United States v. Winston, 205

• Decision Date: 09 May 1898
• Docket Number: No. 205,205
• Citation: 42 L.Ed. 1130,18 S.Ct. 701,170 U.S. 522
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. WINSTON
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

170 U.S. 522

18 S.Ct. 701

42 L.Ed. 1130

UNITED STATES

v WINSTON.

No. 205.

May 9, 1898.

The defendant in error, who had been the district attorney of the United States for the district of Washington from February 19, 1890, to May 30, 1893, brought this action in the circuit court to recover for special services as an attorney rendered during that period, and there recovered a judgment. The court of appeals for the Ninth circuit struck out one claim which had been allowed, but otherwise affirmed the judgment. 44 U. S. App. 401, 19 C. C. A. 419, and 73 Fed. 149. Whereupon the United States sued out this writ of error.

The government concedes that some of the items included in the judgment of the court of appeals are correct, and disputes only three. With respect to one of these disputed items the circuit court made the following finding of fact:

'(4) That during said term of office, to wit, about the month of April, 1892, plaintiff, at the request of the defendant, appeared in the circuit court of appeals, Ninth judicial circuit, at San Francisco, in a case wherein the defendant was appellee, and the owner of the steam tug Pilot was appellant, and, as such attorney, conducted the trial of said cause, to its conclusion, for the defendant. That the attorney general of the United States allowed plaintiff for services in said cause the sum of $400, the law providing no specific com- pensation, and that said services were reasonably worth said sum. Of this sum, defendant paid plaintiff $212.79, retaining the balance of $187.21 on account of excess of earnings above the maximum of personal compensation and emoluments which the law permitted the plaintiff to receive for the year in which h ese services were rendered and the money earned.'

The other items are substantially similar, and it is therefore unnecessary to state the particular facts as to them.

Asst. Atty. Gen. Pradt, for the United States.

Patrick Henry Winston, pro se.

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

Is a district attorney entitled to extra compensation for services rendered, under the direction of the attorney general, in the conduct of a government case in the court of appeals? Section 767, Rev. St., provides that 'there shall be appointed in each district, except in the Middle district of Alabama and the Northern district of Georgia and the Western district of South Carolina, a person learned in the law to act as attorney of the United States in such district. * * *'

Section 771 is: 'It shall be the duty of every district attorney to prosecute in his district all delinquests for crimes and offenses cognizable under the authority of the United States, and all civil actions in which the United States are concerned, and, unless otherwise instructed by the secretary of the treasury, to appear in behalf of the defendants in all suits or proceedings pending in his district against collectors or other officers of the revenue for any act done by them, or for the recovery of any money exacted by or paid to such officers and by them paid into the treasury.'

These two sections define the place, character, and extent of his duties. He is the district attorney of the United States in the district. So far as locality is concerned, the boundaries of the district are the limits of duty. Within these boundaries, he is to discharge all his official duties. Beyond them he is not called to go. Sections 773, 774, and 775 prescribe some details in respect to the duties enjoined by section 771, but do not add to their scope.

The suit in the court of appeals in which the plaintiff rendered services was not one then pending in his district. The sessions of that court were held in San Francisco, in the Northern district of California. But, wherever held, the court of appeals is not a court in or for any district. The act creating that court (25 Stat. 517) does not create a court in or for a district, but one in and for each circuit. The relations of that court to a district are similar to those of this court. The supreme court is not a court in or of or for a district, but in and of and for the United States as a whole. The fact that this case was originally pending in the circuit or district court of the district of Washington does not make the court of appeals a court of that district, when engaged in hearing the case on appeal. The case, when it reached the court of appeals, passed out of the courts of the district, just as fully as if appealed to this court. In other words, when a case is transferred to the court of appeals or to this court, it passes beyond the limits within which a district attorney has jurisdiction and exercises his powers.

When a case in which the government is interested comes to this court from any lower court, it...