Court of Cassation

“ The principle that a State conviction is a bar to a federal prosecution, and that, where there is concurrent jurisdiction, the tribunal first taking jurisdiction afterwards holds that jurisdiction, and exercises it throughout, to the exclusion of all others, necessarily leads to this result. ”

“ The defendant has the option to have his case considered by the first jury, and where the judge, acting without defendant's consent, aborts the trial, the defendant has been deprived of his 'valued right to have his trial completed by a particular tribunal'. ”

“ If the plaintiff may, in any case, recover a judgment against one on a joint action against two, who sever in their pleadings, it is wholly immaterial to the regularity and effect of that judgment, in what stage of the cause the suit has ceased to be prosecuted against the other. ”

“ But the defendant who submitted his case to the judge was not considered on a par with the defendant who chose to have a jury hear his case, as is evidenced by a Maryland statute of 1793 which provided that submission to a judge would be considered an admission of crime (analogous to the 'implied confession' of minor offenses under English common law) at least insofar as to render the person submitting his case to a judge liable for the costs of prosecution. ”

“ In ruling on a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, a federal court is not to overturn a factual conclusion of a state court, including a state appellate court, unless the conclusion is not "fairly supported by the record." ”

“ Civil suits, in the name and for the benefit of the United States, are also instituted by the district attorney, and, in the absence of any directions from the Attorney-General, he controls the prosecution of the same in the district and circuit courts, and may, if he sees fit, allow the plaintiffs to become nonsuit, or consent to a discontinuance. ”

“ A separate defense may defeat a joint recovery, but it cannot deprive a plaintiff of his right to prosecute his suit to final decision in his own way. The cause of action is the subject-matter of the controversy, and that is, for all the purposes of the suit, whatever the plaintiff declares it to be in his pleadings.' Pirie v. ”

“ It also provides three modes of bringing errors of law under review after a verdict and judgment; one of which is called a motion for a new trial. The code recognizes but one form of civil action, which it makes the same at law and in equity. It is instituted by complaint. [5] But the distinction between suits at law and suits in equity is not abolished.
Issues are either of law or of fact. If of fact in an action at law, there may be a trial by jury. ”

“ Where such fact occurs in any stage of a cause, whether it be in a court of original or appellate jurisdiction, if it occur as to any of several plaintiffs or defendants, the suit may proceed for or against the others, if the cause of suit survive to or against them. If a plaintiff or defendant die pending any action, whether the cause of action would survive at common law or not, the same may be revived and prosecuted to judgment and execution in the same manner as if it were for a cause of action arising out of contract. ”

“ At common law there was a well-established practice of reserving questions of law arising during trials by jury and of taking verdicts subject to the ultimate ruling on the questions reserved; and under this practice the reservation carried with it authority to make such ultimate disposition of the case as might be made essential by the ruling under the reservation, such as nonsuiting the plaintiff where he had obtained a verdict, entering a verdict or judgment for one party where the jury had given a verdict to the other, or making other essential adjustments. ”

“ The record stated that the parties came by their attorneys, 'and the issue joined by consent is tried by the court, a jury being waived;' and that the court, having heard the evidence and arguments, 'finds the issue for the plaintiff, and assesses his damages at the sum of $7,173.42; whereupon the defendants enter their motion for a new trial and in arrest of judgment, which, being heard by the court, is overruled,' and judgment rendered for the plaintiff for that sum and costs. ”

“ After the close of the April Term, and in the vacation next following, the judge of the court, on application of the defendants, granted an order upon the plaintiffs to show cause why the defendants should not have leave inter alia to make and serve a case or bill of exceptions, containing the evidence given at the trial, special findings of fact and law, and such exceptions thereto as the defendants might desire to make, and why such case or bill of exceptions when made and settled should not be filed, nunc pro tunc, as of the term when the judgment was entered. ”

“ The act of July 27, 1866, relating to separable controversies, provided that 'the defendant, who is a citizen of a state other than that in which the suit is brought, may, at any time before the trial or final hearing of the cause, file a petition for the removal of the cause,' etc. ”

“ It was suggested by a letter from counsel employed on one side of this suit that his party had sod out the interest which it had to the other party, who was prosecuting it now, and was dominus litis on both sides. A ruling was made some time ago, before the death of the late chief justice, in effect that there was sufficient evidence to that effect to require the case to be dismissed, unless the side now presecuting it for decision would show satisfactory evidence that it was a bona fide suit. ”

“ Where the verdict and judgment are set aside on a writ of error in an appellate tribunal, if the law of the jurisdiction makes no provision for a second trial the prisoner must be discharged, but it is settled law that it is competent for the legislature to provide that on reversing the judgment in such a case the court, if the prior proceedings are regular, shall remand the case for the proper sentence. ”

“ The constitution of that State has expressly declared, that the trial by jury shall remain inviolate; and the constitution of the United States has also declared, that in suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved. ”

“ Dispualifications of grand jurors do not destroy the jurisdiction of the court in which an indictment is returned, if the court has jurisdiction of the cause and of the person, as the trial court had in this case. ”

“ We think, as the Court of Appeals held and respondent concedes, that, apart from the prescribed penalty, the offense of which petitioner was convicted is, by its nature, of this class, and that were it not for the severity of the punishment, the offender could not, under our decisions, claim a trial by jury as of right. ”

“ To this, some courts have added the intimation that when the writ is sought by one held under a state conviction the only remedy ordinarily to be had in the federal court is by way of application to this Court for habeas corpus. ”

“ Whether or not the Court of Claims has jurisdiction in a case such as the present, is a question which we do not propose now to determine, for we are of opinion that if that court had jurisdiction, it erred in giving judgment for the plaintiff. ”

“ Now, that transaction, so far as this Court and the jury, the defendant at the bar, the People of the State of California, the counsel and all other interests interested or involved in this trial are concerned, is to stand as though it had not occurred; no person is to be charged with any responsibility for that transaction ”

“ From that premise, the courts below reasoned that petitioner had waived any right to counsel on the habitual criminal accusation by waiving counsel on the housebreaking and larceny charge. With this conclusion, we cannot agree.
Section 1 of the Act defines 'habitual criminal' in considerable detail. [6] Section 7 prescribes standards for the admissibility of the record of the prior convictions of a defendant charged with being an habitual criminal. ”

“ We reiterate what has so often been said before, that the writ of habeas corpus cannot be used to perform the office of a writ of error or appeal; but when no writ of error or appeal will lie, if a petitioner is imprisoned under a judgment of the circuit court which had no jurisdiction of the person or of the subject-matter, or authority to render the judgment complained of, then relief may be accorded. ”

“ The Tribunal of Cassation, presided over by him, has the right of censure and discipline over the tribunals of appeal and the criminal tribunals; it can, for grave cause, suspend the judges from their functions, and cite them before the high judge, in order to there render account of their conduct. ”

“ Although the bill of exceptions to the evidence in this case may not, for the reasons already stated, be available to the plaintiffs to the full extent of a bill of exceptions to a cause tried with a jury, according to the common law practice; yet, being part of the record, it discloses the fact that the question as to the sufficiency of the defendant's answer, as a defence in this suit, was fully argued, and after argument, decided in the court below. ”

“ For, if the concurrent jurisdiction of the State courts do not become exclusive, upon a prosecution being commenced and carried on to conviction and punishment, it follows that neither a prosecution nor conviction in a State court can be a bar to a prosecution under the act of Congress in the federal courts ”

“ Deciding that an ambiguous or self-contradictory law violates due process is a far cry from holding that a law violates due process because it is 'unfair' or 'shocking' to a judge or violates 'the Anglo-American legal heritage.' A due process criminal trial means a trial in a court, with an independent judge lawfully selected, a jury, a defendant's lawyer if the defendant wants one, a court with power to issue compulsory process for witnesses, and with all the other guarantees provided by the Constitution and valid laws passed pursuant to it. ”

“ Sect. 6 of the Article purports to confer jurisdiction an the "Tribunal," namely, jurisdiction to "try and to convict or acquit" all persons charged with an offence mentioned in the Appendix to the Article and brought before the "Tribunal" under the Article, and to sentence such of them as the "Tribunal" convicts of such offence. There is an express prohibition of appeal from any order, conviction, sentence or other act of the "Tribunal," and of restraint of or interference with the "Tribunal" by any "Court." ”

“ Whether there was evidence in the present case establishing the fact of unlawful issue and use, and the further fact of notice to the defendants, within the principles heretofore laid down, as now explained and qualified, is for the jury.
We think it unnecessary to examine all the exceptions taken in this case. We shall confine ourselves to the tenth exception taken by the defendants, and to the one taken by the plaintiffs. ”

“ Mass. 1836, c. 123, §§ 4, 5, provisions were inserted which, as the commissioners who reported them said, were 'intended to define and determine, as far as may be, the cases in which a former acquittal shall or shall not be a bar to a subsequent prosecution for the same offense,' and were as follows: 'No person shall be held to answer on a second indictment, for any offence of which he has been acquitted by the jury upon the facts and merits, on a former trial ”

“ In all the cases the petitioners are imprisoned under the judgments against them; and each one insisting that the Circuit Court, in his case, acted without jurisdiction, and that his imprisonment is, therefore, unlawful and subversive of his rights as a citizen, has petitioned this court for a writ of habeas corpus, annexing to his petition a transcript of the record of the proceedings against him ”

“ Where the judgment sought is strictly in personam, for the recovery of money or for an injunction compelling or restraining action by the defendant, both a state court and a federal court having concurrent jurisdiction may proceed with the litigation, at least until judgment is obtained in one court which may be set up as res adjudicata in the other. ”

“ To indicate, before passing upon the motion for a new trial, its opinion that the damages are excessive, and to require a plaintiff to submit to a new trial, unless, by remitting a part of the verdict, he removes that objection, certainly does not deprive the defendant of any right, or give him any cause for complaint. ”

“ In a civil proceeding the plaintiff claims a right, and the court secures it for him by putting pressure upon the defendant to that end; as when one claims a debt that is due to him, or the restoration of property wrongfully detained from him, or damages payable to him by way of compensation for wrongful harm, or the prevention of a threatened injury by way of injunction. In a criminal proceeding, on the other hand, the prosecutor claims no right, but accuses the defendant of a wrong. He is not a claimant, but an accuser. ”

“ The Solicitor General confesses error and asks that the judgment below should be reversed as to all the petitioners, leaving of course the way open for a new trial. To accept in this case his confession of error would not involve the establishment of any precedent.
Accordingly we reverse the judgment as to all the petitioners.
Mr. Justice DOUGLAS, with whom The CHIEF JUSTICE and Mr. Justice REED join, dissenting. ”

“ In the maxim, 'Ad quaestionem juris respondent judices, ad quaestionem facti respondent juratores,' the word 'quaestio' denotes an issue joined by the pleadings of the parties, or otherwise stated on the record, for decision by the appropriate tribunal. Issues of law, so joined or stated, are to be decided by the judge; issues of fact, by the jury. If the accused demurs to the indictment, an issue of law only is presented, which must be decided and judgment rendered thereon by the court, and by the court alone. ”