Lange v. Benedict

The plaintiff has brought an action against the defendant for false imprisonment, and detention in prison. He alleges that it was wrongful and willful, without just cause or provocation. He does not allege that it was malicious or corrupt. The complaint in the action sets out the facts in extenso upon which the plaintiff relies. To this the defendant has demurred, stating threb causes of demurrer; but the one cause relied upon, is that the complaint does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.

It is well, therefore, to state with some particularity the facts which are alleged, or are conceded. In October, 1873, the defendant was judge of the District Court for the United States, of the eastern district of New York. As such, by virtue of an act of Congress, he presided at and held the Circuit Court of the United States for the southern district of New York, for the October term of that year. The plaintiff was at that term arraigned upon an indictment of twelve

Judicial proceedings were afterwards had in behalf of the plaintiff, the end of which was that the Supreme Court of the United States adjudged the resentence, above stated to have been pronounced, without authority, and discharged the plaintiff from his imprisonment. It does not appear that the defendant was a party to the proceedings in the Supreme Court, or was heard or represented there.

On this state of facts the plaintiff insists that the defendant is liable to him in damages. The defendant claims that the facts show that all which he did, he did as a United States judge, and that the judicial character in which he acted protects him from personal responsibility.

In our judgment, the question between the parties is brought to what, in words at least, is a very narrow issue : Did the defendant impose the second sentence as a judge ; or, although he was at the moment of right upon the bench, and authorized and empowered to exercise the functions of a judge, was the act of resentencing the plaintiff so entirely without jurisdiction, or so beyond or in excess of the jurisdiction which he then had as a judge, as that it was an arbitrary and unlawful act of a private person? A narrow issue, but not to be easily determined to the satisfaction of a cautious inquirer.

The plaintiff makes a pre-iminary point, that inasmuch as the complaint avers that the defendant wrongfully and willfully, and without jurisdiction, falsely imprisoned the plaintiff, that, therefore, as a technical rule of pleading, the demurrer having admitted the allegations of the complaint, there must be judgment for the plaintiff. But the complaint docs not rest satisfied with that general allegation. It rests the general allegation upon the special circumstances afterward set forth in it, and which are made up of all or nearly

There are not many topics in the law which have received more discussion and consideration than that of the liability of a person holding a judicial, or quasi judicial office, to an action at .law, for an act done by him while, at the same time, exercising his office. The principles which should govern such action are, therefore, well-settled. The difficulty hi satisfactorily disposing of a particular case is, not in finding the rule of law upon which it is to be decided, but in determining on which side of that rule the facts of the case do He.

The general rule, which applies to all such cases, and which is to be observed in this, has been in olden times stated thus : Such as are by law, made judges of another, shall not be criminally accused, or made liable to an action for what they do as judges ; to which the Year Books ( 43 Edw., 3 , 9; 9 id., 4, 3 ) are cited in Floyd v. Baker (12 Coke, 26). The converse statement of it is also ancient; where there is no jurisdiction at all, there is no judge ; the proceeding is as nothing (Perkin v. Proctor 2 Wilson, 382-384) citing the Marshalsea Case (10 Coke, 65-76), which says: “Where he has no jurisdiction, non est judex." It has been stated thus, also : Yo action will lie against a judge, acting in a judicial capacity, for any errors which he may commit, in a matter within his jurisdiction. (Gwynne v. Pool, Lutw., 290.) It has been, in modern days, carried somewhat further, in the terms of the statement: Judges of superior or general jurisdiction are not Hable to civil actions for them judicial acts, oven when such acts are in excess of their jurisdiction, and are alleged to have been done maHciously and corruptly. (Bradley v. Fisher, 13 Wall., 351 .)

It is to be seen that in these different modes of statino-the O principle, there abides a qualification. To be free from liability for the act, it must have been done as judge, in his

For it is plain that the fact that a man sits in the seat of justice, though having a clear right to sit there, will not protect him in every act which he may choose or chance to do there. Should such an one, rightfully holding a court for the trial of civil actions, order the head of a bystander to be stricken off, and be obeyed, he would be liable. Thus, a person in the office of judge of the ecclesiastical court in England, excommunicated one for refusing to obey an order made by him, that he become guardian ad litem for an infant son, and though the order was made in a matter then lawfully before the court for adjudication, and of which he as judge had jurisdiction, he was held liable to an action. (Beau-rain v. Sir Win, Scott, 3 Campb., 388.) He had not, as judge, jurisdiction of the person to whom he addressed the order. On the other hand, one rightfully holding a court for the trial of a criminal action fined and imprisoned a juror, for that he did not bring in a verdict of guilty against one on trial for an offense, after the court had directed the jury that such a verdict was according to the law and facts. The juror was discharged from imprisonment on habeas corpus brought in his behalf, and it was held that the act of fining and imprisoning him was unlawful, inasmuch as there was no allegation of corruption or like bad conduct against the juror. The juror then brought action against him who sat as judge and made the order for the fine and imprisonment, but took nothing thereby, for it was held that the judge acted judicially, as judge, as he had jurisdiction of the person of the juror, and jurisdiction of the subject-matter, to wit : The matter .of punishing jurors for misbehavior as such, and that his judgment that the facts of that case warranted him in inflicting punishment was a judicial error to be avoided and

Thus it appears that the test is not alone that the act is done while having on the judicial character and capacity, nor yet is it alone that the act is not lawful.

We have seen, too, that the test is not that the act was in excess of jurisdiction, or alleged to have been done with malice and corruptly; for even if it is such an act, it does not render liable the doer of the act, if he be a judge of a court of general or superior authority. (Bradley v. Fisher, supra.)

We think it clear that there is no liability to civil action, if the act was done “in a matter within his jurisdiction,” to use the words of Gwynne v. Pool (supra). Those words mean, that when the person assumed to do the act as judge, he had judicial jurisdiction of the person acted upon, and of the subject-matter as to which it was done. Jurisdiction of the person is when the citizen acted upon is before the judge, either constructively or in fact, by reason of the service upon him of some process known to the law, and which has been duly issued and executed. What is meant by jurisdiction of the subject-matter we have had occasion to consider lately in Hunt v. Hunt ( 72 N. Y., 217 ). It is not confined within the particular facts, which must be shown before a court or a judge, to make out a specific and immediate cause of action ; it is as extensive as the general or abstract question, which falls within the power of the tribunal or officer to act concerning. Our idea will be illustrated by a reference to Groenvelt v. Bur-well (1 Ld. Raym., 454). There the defendants, as censors of a college of physicians, had imposed punishment on the plaintiff for what they adjudged was malpractice by him. He brought his action. They pleaded the charter of the college, giving them power to make by-laws for the government of all prac

The inquiry then, at this stage of our consideration of the case is this : Whether the defendant, sitting upon the bench of the Circuit Court, and being on that occasion de jure et defacto the Circuit Court, and having as such jurisdiction of all persons by law within the power of that court, and jurisdiction of all subject-matters within its cognizance ; whether he had jurisdiction of the person of the plaintiff, and of any subject-matter wherefrom he had authority to hear and

That the defendant, as that court, had jurisdiction of the person of the plaintiff is manifest. He was before it on a return to a writ of habeas corpus, sued out by him, and was produced in court by the marshal to whom the writ was sent. He was in the custody of law upon a judgment and sentence of that court, the validity of which he was questioning, and seeking from that court a vacating and annulling thereof. At least until the order for vacating it was made the plaintiff was lawfully within the power of the court.

That court also had jurisdiction of the subject-matter. It might by law indict and try persons charged with stealing and appropriating mail-bags; it might pass sentence upon them, when duly convicted, of fine or imprisonment; during the same term of the court at which one sentence had been imposed, it might vacate it or modify it as law and justice would require. (Ex parte Lange, 18 Wall., 163 .) If it had imposed a sentence greater than that prescribed by law, it could vacate it and inflict one in accord with the law. If no part of the invalid sentence imposed had been executed, it could vacate it and inflict one different in kind or degree. (Ex parte Lange, 18 Wall., 163 ; Miller v. Fikle, 1 Park. Or. B., 374, and cases cited there.) In England it has been held that at the same term the judgment might be altered, and by reason of subsequent conduct of the convicted person the punishrnent be increased. (Reg.

This was the subject-matter—the general matter then before the court. The particular matter or question presented was the sentence of fine and imprisonment passed upon the plaintiff ; was it erroneous and unlawful in that it went beyond the limit of the law, he having boen some days in imprisonment under it, and having paid a sum of money equal in amount to the fine,, to the clerk of the court, who in turn had paid it to an officer of the United States government; was it lawful to vacate the sentence if in excess of the law; if that sentence should be vacated, was it lawful, under the facts of the case, to impose another sentence which should be in accord with the statute—did all these things present a case for the exercise of power, by virtue of the jurisdiction over the subject-matter ? The court, we have seen, had the jurisdiction last named ; did it not also have jurisdiction to adjudicate upon that state of facts ? If it did have it, and did adjudicate erroneously, was it not a judicial error to be relieved from, by such writ as would bring it up for review, rather than a wrong done personally to be answered for in a civil action ? Is not the person who filled the office of judge and by his presence on the bench made that court, free from liability for that adjudication, though the act done by him was erroneous and unauthorized by law ?

It was held by this court, in Boderigas v. East River Savings Bank ( 63 N. Y., 460 ), that where general jurisdiction is given to a court of any subject, and that jurisdiction, in any particular case, depends upon facts which must be brought before that court for its determination upon the evidence, and where it is required to act upon such evidence, its decision upon this question of jurisdiction is conclusive until reversed, so far as to protect its officers^ and all other innocent persons, who act upon it. How does it differ

It is true that the United States Supreme Court upon a certain state of facts before it, and in a proceeding by certiorari to which this defendant was not a party, and in which he was not heard by that court, reached the conclusion that the second sentence of the Circuit Court was pronounced without authority, and discharged the plaintiff from his imprisonment thereunder. (Ex parte Lange, supra.) In the prevailing opinion given in the case are repeated expressions to the effect that the power of the Circuit Court to punish, further than the first sentence, was gone ; that its power to punish for that offense was at an end when the first sentence was inflicted, and the plaintiff had paid the $200 and laid in prison five days ; that its power was exhausted ; that its further exercise was prohibited ; that the power to render any further judgment did not exist; that its authority was ended.

It is claimed from these expressions that the force of the decision in that case, is that the defendant in pronouncing the second sentence upon the plaintiff did not act as a judge. It is plausible to say that if an act, sought to be defended as a judicial act, has been pronounced without authority and void, it could not have been done judicially. But we have yet to learn that the eminent court which used that language in adjudging upon the case made upon that writ, would hold that the defendant did not act as a judge in pronouncing the judgment which was deemed without power to sustain it. The opinion also says : “A judgment may be erroneous and

Let it be conceded, at this point, that the law is now declared, that the act of the defendant was without authority and was void, yet if was not so plain as then to have been beyond the realm of judicial discussion, deliberation and consideration, as is apparent from the fact that four judges, other than the defendant, acting as judges, have agreed with him in his view of the law.

He was, in fact, sitting in the place of justice ; he was at the very time of the act a court; he was bound by his duty

There is another view of this case. It is certain that the defendant as the Circuit Court, had at first jurisdiction of the plaintiff, and jurisdiction of the cause and the proceedings. That jurisdiction continued to and including the pronouncing of the first sentence; nay, until and including the giving of the order vacating that sentence. If it be admitted that at the instant of the utterance of that order jurisdiction ceased, as is claimed by the plaintiff, on the strength of the opinion in Ex parte Lange (supra), as commented upon Ex parte Paries (93 U. S. R., 18), and that all subsequent to that was coram non judice, and void; still it was so, not that the court never had jurisdiction, but that the last act was in excess of its jurisdiction. Thus in the opinion (Ex parte Lange, supra, p. 165) it was said that the facts very fairly raised the question whether the circuit court in the sentence which it pronounced, and under which the prisoner was held, had not exceeded its powers. (See, also, page 174.) We think that the whole effect of the opinion

This act of the defendant was then one in excess of, or beyond the jurisdiction of the court. And though when courts of special and Hmited jurisdiction exceed their powers, the whole proceedings is coram non judice, and void, and all concerned are Hable, this has never been carried so far as to justify an action against a judge of a superior court, or one of general jurisdiction, for an act done by him in a judicial capacity. (Yates v. Lansing, supra; Bradley v. Fisher, supra; Randall v. Brigham, 7 Wall., 523 .)

In the case last cited it is said of judges of Superior Courts : They are not liable to civil actions for their judicial acts, even when such acts are in excess of their jurisdiction, unless perhaps they are done maficiously' or corruptly. (Pages 536, 537.) And in the other cases a distinction is observed and insisted upon between excess of jurisdiction and a clear absence of all jurisdiction over the subject-mat

Now it may be conceded that the Circuit Court is not a court of general jurisdiction; that in a sense it is a court of limited and special jurisdiction (Kempe’s Lessee v. Kennedy, 5 Craneh, 173); inasmuch as it must look to the acts of Congress for the powers conferred. But it is not an inferior court. It is not subordinate to all other courts in the same line of judicial function. It is of intermediate jurisdiction between the inferior and the supreme courts. It is a court of record; one having attributes and exercising functions, independently of the person of the magistrate designated generally to hold it; per Shaw, C. J. (Ex parte Gladhill, 8 Mete.,' 168, 170) ; it proceeds according to the course of the common law; it has power to render final judgments and decrees which bind the persons and things before if, conclusively, in criminal as well as civil cases, unless revised on error or appeal. (Grignon’s Lessee v. Astor, 2 How. [U. S.], 341; see Ex parte Tobias Watlcins, 3 Pet., 193 .) “Many cases are to be found wherein it is stated generally that when au inferior court exceeds its jurisdiction its proceedings are entirely void, and afford no protection to the court, the party, or the officer who executes its process. I apprehend that it should be qualified when the subject-matter of the suit is within the jurisdiction of the court, and the alleged defect of jurisdiction arises from some other cause.” (Per March, J.; Savacool v. Boughton, 5 Wend., 172 .) How much more so when the court is not inferior ?

There are analogies in the law. Take the case of a removal of a cause from a State court to the Circuit Court of the United States. When the party petitioning for a removal has presented his papers in due form and sufficiency to the State court, and has in all respects complied with the terms of the act of Congress, the State court cannot refuse. Though it does, all subsequent proceeding in it are coram

A plea of title, put in in a court of a justice of the peace, in accordance with statute, ousts of jurisdiction. That court had jurisdiction of the cause originally, and the power to pass upon the sufficiency of the plea and accompanying papers. If it should err, and hold that jurisdiction had not been taken away, when it had; would the magistrate be liable in a civil action, always allowing for the difference in the respect that that court is of limited and special jurisdiction? (See Striker v. Mott, 6 Wend., 465 .)

For these reasons we are of the opinion that the defendant is protected by his judicial character from the action brought by the plaintiff. We have not gone into a written consideration of all the matters urged by the learned and zealous counsel for the plaintiff in his very elaborate and exhaustive brief and printed argument. We have read them with great interest and benefit. To follow them in an opinion, and to comment upon all the cases cited and positions taken, would be to write a treatise upon this subject. That would be no good reason why they should not be followed and discussed, if the requirements of the case demanded it. The case turns upon a question more easily stated than it is determined: Was the act of the defendant done as a judge ? Our best reflection upon it, aided by the reasonings and conclusions of

We have arrived at our decision upon what we hold to be long and well-established principles applied to the peculiar facts of this interesting case.

The judgment of the General Term should be affirmed.

All concur, except Andrews, J., absent.

Judgment affirmed.