High Court

“ The Judicature Acts and Rules have had the effect of abolishing all the forms of “action” used at the common law and of creating one common form of legal proceeding for all ordinary controversies between subjects in whatever division of the High Court. The stages in an English action are the writ, by which the persons against whom relief is claimed are summoned before the court ”

“ The High Court (King’s Bench Division) has the same power as justices in quarter sessions. This procedure is in practice superseded in England, so far as concerns courts of summary jurisdiction, by an equivalent but more modern procedure (42 & 43 Vict. c. 49, s. 25) . Recognizances ordered under these enactments cannot be forfeited or as it is termed es treated without an order of court made upon proof of breach of the conditions, or of a conviction involving such breach. The procedure' for estreats is governed by the Levy of Fines Acts 1822 and 1833, and by 16 &17 Vict. c. 30, s. 2. ”

“ A high national court, formed of members of the tribunal of cassation and of high jurors, shall have jurisdiction over the offences of the ministers and principal agents of the executive power, and over crimes which shall assail the general security of the state, when the legislative body shall have rendered a decree of accusation. ”

“ On such an afternoon some score of members of the High Court of Chancery bar ought to be—as here they are—mistily engaged in one of the ten thousand stages of an endless cause, tripping one another up on slippery precedents, groping knee-deep in technicalities, running their goat-hair and horsehair warded heads against walls of words and making a pretence of equity with serious faces, as players might. ”

“ Where was the judge he'd never seen? Where was the high court he had never reached? ”

“ That the acts and proceedings of these special tribunals need not be according to the course of the common law, but must be according to the exigencies of the state. Such has been the practice from the earliest period of the commonwealth, allowing finally, on appeal or otherwise, a trial by jury, since 1785. 7. That the proceedings of such tribunals, however constituted, are entitled to respect; they are not to be collaterally questioned; and after a length of time, everything is to be presumed in their favor, as in favor of any other tribunal. ”

“ This has been done in the constitution of the United States. Its framers were well aware of their responsibilities to secure justice to the people; and well knew, as the object of all trials in courts was to determine the suits between citizens, that it could not be done satisfactorily to them, unless they had the privilege to appeal from the first tribunal which had jurisdiction of a suit to another which should have authority to pronounce definitively upon its merits. ”

“ 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 right of having an appellate tribunal pass upon matters of law in all contests between parties, is regarded in some sort as a sacred right by our people. It is given in the broadest terms by the great Judiciary Act of 1789. ”

“ Granting that, as has been said, the judge during the term is a living record, and may alter and supply from memory any order, judgment, or decree which has been pronounced, -and this, because he is presumed to retain his own action in his recollection,-yet after the term has elapsed the exercise of such a power to the extent of supplying an order upon which jurisdiction depends, in the absence of any entry, minute, or memorandum to proceed by, or of any statutory provision expressly allowing it, ought not to be conceded in criminal cases. ”

“ If relief on equitable grounds is to be obtained it is right that it should be sought by a formal suit upon adequate pleadings and should be granted only after a trial of issues according to the usual course of the trial of questions of fact. A court of first instance is the appropriate tribunal, and the only tribunal, equipped for such a trial. Appellate courts have neither the power nor the means to that end. ”

“ Under the act of 1895, as under the previous acts of congress, where the matter in controversy exceeds $5 in value, an appeal lies to a court of record from any judgment of a justice of the peace, whether rendered upon a verdict or not, and either party may have a trial by a common-law jury in the appellate court; and the trial by jury in that court is, and the trial before a justice of the peace is not, a trial by jury, within the meaning of the seventh amendment to the constitution. ”

“ But while we find no support to the proposition of the counsel for plaintiffs in error in the special provisions of the statute relied on, it is not to be denied that the argument is much stronger when founded on the general doctrine that when the law has confided to a special tribunal the authority to hear and determine certain matters arising in the course of its duties, the decision of that tribunal, within the scope of its authority, is conclusive upon all others. ”

“ And, indeed, if the law be that a Circuit Court of the United States, upon whisperings in the ear of one of its judges on the streets, or upon information derived from rumor, or in some other irregular way, that an attorney has committed a public offence, having no relation to the discharge of his professional duties, can summon him to answer for the offence in advance of trial or conviction and summarily punish him, it is time the law was changed by statute. Such a power cannot be safely intrusted to any tribunal. ”

“ 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'. ”

“ By this statute it is made the duty of the supreme court of the territory to look into and pass upon all the rulings and decisions of the court below which may be apparent upon the record, or which may be incorporated into a bill of exceptions, and, if any error be found, grant a new trial, or render such other judgment as may be right and just and in accordance with law. And the supreme court must not decline so to do because the case was tried by the court without a jury, but must review said cause in the same manner and to the same extent as if it had been tried by a jury. ”

“ Higley to be the almost uniform rule, among the people who make the common law of England the basis of their jurisprudence, to have a distinct tribunal for the establishment of wills, and the administration of the estates of men dying either with or without wills, which tribunals are variously called 'prerogative courts,' 'probate courts,' 'surrogate courts,' 'orphans' courts,' etc. ”

“ It is a doctrine of law too long established to require a citation of authorities, that, where a court has jurisdiction, it has a right to decide every question which occurs in the cause, and whether its decision be correct or otherwise, its judgment, till reversed, is regarded as binding in every other court; and that, where the jurisdiction of a court, and the right of a plaintiff to prosecute his suit in it, have once attached, that right cannot be arrested or taken away by proceedings in another court. ”

“ Judges who perform 'judicial' functions on Article I courts do not adjudicate 'cases' or 'controversies' in the sense of Article III. They are not bound by the requirements of the Seventh Amendment concerning trial by jury. ”

“ Power is given to this court by the Judiciary Act, under a writ of error, or appeal, to affirm or reverse the judgment or decree of the Circuit Court, and in certain cases to render such judgment or decree as the Circuit Court should have rendered or passed, but no such power is given under a writ of mandamus, nor is it competent for the superior tribunal, under such a writ, to re-examine the judgment or decree of the subordinate court. ”

“ 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." ”

“ It is none the less the judgment of a judicial tribunal dealing with questions judicial in their nature, and presented in the customary forms of judicial proceedings, because its effect may be to aid an administrative or executive body in the performance of duties legally imposed upon it by congress in execution of a power granted by the constitution. ”

“ Numerous cases, also, are cited by the counsel of the present plaintiffs, applicable to the judgments or decrees of a court exercising original jurisdiction, which assert the general rule that no man shall be condemned i his person or property without notice, and an opportunity to make his defence. And some of them go much further, and lay down the rule as applicable to the inception of the suit, that notice by publication, is insufficient to support the judgment in any jurisdiction, except in the courts of the State where it was rendered. ”

“ And it is within the power of the legislature of a state to enact that judgments which shall be rendered in its courts in actions against joint defendants, one of whom has not been duly served with process, shall be valid as to those who have been so served, or who have appeared in the action. ”

“ 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 Circuit Court of Appeals is without authority either to try the issues posed by the petition and answer on the affidavits on file, or, to do as the dissenting judge below suggests, hold a full dress trial.
The federal courts have only such powers as are expressly conferred on them. Certain original jurisdiction is vested in this court by the Constitution. Its powers as an appellate court are those only which are given by statute. ”

“ 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. ”

“ All the Chief Justice meant, and what the case has ever after been taken to establish, is that in the territories cases and controversies falling within the enumeration of Article III may be heard and decided in courts constituted without regard to the limitations of that article; [13] courts, that is, having judges of limited tenure and entertaining business beyond the range of conventional cases and controversies. ”

“ When a state court has issued a judgment interpreting federal law in a case in which the plaintiffs in the original action lacked standing to sue under the principles governing the federal courts, this Court may exercise its jurisdiction on certiorari if the state-court judgment causes direct, specific, and concrete injury to the parties who petition for this Court's review, as long as the requisites of an Article III case or controversy are also met. ”

“ It is plain that such court has jurisdiction to render a particular judgment only when the offense charged is within the class of offenses placed by the law under its jurisdiction, and when, in taking custody of the accused, and in its modes of procedure to the determination of the question of his guilt or innocence, and in rendering judgment, the court keeps within the limitations prescribed by the law, customary or statutory. When the court goes out of these limitations, its action, to the extent of such excess, is void. ”

“ Lord Chancellor HARDWICKE, while exercising the power of the court of chancery, incidental to the disposition of a case pending before it, of restraining a plaintiff who had, by his bill, submitted his rights to its determination, from proceeding as to the same matter before another tribunal, either by indictment or by action, asserted in the strongest terms the want of any power or jurisdiction to entertain a bill for an injunction to stay criminal proceedings ”

“ Had the decree, therefore, been rendered in the subordinate court before the appeal, the right of the plaintiffs below to recover in this suit would have been beyond question, unless there is some other error in the record. Courts of general jurisdiction are presumed to act by right, and not by wrong, unless it clearly appears that they have transcended their powers. ”

“ The repeal is not to affect in any manner any 'suit or prosecution.' The definition is thus given of the term suit 'the lawful demand of one's right,' or, in the words of Justinian, 'jus prosequendi in judicio quo alicui debetur.' 3 Blackstone's Commentaries, 116. If a 'suit' means the lawful demand of one's right, there necessarily must be some one to make the demand, and some one of whom the demand is made, through the medium of a court, and these parties receive the names of plaintiff and defendant. ”