Simmons v. Jones, 71-1092.
Decision Date | 14 May 1973 |
Docket Number | No. 71-1092.,71-1092. |
Citation | 478 F.2d 321 |
Parties | Robert W. SIMMONS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. W. M. JONES and Ernest Walker et al., Jury Commissioners for Long County, Georgia, Defendants-Appellants. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
R. L. Dawson, Richard D. Phillips, Ludowici, Ga., for defendants-appellants.
Frank W. Seiler, Walter C. Hartridge, II, Charles H. Wessels, Savannah, Ga., for plaintiff-appellee.
Before GODBOLD, SIMPSON and CLARK, Circuit Judges.
Robert W. Simmons, the defendant in a pending state court damage action, brought this suit in the federal district court below to compel the jury commissioners of Long County, Georgia, to perform their official duties in accordance with Section 59-106, Georgia Code Annotated.1 The court below, after a non-jury trial, ordered the defendants to recompile the Long County list of traverse jurors and to accomplish such a recompilation in partial disregard of the provisions of Section 59-112 of the Georgia Code.2 We have concluded that the district court improperly intervened in the administration of Georgia's juror selection system in this case. For the reasons given below, the judgment of the lower court is reversed and remanded with direction to dismiss the complaint.
The plaintiff-appellee is a white male resident of Long County, Georgia. On February 17, 1967, Simmons was involved in an automobile collision in Long County with J. Clyde Gordon, likewise a white male resident of Long County. Gordon brought suit against Simmons for damages in the Superior Court for Long County. When the case was called for trial, Simmons attacked the constitutionality of a state law of local application governing the selection of jury commissioners. His challenge to the array was denied by the trial judge, who then continued the case and signed a certificate for immediate review. While the matter was pending before the Supreme Court of Georgia, that state's legislature repealed the local law (Georgia Laws, 1970, pp. 10-12), thereby making the general juror selection statutes applicable to Long County. As a consequence of the legislature's action, the Supreme Court of Georgia dismissed the appeal from the Long County Superior Court on the ground of mootness. Simmons v. Gordon, 1970, 226 Ga. 162, 173 S.E.2d 223.
The state damage action was rescheduled for trial at the August, 1970, term of the Long County Superior Court. Before the case was reached, Simmons, on August 13, 1970, filed his complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, naming the Long County jury commissioners as defendants and praying for relief from the manner in which Sections 59-106 and 59-112, Georgia Code Annotated, were allegedly being administered within that county.
Invoking the jurisdiction of the district court under 28 U.S.C. Secs. 1343(3), 1343(4), 2201, and 2202; 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1983 and 1988; and the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ( ), the complaint charged:
The complaint concluded with prayers for the following relief:
On August 14, 1970, the district court ordered the United States Marshal to impound the voters' and jurors' lists of Long County for the purpose of copying at Savannah, Georgia, and ordered the defendants to show cause why the relief sought in the complaint should not be granted. The district court declined to enjoin the prosecution of all jury actions in Long County. It appears, however, that the Judge of the Atlantic Circuit, State of Georgia, (which includes Long County) has honored the district court's informal request that all jury proceedings pending in Long County be held in abeyance pending the adjudication of the constitutional issues in the federal court.
The defendants appeared and answered the complaint through their counsel, Ralph L. Dawson and Richard Dawson Phillips, both of Ludowici, Georgia, the county seat of Long County. They asserted that the complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief against the defendants could be granted. In addition, the defendants denied plaintiff's allegations that the Long County jury commissioners had failed to comply with the provisions of Section 59-106, Georgia Code Annotated, in the selection of traverse jurors for the August, 1970, term of the Long County Superior Court.
Following a trial on the merits, the lower court found for the plaintiff. Simmons v. Jones, S.D.Ga. 1970, 317 F. Supp. 397. The district court determined that the plaintiff had a federal constitutional right to a state court civil trial "before a jury drawn from a list constituting a fairly representative cross-section of the community." 317 F.Supp. at 403. It then found that the defendants in selecting the Long County traverse jurors had deprived plaintiff of that right:
The district court discounted the possibility of the plaintiff obtaining meaningful relief from the courts of the State of Georgia:
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