Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/221/533.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 01:15:33+00:00

Document:
The defendants, conceiving that the court had no authority to require the production of their business books and correspondence before the trial of the cause, for the investigation of the plaintiff, declined to obey the order. Thereupon judgment by default was entered and a jury impaneled to assess the plaintiff's damages, which being done, there was judgment for the plaintiff for the amount so assessed. This judgment was affirmed by the circuit court of appeals, and the case has come here upon a writ of certiorari. [221 U.S. 533, 535] Mr. John R. Abney for petitioners.
[221 U.S. 533, 537] Messrs. John W. Booth by and Ernest E. Baldwin for respondent.
The question is whether, under 724 of the revised Statutes (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 583), a court of law may compel one party to an action to produce, in advance of the trial, books and papers for examination and inspection of his adversary.
The purpose of the provision is to provide a substitute for a bill of discovery in aid of a legal action. It may be invoked only when the document sought 'contains evidence pertinent to the issue,' and 'in cases and under circumstances when they might be compelled to produce the same by the ordinary rules of proceeding in chancery.' The penalty for failing to comply with such an order is [221 U.S. 533, 538] exceedingly stringent, -that of a nonsuit or a judgment by default.
The contention upon the one side is that 'in the trial' does not mean 'at the trial,' or 'during the trial,' but at any time after issue joined.
The doubt about the meaning of the provision is engendered by the use of the words 'in the trial.' It is, of course, urged that if the Congress had intended to limit the right to such production, it would have said 'at the trial,' or, 'on the trial.' But it is said with equal force that if the purpose was to compel such production before the trial and after issue joined, Congress would have substituted the words, 'in an action at law,' instead of using words seemingly more restrictive.
a. The significance of the word 'trial.' Does that word embrace anything more than is commonly understood when we speak of the 'trial' of an action at law? Or does it include, as contended here, every step in a cause between issue joined and that judicial examination and decision of the issues in an action at law, which we always refer to as the trial?
b. 'In the trial' implies a restricted use of the procedure as compared to a bill of discovery.
Under the ordinary rules of procedure in chancery to obtain a discovery of evidence material to the maintenance or defense of an action at law, such evidence must, in the very nature of things, result in production before the 'trial' at law. Such procedure is still open if it is desired to have the evidence produced before the trial. A court of equity does not lose its jurisdiction to entertain a bill for the discovery of evidence or to enjoin the trial at law until obtained, because the powers of the courts of law have been enlarged so as to make the equitable remedy unnecessary in some circumstances. See the very instructive discussion of the question by Judge Wallace in Colgate v. Campaignie Francaise du Telegraphe, 23 Blatchf. 86, 23 Fed. 82.
In Guyot v. Hilton, 32 Fed. 743, an application under 724 to require the plaintiff to produce for the inspection of the defendants the business books of the plaintiff's firm for certain years 'in order to enable them to prepare for trial' was denied, Judge Lacombe saying that the proper practice to obtain such relief was by a bill in equity for discovery.
The statute may therefore be well regarded as affording [221 U.S. 533, 540] a short and quick way of obtaining documentary evidence for use 'in the trial' of an action at law, leaving the parties to a bill of discovery if they desire the production before the trial for the purpose of preparing for it.
The province of discovery in equity is not to compel a defendant, who is a plaintiff in a suit at law, to disclose in what manner he intends to make out his case at law. The plaintiff in equity is entitled only to the discovery of such matters in the knowledge or possession of the defendant in equity, as will enable him to make out his own case at law; and exceptions to an answer omitting to respond to inquiries touching the mode in which the defendant purposes to make out his case at law, and as to documents 'relating to matters in the bill mention,' were overruled.
This 'fundamental rule,' as it is called by Judge Story in his work upon Equity Pleading, 317, in view of the express limitation of the section 'to cases and under circumstances' when discovery might be obtained in equity, [221 U.S. 533, 541] implies that production of an adversary's documents should not be required before trial, that one party may examine and inspect in search of evidence which he may or may not use in the trial.
d. Another consideration arises from the very stringent penalty which is to result if the judge shall conclude that the documents desired have not been produced. The party against whom such an order is sought has the undoubted right to make every objection which he could make were he a defendant in equity to a bill seeking discovery of the same evidence; for the right to compel production is no broader under the statute than under a discovery proceeding in equity. This would include the right to insist that the case, the circumstances, and the purpose to be advanced, were not such as to justify the order. He must also be heard, if he desires, upon the pertinency of the evidence which is being sought, and the right to insist that he be not required to disclose that which pertains only to his side of the case, but only that which is material to make out the case of the party seeking the order.
When, where, and how are these important questions to be heard and decided? If heard by the court in advance of the trial, it will often be necessary that it shall possess itself of that kind of knowledge of the case which can be had only on the trial where the evidence is to be produced. This in many cases will practically require two trials: one before the jury is impaneled, another after. Opportunities for a miscarriage of justice, as well as inconvenience to the trial judge, may be reduced to a minimum by making an order to produce at the trial, or there show cause why he should not. Bas v. Steele, 3 Wash. C. C. 381, Fed. Cas. No. 1,088; Dunham v. Riley, 4 Wash. C. C. 126, Fed. Cas. No. 4,155.
The statute has never been construed by this court, and the practice and decisions of the inferior courts have no such uniformity as to exert any controlling influence. There are perhaps as many cases upon one side as upon the other. We shall therefore refer to but a few of them.
The third circuit court of appeals construes the statute as requiring production only on the trial. Cassatt v. Mitchell Coal & Coke Co. 10 L.R.A.( N.S.) 99, 81 C. C. A. 80, 150 Fed. 32, 44; Pennsylvania R. Co. v. International Coal Min. Co. 84 C. C. A. 421, 156 Fed. 765, 769.
The circuit court of appeals for the second circuit reached an opposite conclusion in the case now before us.
Since Jacques v. Collins, 2 Blatchf. 23, Fed. Cas. No. 7,167, decided in 1846, the United States courts for the New York districts have generally followed the broad interpretation of Judge Betts,-an interpretation which was plainly influenced by the practice in the courts of the state of New York under a state statute dealing with the matter. It is significant that in Jacques v. Collins there was no opposition to the rule to produce before trial, and no consideration given to the practice under the statute in courts of the United States. [221 U.S. 533, 544] In Victor G. Bloede Co. v. Joseph Bancroft & Sons Co. 98 Fed. 175, though since overruled by the circuit court of appeals for the third circuit, there is to be found a review of most of the cases bearing upon the subject.
The conclusion which we reach as to the meaning of the statute finds support in many reported cases, which, although no more numerous than those upon the other side, are entitled, as we conceive, to the greater weight as precedents. The very early practice under what was then known as the 15th section of the judiciary act of 1789, as shown by Geyger v. Geyger, 2 Dall. 332, 1 L. ed. 403, Fed. Cas. No. 5,375; Hylton v. Brown, 1 Wash. C. C. 298, Fed. Cas. No. 6,981; Triplett v. Bank of Washington, 3 Cranch, C. C. 646, Fed. Cas. No. 14,178, and Dunham v. Riley, 4 Wash. C. C. 126, Fed. Cas. No. 4,155, was to direct the production of books and documents at the trial. The very first reported opinion under the section, the Geyger Case cited above, was by Mr. Justice Patterson, one of the subcommittee of the judiciary committee of the Senate which framed the act. The order in that case was one requiring production on the trial of the action. Hylton v. Brown, 1 Wash. C. C. 298, Fed. Cas. No. 6,981; Bas v. Steele, 3 Wash. C. C. 381, Fed. Cas. No. 1,088, and Dunham v. Riley, 4 Wash. C. C. 126, Fed. Cas. No. 4,155, were ceses in which Mr. Justice Washington presided. Some of the observations of the justice in Bas v. Steele and Dunham v. Riley have already found a place in this opinion. Two other of the early practice cases worthy of notice are Triplett v. Bank of Washington, 3 Cranch, C. C. 646, Fed. Cas. No. 14,178, and Waller v. Stewart, 4 Cranch, C. C. 532, Fed. Cas. No. 17,109.
'By the common law, a notice to produce a paper [221 U.S. 533, 545] merely enables the party to give parol evidence of its contents, if it be not produced. Its nonproduction has no other legal consequence. This act of Congress has attached to the nonproduction of a paper ordered to be produced at the trial, the penalty of a nonsuit or default. This is the whole extent of the law. It does not enable parties to compel the production of papers before trial, but only at the trial, by making such a case and obtaining such an order as the act contemplates. The applicant must show that the paper exists, and is in the control of the other party; that it is pertinent to the issue, and that the case is such that a court of equity would compel its discovery.
'The application for such an order may be made, on notice, before trial. There is a manifest convenience in allowing this. But, at the same time, I think the court should not decide finally on the materiality of the paper, except during the trial; because it would occupy time unnecessarily, and it might be very difficult to decide beforehand whether a paper was pertinent to the issue, and whether it was so connected with the case that a court of equity would compel its production. These points could ordinarily be decided without difficulty during a trial, after the nature of the case and the posture and bearings of the evidence are seen.
For the reasons we have stated, and upon the authorities we have cited, the judgments of both courts must be reversed.

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