Springville City v. Thomas Salt Lake City Brewing Co v. Fred Wolf Co Salt Lake City v. Tucker

Citation41 L.Ed. 1172,17 S.Ct. 717,166 U.S. 707
Decision Date26 April 1897
Docket NumberNos. 103,153,199,s. 103
PartiesSPRINGVILLE CITY v. THOMAS et al. SALT LAKE CITY BREWING CO. v. FRED. W. WOLF CO. SALT LAKE CITY v. TUCKER et al
CourtUnited States Supreme Court

J. R. Rawlins, for Springville City.

P. L. Williams, for Perry A. and Lavina Thomas.

W. C. Hall, for the Salt Lake City Brewing Co.

P. L. Williams, for the Fred. W. Wolf Co.

Wm. McKay, for Salt Lake City.

W. T. S. Curtis, for Elizabeth B. and Samuel J. Tucker.

Mr. Chief Justice PULLER delivered the opinion of the court.

In these three cases judgments were entered on verdicts returned by less than the whole number of jurors by which they were tried. It has been decided by this court that the territorial act of March 10, 1892, permitting this to be done (Laws Utah 1892, p. 46), was invalid, because in contravention of the seventh amendment to the constitution and the act of congress of April 7, 1874 (18 Stat. 27, c. 80). Publishing Co. v. Fisher, 17 Sup. Ct. 618.

Exceptions to the course pursued were sufficiently preserved, and the judgments must be reversed if this court has jurisdiction.

The amounts in controversy in each instance were not sufficient to give jurisdiction, and the inquiry is whether the validity of any statute of, or authority exercised under, the United States was drawn in question before the courts below. Act March 3, 1885 (23 Stat. 443, c. 355, § 2).

The supreme court of the territory held in Hess v. White, 9 Utah, 61, 33 Pac. 243 (and the decision was followed in these cases), that the act of congress of September 9, 1850 (9 Stat. 453, c. 51, § 6), the organic act of the territory vested in the territorial legislature such unlimited legislative power as enabled it to provide that unanimity of action on the part of jurors in civil cases was not necessary to a valid verdict. But defendants contended that the act of congress as thus interpreted was in violation of the seventh amendment, and the validity of the act was in that way drawn in question. In the view which the supreme court took of the act, it was obliged to subject it to the test of the constitution, and, accordingly, in deciding that the seventh amendment did not require unanimity of action, the court held, in effect, that the act of congress was constitutional, although it empowered the territorial legislature to provide for verdicts by less than the whole number of jurors. The question involved was not matter of construction of the territorial act, but the court discussed...

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37 cases
  • Samuel Downes v. George Bidwell
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • May 27, 1901
    ......           In Springville v. Thomas , 166 U. S. 707, 41 L. ed. 1172, 17 ...§§ 266, 277, 300; Whiton v. Albany City Ins. Co. 109 Mass. 24, 31. . ...See 2 Tucker, Const. §§ 354, 355, 356. . ......
  • Johnson v. Louisiana 8212 5035
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • March 1, 1971
    ...See American Publishing Co. v. Fisher, 166 U.S. 464, 467—468, 17 S.Ct. 618, 619, 41 L.Ed. 1079 (1897); Springville v. Thomas, 166 U.S. 707, 17 S.Ct. 717, 41 L.Ed. 1172 (1897). 6. The process of determining the content of the Sixth Amendment right to jury trial has long been one of careful e......
  • United States v. Vaello Madero
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • April 21, 2022
    ...Originalism and Birthright Citizenship, 109 Geo. L. J. 405, 435 (2020) ; Lawson & Seidman 196–197.2 See, e.g. , Springville v. Thomas , 166 U.S. 707, 708–709, 17 S.Ct. 717, 41 L.Ed. 1172 (1897) (Seventh Amendment jury-unanimity requirement applied in Utah Territory); Wilkerson v. Utah , 99 ......
  • Colgrove v. Battin 8212 1442
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • June 21, 1973
    ...44 L.Ed. 597 (1900); American Publishing Co. v. Fisher, 166 U.S. 464, 17 S.Ct. 618, 41 L.Ed. 1079 (1897); Springville v. Thomas, 166 U.S. 707, 17 S.Ct. 717, 41 L.Ed. 1172 (1897). The Court today elects to abandon the certainty of this historical test, as well as the many cases which support......
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1 books & journal articles
  • THE TERRITORIES UNDER TEXT, HISTORY, AND TRADITION.
    • United States
    • Washington University Law Review Vol. 101 No. 1, August 2023
    • August 1, 2023
    ...Law, and the Seventh Amendment, 100 TEX. L. REV. 467, 472 (2022). (164.) Reid, 52 U.S. at 453. (165.) Id.; see also Springville v. Thomas, 166 U.S. 707, 708-09 (1897) (same holding as to the jury-unanimity (166.) Cross v. Harrison, 57 U.S. (16 How.) 164 (1854). (167.) Id. at 192, 194-95, 20......

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