Common Pleas

“ It is an old rule of pleading, which, in the modern progress of simplifying pleadings, has not lost its virtue, that whenever one justifies in a special plea an act which in itself constitutes at common law a wrong, upon the process, order, or authority of another, he must set forth substantially and in a traversable form the process, order, or authority relied upon, and that no mere averment of its legal effect, without other statement, will answer. ”

“ These safeguards of criminal pleading, inherited from the common law, were regarded of sufficient importance for the proper protection of the citizen to justify an incorporation of the rule into our fundamental law. ”

“ It is undeniably true in pleading, that where a suit is instituted in a court of limited and special jurisdiction, it is indispensable to aver that the cause of action arose within such restricted jurisdiction; but it is equally true, with regard to superior courts, or courts of general jurisdiction, that every presumption is in favor of their right to hold pleas, and that if an exception to their power or jurisdiction is designed, it must be averred, and shown as matter of defence. ”

“ We have rarely in our experience examined a case, which in its principles is common and readily understood, so complicated and confused by the mode of pleading which has been pursued, and which it is understood is in conformity with the system adopted in this Territory. ”

“ By it, the king “at the grievous and clamorous complaints of the great men and commons of the realm of England” enacts “that all the people of the king’s ligeance of what condition that they be, which shall draw any out of the realm in plea” or any matter of which the cognizance properly belongs to the king’s court shall be allowed two months in which to answer for their contempt of the king’s rights in transferring their pleas abroad. ”

“ There is no common law of the United States regulating principles of pleading and practice at law, or upon any other subject, (Wheaton v. Peters, 8 Pet., 658;) nor do the laws of a State have any such effect, proprio vigore. ”

“ The plea of non assumpsit in bar of the action operated as a waiver of the pleas to the jurisdiction, which doubtless furnishes the reason why no notice was afterwards taken of these pleas by either party. ”

“ The right of a court to prescribe rules to regulate the time and manner of filing pleas is beyond question, if they are reasonable, and such rules are indispensable to the dispatch of business and the orderly administration of justice. ”

“ Upon the whole, we are of opinion that the third and fifth pleas, upon which the circuit court gave judgment in favour of the defendant are bad in law; and therefore the judgment ought to be reversed, and judgment thereon be entered in favour of the United States: and the cause remanded to the circuit court for further proceedings. ”

“ Who is there of the Roman people who did not carry away this conviction from the previous pleading, that if all the wickednesses, thefts, and enormities of all who have ever been condemned before were brought together into one place, they could scarcely be likened or compared to but a small part of this man's crimes? 22Judges, consider and deliberate what becomes your fame, your reputation, and the common safety? Your eminence prevents your being able to make any mistake without the greatest injury and danger to the republic. ”

“ As a general rule a plea must be “issuable,” i.e. must put the merits of the cause in issue on the facts or the law, so that the decision of judge and jury thereon would put an end to the action upon the merits. ”

“ Eleven special pleas are interposed, to which it is not necessary particularly to refer, as the questions to be decided arise upon the rulings of the judge at the trial, made upon points not connected with the pleadings. ”

“ The first point that naturally arises in the presentation of the defense of our client is that which concerns the plea that has been made to the jurisdiction of the commission to try her—a plea which by no means implies anything against the intelligence, fairness, or integrity of the brilliant and distinguished officers who compose the court, but merely touches the question of the right of this tribunal, under the authority by which it is convoked. ”

“ If it shall fall out that, in the court consisting of magistrates and deputies, there be a dissent between them which may hinder the common good, that they now return for ending the same to their first principles, which are the free men, and let them be consulted with. ”

“ At the eternal bar, no man will dare to echo that plea, no judge rehearse that verdict. Such law rests not in the "bosom of God;" its voice chimes not in keeping with the harmony of his countless spheres. ”

“ With such a case as yours, my Lord, it is not sufficient that you have the court at your devotion, unless you can find means to corrupt or intimidate the jury. The collective body of the people form that jury, and from their decision there is but one appeal. ”

“ If, after the recent scandalous proceedings in another court, you, as a special jury in this High Court of Justice, bring in a verdict of Guilty against me and my co-defendant, you will decisively inaugurate a new era of persecution, in which no advantage can accrue to truth or morality, but in which fierce passions will be kindled, oppression and resistance matched against each other, and the land perhaps disgraced with violence and stained with blood. ”

“ I am here, therefore, to invite and cheerfully submit to the highest penalty that can be inflicted upon me for what in law is a deliberate crime and what appears to me to be the highest duty of a citizen. The only course open to you, the Judge, is as I am just going to say in my statement, either to resign your post, or inflict on me the severest penalty, if you believe that the system and law you are assisting to administer are good for the people. ”

“ Without adverting to others, which are open to serious objections on account of the looseness and generality of their texture, we are of opinion that the fifth plea is a complete answer to the action. ”

“ Having invited judgment on the bare bones of the pleadings which merely raise the validity of the tying clauses, the Government is not entitled to remedies which go beyond the justification of the pleadings. ”

“ We are of opinion, that where the defendants sever in their pleadings, a nolle prosequi ought to be allowed. It is a practice which violates no rules of pleading, and will generally subserve the public convenience. In the administration of justice, matter of form, not absolutely subjected to authority, may well yield to the substantial purposes of justice. ”

“ But if he did not restore them, then they were to go before the tribunal, to inform the judges of the injuries they had received, but, far above all things, to complain of the insults to their religion. And, in the name of the immortal gods I entreat you, O judges, do not you despise, do not you scorn or think lightly of their complaints. The injuries done to our allies are the present question; the authority of the laws is at stake; the reputation and the honesty of our courts of justice is at stake. ”

“ How unreasonable was it for any Man to pretend to determine what Weight any Plea would have before a Court of Judicature determining in a Case of Life and Death; and how unjust to the Prisoners, to advise them to conceal any Circumstance in their Case that might have the smallest Tendency towards alleviating their Crimes, or raising the smallest Motions of Compassion towards them in the Breasts of their Judges! ”

“ Lawful judges must on the contrary keep one ear unbiassed for the accused. If they give both to the pleadings of the opponents, and deliver a sentence acceptable to them, I shall put up with the injustice as bringing me nearer to the kingdom of heaven, and shall await that impartial tribunal, where there is neither prosecutor, nor counsel, nor witness, nor distinction in rank, but judgment of deeds and words and righteous retribution. ”

“ It is true, as a rule of equity pleading, that none should be made parties, either as complainants or defendants, who have no interest in the matters in controversy, or which can be affected by the decree of the court. ”

“ But each man, with regard to his own case, or tax, or debt, must carry on his own defence; unless he be infirm or ignorant of pleading—for which sort of persons the "missi," or those who preside in that court, or a judge who knows the case for the defendant, shall plead before the court. ”

“ And while it is so, that a man is accused in both courts, at the supreme tribunal, and the lower house of a man's own conscience, when man's accuser is within him, and God, his righteous Judge, above him, who can come in to plead such a man's cause? A person self condemned, who shall plead for his absolution? If he cannot but accuse himself, and stop his mouth, being guilty before God of the transgression of all his law, then what place for an advocate to accuse him, or defend his cause? ”

“ My lords and gentlemen of the jury—I rise to address you under circumstances of embarassment which will, I hope, secure for me a little consideration and indulgence at your hands. I have to ask you at the outset to banish any prejudice that might arise in your minds against a man who adopts the singular course—who undertakes the serious responsibility—of pleading his own defence. Such a proceeding might be thought to be dictated either by disparagement of the ordinary legal advocacy, by some poor idea of personal vanity, or by way of reflection on the tribunal before which the defence is made. ”

“ Lastly, let that definition of impartial tribunals which has been handed down to us from our ancestors be still retained; that in them crimes are punished without any regard being had to the popularity or unpopularity of the accused party; and unpopularity is got rid of without any crime being supposed to have been ever attached to it. 6And, therefore, O judges, I beg this of you before I begin to speak of the cause itself; in the first place, as is most reasonable, that you will bring no prejudice into court with you. ”

“ Undoubtedly a court may, in its discretion, mitigate the punishment on a plea of nolo contendere and feel constrained to do so whenever the plea is accepted with the understanding that only a fine is to be imposed. ”

“ In Chambers the voluntariness of the confessions was properly considered by this Court both because the alleged coercion producing the confessions appeared to carry over to taint the guilty pleas and because the convictions were based on the confessions as well as the guilty pleas. ”

“ I ask you, Senators, how long men would deliberate upon the question whether a private citizen arraigned at the bar of one of your tribunals of justice for a criminal violation of the law, should be permitted to interpose a plea in justification of his criminal act, that his only purpose was to interpret the Constitution and laws for himself, that he violated the law in the exercise of his prerogative to test its validity hereafter at such a day as might suit his own convenience in the courts of justice. ”

“ Neither counsel nor the parties made any comment on this characterization of their pleas. Thereafter, petitioners and their counsel made statements in mitigation, after which sentence was pronounced. At no time were any motions made for permission to withdraw the pleas. ”

“ His character is under the protection of the court.”
“No, sir!” said the advocate, with energy; “no court, however high,—no tribunal, beneath that of Heaven itself, whose decrees we dare not question,—can throw a shield over a man like this. There are crimes which stain the nation they occur in; which, happening in our age, make men sorry for their generation, and wish they had lived in other times.” ”

“ So that there can be no doubt, that the present plea is a good bar to the suit, notwithstanding there has been no surrender; if by law the principal could not, upon such surrender, have been imprisoned at all. ”

“ Putting oneself on the mercy of the king seems to have been at least an appeal for merey, and at most a consent to be fined, if let off with that-not a plea, but a petition, the rejection of which may possibly have required a plea. ”

“ One of the privileges least burthensome to society, and especially to him who confers it, is that of pleading in one court preferably to another. Here new difficulties arise, when it becomes a question, before which court we should plead. ”

“ The sufficiency and scope of pleadings, and the form and effect of verdicts, in actions at law, are matters in which the circuit courts of the United States are governed by the practice of the courts of the state in which they are held. ”

“ The old rule established by the decisions, which required all objections to the citizenship of the parties, unless shown on the face of the record, to be taken by plea in abatement before pleading to the merits, was changed, and the courts were given full authority to protect themselves against the false pretenses of apparent parties. ”

“ A challenge to a plea of guilty made by an indigent defendant, for whom no lawyer has been provided, on the ground that the plea was entered in reliance upon advice given by a government lawyer-agent, raises serious constitutional questions. ”

“ Only a rule of pleading stands in the way, in this court, of doing what the very right of the case requires. We can give the plaintiffs their judgment for the amount of the general verdict, and reject this; or we can do complete justice, and affirm the judgment of the Circuit Court in full. ”

“ Accordingly, we are here confronted with a statute which, by its own words and as applied, purports to punish mere advocacy and to forbid, on pain of criminal punishment, assembly with others merely to advocate the described type of action. ”

“ If any man charged another with treason, murder, felony, or other capital offence, he was said to appeal him, and was termed an appellant; and the defendant, or party charged, was at liberty either to put himself upon his country for trial, or to defend himself by his body. ”