Costarelli v. Massachusetts

“The constitutional issue the plaintiff now asks us to decide is the same issue which he raised in the District Court, and in the Superior Court by his motion to dismiss. If his motion were denied, and if he were thereafter tried in the Superior Court and found guilty, the plaintiff would have available to him an opportunity for appellate review of the ruling on his motion as matter of right by saving and perfecting exceptions thereto.” -Mass., at-, 316 N. E. 2d, at 613 (footnote omitted).

It is thus clear that Costarelli can raise his constitutional issues in Superior Court by a motion to dismiss, and can obtain state appellate review of an adverse decision through appeal to the state high court. That the issue might be mooted by his acquittal in Superior Court is, of course, without consequence, since an important purpose of the requirement that we review only final judgments of highest available state courts is to prevent our interference with state proceedings when the underlying dispute may be otherwise resolved. Cf. Republic Gas Co. v. Oklahoma, 334 U. S. 62 , 67 (1948); Gorman v. Washington University, 316 U. S. 98 , 100-101 (1942).

Costarelli argues that resort to the remedy outlined in Whitmarsh should be unnecessary, because it cannot produce the relief to which he believes he is entitled. He is of the opinion that if the Superior Court denied his motion to dismiss, he would have no alternative but to proceed to trial before a jury. Once this occurred the

But we think this contention confuses an argument of substantive constitutional law with an argument relating to the application of 28 U. S. C. § 1257 . Whit-marsh undoubtedly contemplates that in the event the Superior Court were to deny Costarelli’s motion, he would then have to proceed to trial. But just as surely it contemplates that in the event that judgment were adverse to him, he could appeal to the Supreme Judicial Court and raise before it precisely the constitutional question which had been raised by the motion to dismiss in the Superior Court. Whether the fact that he was afforded a jury trial in the Superior Court proceeding “cured” or “mooted” his federal, constitutional claim is a matter of federal constitutional law, for determination initially in state courts and ultimately by this Court. That the state courts might conclude that the second-tier trial terminated his claim does not mean that Costarelli may draft his own rules of procedure in order to raise the claim only before those Massachusetts courts which he deems appropriate. Massachusetts affords him a method by which he may raise his constitutional claim in the Superior Court, and a method by which he may, if necessary, appropriately preserve that claim for assertion in the Supreme Judicial Court. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, therefore, is “the highest court of a State in which a decision could be had” on his claim. Since no decision has been had in that court, we lack jurisdiction of this case.

Appellant relies on language from Largent v. Texas, 318 U. S. 418 (1943), to support a contrary result. In that case we reviewed a judgment of the County Court of Lamar County, Tex. We did so because under Texas law the state-court system provided no appeal from that judgment of conviction. We noted

We then stated:

“Since there is, by Texas law or practice, no method which has been called to our attention for reviewing the conviction of appellant, on the record made in the county court, we are of the opinion the appeal is properly here under § [1257 (2)] of the Judicial Code.” Id., at 421 (emphasis added).

Appellant argues that because the proceeding in Massachusetts Superior Court would not be a review on the record made in Municipal Court, the de novo proceeding in Superior Court is a collateral proceeding which need not, under Largent, be utilized to satisfy the highest-court requirement.

Appellant's reliance is misplaced. In Largent, we went on to say:

“The proceeding in the county court was a distinct suit. It disposed of the charge. The possibility that the appellant might obtain release by a subsequent and distinct proceeding, and one not in the nature of a review of the pending charge, in the same or a different court of the State does not affect the finality of the existing judgment or the fact that this judgment was obtained in the highest state court available to the appellant. Cf. Bandini Co. v. Superior Court, 284 U. S. 8 , 14; Bryant v. Zimmerman, 278 U. S. 63 , 70.” 318 U. S., at 421-422 .

The present case is plainly distinguishable. Here the Municipal Court proceeding did not finally dispose of the charge, and the proceeding in Superior Court is not

Here, on the contrary, the review is not circumscribed so as to be narrower than normal appellate-type review on the record made in an inferior court, but is instead so broad as to permit de novo relitigation of all aspects of the offense charged, whether they be factual or legal. It is because of the breadth of appellate review, not its narrowness, as in Largent, that the record is not the basis of review in Superior Court. Greater identity of proceedings in two different courts would be difficult to imagine, and it would be strange indeed to class the Superior Court trial as a form of “collateral” review of the Municipal Court judgment in the same sense as habeas corpus is traditionally thought of as a “collateral attack” on a judgment of conviction.

The appeal is dismissed for want of jurisdiction.

So ordered.

Mb. Justice Douglas took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.