Legal error

“ And first on the question of mistake, the appellant's brief has been in vain carefully examined on this head of his argument, to discover what mistake it is that he alleges. The bill does not allege any mistake, and it is conceived that the brief particularizes none. On page 12, of the brief, it is said 'where there has been a technical mistake, such as has occurred in the present case, courts of equity will relieve.' Again, on page 15, 'It is very plain that the error which occurs in the case before the court, was not a mistake of law, but of fact, or a technical mistake,' &c. ”

“ The former gives to the plaintiff, the latter to the defendant, that which he deserves.
A wrong regarded as the subject-matter of civil proceedings is called a civil wrong; one regarded as the subject-matter of criminal proceedings is termed a criminal wrong or a crime. The position of a person who has, by actual or threatened wrongdoing, exposed himself to legal proceedings, is termed liability or responsibility, and it is either civil or criminal according to the nature of the proceedings to which the wrongdoer is exposed. ”

“ Indeed, upon general principles of jurisprudence, has it not always been the law that men, forced to reach conclusions, must be kept free from even the possibility of civil, much less criminal liability, for error in the conclusions that they may reach? ”

“ But these principles must be ascertained, to enable the court to review them on a writ of error, as the bill of exceptions lies only upon some point arising either upon the admission or refusal of evidence, or is a matter of law arising from a fact found, or not denied, and which has been overruled by the court. ”

“ It is in this tendency that we find the key to much that is otherwise unaccountably harsh, technical, or absurd in early judicial remedies and procedure. Whenever any recognized legal right came to be regarded as unconscionable or otherwise objectionable, rules adapted to hamper or imperil the complainant in the pursuit of his remedy were sure to spring up. ”

“ If the case can come here by writ of error, it is because there was drawn in question the validity of a statute, or authority, exercised under the state on the ground of their being repugnant to the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States. ”

“ Respecting the necessity for an exception to the court's ruling in sustaining the demurrer to the first count, counsel for defendants in error have not attempted to uphold the position taken by the court of appeals. The court cited no statute, rule, or other authority for its position, and we have been unable to find any.
The practice of bills of exceptions is statutory. By the ancient common law, a writ of error lay only for an error in law apparent upon the judgment roll,-what is now called the 'strict record,'-or for an error in fact, such as the death of a party before judgment. ”

“ We have so often of late decided, that when a case is brought before us by writ of error to a State court, we can only consider such alleged errors as are involved in the record, and actually received the consideration of the State court, that it is only necessary to state the proposition now. ”

“ In many of the states, indeed, including some of those above mentioned, the right to sue out a writ of error, or to take an appeal in the nature of a writ of error, in criminal cases, has been given to the state by positive statute. ”

“ We concede that it is a sound principle that no judgment should be reversed in a court of error when the error complainted of works no injury to the party against whom the ruling was made But whenever the application of this rule is sought, it must appear so clear as to be beyond doubt that the error did not and could not have prejudiced the party's rights. ”

“ Such being the state of the pleadings, it is impossible to say that any error of law was committed by the tribunal.
Viewed in any light, it is clear that there is no error in the record, and the assignment of errors must be overruled. ”

“ In the second place, treating it as a question of law, we think the error is apparent from a consideration of the statutes and the official reports relating to the subject, which we may judicially notice. ”

“ But the argument does not go to that extent, and, limited as it is, the proposition that the plaintiff in error is denied the equal protection of the laws for the reason which we have stated strikes us as wholly without force. ”

“ They do not constitute the cause of action, but they show its existence by making the wrong appear. 'The thing, therefore, which in contemplation of law as its cause, becomes a ground for action, is not the group of facts alleged in the declaration, bill, or indictment, but the result of these in a legal wrong, the existence of which, if true, they conclusively evince. ”

“ The requirement of assignment of errors in order to invoke our reviewing power rests on a wholly different consideration. 'The purpose is to enable the court, as well as opposing counsel, readily to perceive what points are relied on.' Seaboard Air Line R. v. Watson, 287 U.S. 86, 91, 53 S.Ct. 32, 34, 77 L.Ed. 180, 86 A.L.R. 174. Of course, when the error complained of is a rejection of a claim of the invalidity of a state statute under the United States Constitution, the claim must have been effectively pressed before the state court and rejected by it. ”

“ We do not say that we necessarily should have come to this conclusion if the case had been tried before us in the first instance, but, upon a pure question of fact, the error, if there was one, is not so plain as to call upon us to depart from our usual rule. ”

“ Even the provisions of the 29th section were, in the view of congress, defective, and must appear so to every person conversant with the practice of courts proceeding according to the forms of the civil law. The error of the inferior court may frequently consist, not in wrong conclusions of law from the facts, but in wrong conclusions of fact from the evidence. ”

“ It is a well settled maxim of the law, that 'no person can bring a writ of error to reverse a judgment who is not a party or privy to the record.' 'A writ of error lies when a man is grieved by an error in the foundation, proceeding, judgment, or execution' in a suit. ”

“ In all ordinary cases the legal recognition of an act as a wrong involves the suppression or punishment of it by the physical force of the state, this being the essential purpose for which the judicial action of the state is ordained. We shall see later, however, that such forcible constraint is not an invariable or essential incident, and that there are other possible forms of effective legal recognition. The essence of a legal wrong consists in its recognition as wrong by the law, not in the resulting suppression or punishment of it. A legal wrong is a violation of justice according to law. ”

“ To justify any interference upon our part, it is necessary to show that the course pursued has deprived, or will deprive, the plaintiff in error of his life, liberty, or property without due process of law. ”

“ And that such was the transaction the evidence received by the court tended to prove. The first assignment of error, therefore, cannot be sustained. Nor can the sixth, which is to the charge of the court, and which presents substantially the same question as that raised by the first. ”

“ Was any title, right, privilege, or immunity under the constitution or any statute of, or authority exercised under, the United States, especially set up or claimed by plaintiff in error denied by the decision of the state court? An assignment of errors cannot be availed of to import questions into a cause which the record does not show were raised and passed on in the court below, but we may refer to such assignment by way of convenience toascertain the contentions of plaintiff in error. ”

“ We are of opinion that a motion to dismiss the writ of error must prevail since it is settled that a conviction for a criminal, although summary, contempt is for the purposes of our reviewing power a matter of criminal law not within our jurisdiction on error. ”

“ By the article mentioned a public official is subjected to imprisonment and fine if he commits a falsification, clause 4, 'by perverting the truth in the narration of facts,' or, clause 7, 'by giving out an authentic copy of a fictitious document, or by stating therein a contrary or different thing from that contained in the genuine original.' It is assigned as error that the plaintiff in error was required to answer without being advised of the nature and cause of the accusation against him, and that he was convicted without due process of law. ”

“ As a proposition which is unsubstantial and frivolous cannot be made substantial by asserting another proposition of the same character, it results that there is no ground for the exercise of jurisdiction, and the writ of error is therefore dismissed for want of jurisdiction. ”

“ It is continually a matter of serious difficulty, to refer a particular combination of facts to their appropriate legal category; and if the wrong one should be selected, substantial justice is sacrificed before arbitrary legal technicality. ”

“ Some courts, especially the federal courts, have a "plain error" rule, under which plain errors affecting substantial rights may be noticed although they were not brought to theattention of the trial court. ”

“ I think the plaintiff in error should be allowed, under the twenty-first rule, to amend his assignment of errors, so as to present this objection for our consideration, or that this court, under that rule, without any additional assignment, should take notice of the error of its own motion; for, if the denial by the court below of the immunity claimed against the cruel and unusual punishment imposed was an error, it was one of the gravest character, leaving the defendant to a life of misery, -one of perpetual imprisonment and hard labor. ”

“ The writ of error is used to bring up for review all other cases, and when thus brought here the cases are not open for re-examination on their whole merits, but every controverted question of fact is excluded from consideration, and only such errors as this court can see that the inferior court committed, and not all of these, can be the subject of this court's corrective power. ”

“ And this brings us to another palpable fallacy—another glaring and serious error into which we cannot help thinking the House of Lords has fallen, and which is abundantly evidenced by their judgment: viz. that a court of error has any concern whatever with, or can draw any inference whatever from, the amount of punishment. The reasoning of the judges is here perfectly conclusive. "If a sentence be of the kind which the law allows, the degree of it is not within the competence of a court of error. ”

“ Much discussion of the first assignment of error is unnecessary, for two reasons: 1. Because the issues presented under the peremptory exceptions were issues of law for the determination of the court. ”

“ A mere error in law, of any kind, supposed to have been rendered in a judgment of a court at a previous term, is never a sufficient justification for revising and annulling it, at a subsequent term, in this summary way, on motion. ”

“ Now, it has always been held that a mere error in point of law, committed by a court in a case properly subject to its cognizance, can only be reviewed by the ordinary methods of appeal or writ of error; but that where the proceedings are not only erroneous, but entirely void,-as where the court is without jurisdiction of the person or of the cause, and a party is subjected to illegal imprisonment in consequence, the Superior Court, or judge invested with the prerogative power of issuing a habeas corpus, may review the proceedings by that writ, and discharge from illegal imprisonment. ”

“ Beyond all doubt it is the duty of the court to render the judgment required by law in the first instance, but the experience of ages makes it evident that mistakes in that behalf will sometimes occur, even in the courts of general jurisdiction, and hence the rule, which may be traced to the very origin of the common law, that a court may vacate and set aside an erroneous judgment, during the same term, and render in its stead the judgment required by law. ”

“ Suppose that is so, still the respondent contends that the court erred, as alleged in the second assignment of errors, and that the complainant is not entitled to an account, nor to a decree for gains, profits, or damages. Support to that proposition is attempted to be drawn from the long delay of the complainant, and those under whom he claims, to take any legal steps to protect their alleged rights. ”

“ The contentions pressed upon the one side to sustain the correctness of the conclusion of the court below, and on the other, to demonstrate the existence of reversible error, all but involve an examination of the reasoning which led the court to its conclusion, and we think the most direct way to dispose of the case will be to state under separate headings the propositions to which the court gave its sanction, and the reasons relied upon to establish that error was committed. ”

“ So far as error is founded upon the bill of exceptions incorporated into the record, it lies only to exceptions taken at the trial to the ruling of the law by the judge, and to the admission or rejection of evidence. ”

“ In examining the case presented by the present writ of error, we shall endeavour to strip it of the artificial and complicated form in which it comes before the court: and instead of wandering through the maze of special pleadings and exceptions with which the merits of the case are incumbered, and under which indeed they seem almost buried ”

“ Writs of error were sued out by both parties, and are now prosecuted to reverse that judgment, for errors alleged to have been committed by the court in its rulings on the trial, duly excepted to by the parties respectively, and brought upon the record by bills of exception. ”

“ The genius, the nature, and the spirit of our State governments amount to a prohibition of such acts of legislation, and the general principles of law and reason forbid them. The legislature may enjoin, permit, forbid, and punish; they may declare new crimes, and establish rules of conduct for all its citizens in future cases; they may command what is right and prohibit what is wrong, but they cannot change innocence into guilt, or punish innocence as a crime, or violate the rights of an antecedent lawful private contract, or the right of private property. ”