porto Rico, the only ground alleged in support thereof in this supreme court being that, inasmuch as the People of Porto Rico cannot be sued without its consent, and it appears that such consent had not been given in the present case, the district court acted without jurisdiction; wherefore the judgment rendered by it was null and void.' The court did not overlook the importance of the question, as is shown by its careful and perspicuous opinion. A member of the court fully stated his reasons for dissenting. On this appeal, taken by the People of Porto Rico, the case having been tried without a jury, the question for decision is narrower than would seem to be the case, regarding alone the general terms in which the question is mentioned in the passage previously quoted from the opinion of the court below.

It is not open to controversy that, aside from the existence of some exception, the government which the organic act established in Porto Rico is of such nature as to come within the general rule exempting a government sovereign in its attributes from being sued without its consent. In the first place, this is true because, in a general sense, so far as concerns the framework of the Porto Rican government and the legislative, judicial, and executive authority with which it is endowed, there is, if not a com- plete identity, at least, in all essential matters, a strong likeness to the powers usually given to organized territories, and, moreover, a striking similarity to the organic act of the Hawaiian Islands (act of April 30, 1900, chap. 339, §§ 6, 55, 31 Stat. at L. 141, 142 and 150). But, as the incorporated territories have always been held to possess an immunity from suit, and as it has been, moreover, settled that the government created for Hawaii is of such a character as to give it immunity from suit without its consent, it follows that this is also the case as to Porto Rico. Kawananakoa v. Polyblank, 205 U. S. 349, 353, 51 L. ed. 834, 836, 27 Sup. Ct. Rep. 526. This, moreover, is additionally beyond question because, in considering the nature and character of the government of Porto Rico in New York ex rel. Kopel v. Bingham, 211 U. S. 468, 53 L. ed. 286, 29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 190, it was said (p. 476): 'It may be justly asserted that Porto Rico is a completely organized territory, although not a territory incorporated into the United States, and that there is no reason why Porto Rico should not be held to be such a territory.' Besides, in Gromer v. Standard Dredging Co. 224 U. S. 362, 56 L. ed. 801, 32 Sup. Ct. Rep. 499, in considering the subject and giving due weight to 'the precaution against abuse' of the Porto Rican legislative power, and after calling attention to the reservation made by Congress of the right to repeal any Porto Rican act of legislation, it was nevertheless declared (p. 370): 'The purpose of the act is to give local self-government conferring an autonomy similar to that of the states.' There being, then, no doubt that immunity from suit without it consent is necessarily inferable from a mere consideration of the nature of the Porto Rican government, the issue is whether there is any ground which removes Porto Rico from the general rule. That such an exception is the result of the concluding portion of § 7th of the organic act was the sole basis upon which the court below rested its conclusion, and the correctness of that view is the only issue we are called upon to decide.

The section in question, § 7th, is the one which enumerates the classes of persons who, by the act, are made constituent elements of the government for which the act provides; and after making such enumeration the section declares that the...