United States v. Jahn

• Decision Date: 05 November 1894
• Docket Number: No. 541,541
• Citation: 15 S.Ct. 39,155 U.S. 109,39 L.Ed. 87
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. JAHN et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

155 U.S. 109

15 S.Ct. 39

39 L.Ed. 87

UNITED STATES

v JAHN et al

No. 541.

November 5, 1894.

August 15, 1890, G. A. Jahn & Co. imported into New York some casks of molasses, which on the 28th of that month they withdrew from warehouse, and exported to Montreal for the benefit of the drawback. Upon such withdrawal and exportation, the collector of customs at New York exacted a charge of 10 cents per cask for gauging the molasses under the provisions of section 3023 of the Revised Statutes. The importers protested against the charge for gauging, claiming that it had been abolished by the twenty-second section of the act entitled 'An act to simplify the laws in relation to the collection of the revenue,' approved June 10, 1890 (26 Stat. 131, 140, c. 407).

The matter was duly taken before the board of general appraisers, which sustained the action of the collector, and the importers appealed to the circuit court of the United States for the Southern district of New York. The circuit court reversed the decision of the board of general appraisers, and held that the gauging charge exacted by the coltector had been abolished. Thereupon the United States appealed to the circuit court of appeals, and assigned for error that the circuit court erred in reversing the decision of the board of general appraisers, for the reason that the decision of the board was final and conclusive, and that the circuit court had no jurisdiction to make any decree or order in said proceeding. The jurisdiction of the circuit court was first challenged upon the appeal. The circuit court of appeals certified to this court the question: 'Whether the United States circuit court had jurisdiction to hear and determine the questions of law and of fact involved in said decision of the board of general appraisers.'

Sol. Gen. Maxwell, for the United States.

Edwin B. Smith, for defendants.

Mr. Chief Justice FULLER, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.

This case was docketed here under the title, 'In the Matter of the Application of Gustave A. Jahn & Co. upon certain merchandise entered by the 'Alps,' August 15, 1890'; but the correct title is 'United States v. Gustave v. Jahn et al.,' for the reasons given by Mr. Justice Gray in U. S. v. Hopewell, 5 U. S. App. 137, 2 C. C. A. 510, and 51 Fed. 798.

Counsel for the importers denies that the circuit court of appeals had authority to certify the question of the jurisdiction of the circuit court to this court, because that question was not in issue in the circuit court, or raised in any way; and, if it had been in issue, it could only be certified by the circuit court to this court; that as it was not put in issue, and not certified, and an appeal was taken to the circuit court of appeals, the action of the circuit court in proceeding to judgment was a final determination in favor of its own jurisdiction, which could not be revised by the circuit court of appeals, though under instruction from this court.

The act of March 3, 1891, establishing the circuit courts of appeals, provides, in its fourth section, that 'the review, by appeal, by writ of error, or otherwise, from the existing circuit courts shall be had only in the supreme court of the United States or in the circuit courts of appeals hereby established according to the provisions of this act regulating the same'; in section 5, that 'appeals or writs of error may be taken from * * * the existing circuit courts direct to the supreme court * * * in any case in which the jurisdiction of the court is in issue; in such cases the question of jurisdiction alone shall be certified to the supreme court from the court below for decision'; in section 6, that the circuit courts of appeals 'shall exercise appellate jurisdiction to review by appeal or by writ of error final decision in the * * * existing circuit courts in all cases other than those provided for in the preceding section of this act, unless otherwise provided by law, and the judgments or decrees of the circuit courts of appeals shall be final * * * in all cases * * * arising * * * under the revenue laws, * * * excepting that in every such subject within its appellate jurisdiction the circuit court of appeals at any time may certify to the supreme court of the United States any questions or propositions of law concerning which it desires the instruction of that court for its proper decision, and thereupon the supreme court may either give its instruction on the questions and propositions certified to it which shall be binding upon the circuit courts of appeals in such case, or it may require that the whole record and cause may be sent up to it for its consideration, and thereupon shall decide the whole matter in controversy in the same manner as if it had been brought there for review by writ of error or appeal'; and excepting, also, that the supreme court, in the absence of request for instruction, might, by certiorari or otherwise, require any such case to be certified to it for review.

It thus appears that the revisory power of this court and of the circuit courts of appeals, under the act, is to be exercised only in accordance with its provisions, and that the circuit courts of appeals exercise appellate jurisdiction under the sixth section in all cases other than those in which the jurisdiction of this court is exercised under the fifth, among which cases are included all revenue cases, that is, cases under laws imposing duties on imports or tonnage, or providing in terms for revenue (U. S. v. Hill, 123 U. S. 681, 8 Sup. Ct. 308), which can only come here on the merits on certificate or certiorari; yet, if in such a case a final judgment were rendered because of want of jurisdiction, that judgment could be reviewed by this court upon a certificate of the circuit court; while, if jurisdiction were sustained and the merits adjudicated, although the question of jurisdiction might be brought up directly, the circuit court of appeals would undoubtedly have jurisdiction to review the case upon the merits. The provision that any case in which the question of jurisdiction is in issue may be taken directly to this court necessarily extends to other cases than those in which the final judgment rests on the ground of want of jurisdiction, for in them that would be the sole question, and the certificate, though requisite to our jurisdiction under the statute, would not be in itself essential, however, valuable in the interest of brevity of record. But in such other cases the requirement that the question of jurisdiction alone should be certified for decision was intended to operate as a limitation upon the jurisdiction of this court of the entire case and of all questions involved in it, a jurisdiction which can be exercised in any other class of cases taken directly to this court, under section 5. Horner v. U. S., 143 U. S. 570, 577, 12 Sup. Ct. 522. The act certainly did not contemplate two appeals or writs of error at the same time by the same party to two different courts, nor does it seem to us that it was intended to compel a waiver of the...