Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/356/227/
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 02:23:56+00:00

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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 356 › United States v. F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Co.
In respondent's suit against the Government in a Federal District Court for the recovery of money only, which was tried without a jury, the judge filed an opinion on April 14 granting respondent's motion for summary judgment, without specifying the amount, and the clerk noted that fact in the civil docket on the same date. On May 24, the judge signed and filed a formal document captioned "Judgment," which specified the exact amount of recovery, and the clerk noted that fact in the civil docket on the same date. The Government filed a notice of appeal within 60 days after the latter entry but more than 60 days after the former entry.
Held: in the circumstances of this case, the appeal was taken within 60 days from the "entry of the judgment," as required by Rule 73(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and it should not have been dismissed as untimely. Pp. 356 U. S. 228-236.
(a) Whatever may be the practical needs, no present statute or rule requires that a final judgment be contained in a separate document so labeled. P. 356 U. S. 232.
(b) When an opinion embodies the essential elements of a judgment for money and clearly evidences the judge's intention that it shall be his final act in the case and it has been filed and entered in the docket, the time to appeal starts to run under Rule 73(a). Pp. 356 U. S. 232-233.
(c) When an opinion leaves doubtful whether the judge intended it to be his final act in the case, the clerk's notation of it in the docket cannot constitute "entry of the judgment" within the meaning of Rule 58. P. 356 U. S. 233.
(d) A final judgment for money must, at least, determine, or specify the means of determining, the amount, and an opinion which does not either expressly or by reference determine the amount of money awarded leaves doubtful whether it was intended by the judge to be his final act in the case. Pp. 356 U. S. 233-234.
of payment, it failed to state facts necessary to compute the amount of interest to be included in the judgment, and this omission cannot be cured by a search of the record, because Rule 79(a) requires the clerk's entry to show the "substance of [the] judgment." Pp. 356 U. S. 234-235.
(f) In the circumstances of this case, the formal "Judgment" signed by the judge on May 24, rather than a statement in the opinion filed on April 14, must be considered the court's judgment, and the time for appeal ran from its entry in the docket. Pp. 356 U. S. 235-236.
This case presents questions concerning the timeliness of an appeal by the Government from a summary judgment of a District Court to the Court of Appeals in an action for the recovery of money only. The basic question presented is which of two series of judicial and ministerial acts -- one on April 14 and the other on May 24, 1955 -- constituted the "judgment" and "entry of the judgment." If it was the former, the appeal was out of time, but if the latter, it was not.
filed an opinion on April 14, 1955 (130 F.Supp. 322, 324), in which, after finding that respondent had paid stamp taxes to the Government in the amount of $7,012.50 and interest in the amount of $177.07, but making no finding of the date or dates of payment, he referred to an earlier decision of the same legal question by his colleague, Judge Leibell, in United States v. National Sugar Refining Co., 113 F.Supp. 157, and concluded, saying: "I am in agreement with Judge Leibell's analysis and, accordingly, the plaintiff's motion is granted." Thereupon, the clerk made the following notation in the civil docket: "April 14, 1955. Rayfiel, J. Decision rendered on motion for summary judgment. Motion granted. See opinion on file."
"ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that the plaintiff, The F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Co., recover of the defendant, United States of America, the sum of $7,189.57 and interest thereon from February 19, 1954 in the amount of $542.80, together with costs as taxed by the Clerk of the Court in the sum of $37, aggregating the sum of $7769.37, and that plaintiff have judgment against defendant therefor."
"May 24, 1955. Rayfiel, J. Judgment filed and docketed against defendant in the sum of $7,189.57 with interest of $542.80 together with costs $37 amounting in all to $7,769.37. Bill of Costs attached to judgment. "
which appeals may be taken from judgments of District Courts in actions for money only tried without a jury, we granted certiorari. 353 U.S. 907.
"When the court directs that a party recover only money or costs or that all relief be denied, the clerk shall enter judgment forthwith upon receipt by him of the direction;"
(4) that where, as here, a formal judgment is signed and filed by the judge it is prima facie his final decision, and, inasmuch as nothing in his opinion indicated any contrary intention, the formal "judgment" constituted his final decision; and (5) that the notation made by the clerk in the civil docket on April 14 did not indicate an award of any sum of money to respondent, and therefore did not "show . . . the substance of [a money] judgment of the court," as required by Rule 79(a) and, hence, did not constitute "the entry of [a] judgment" for money within the meaning of Rule 58, nor start the running of the time to appeal under Rule 73(a).
the entry of the judgment, and the judgment is not effective before such entry."
"All . . . judgments shall be noted . . . in the civil docket. . . . These notations shall be brief, but shall show . . . the substance of each . . . judgment of the court. . . ."
At the outset, the Government contends that practical considerations -- namely, certainty as to what judicial pronouncements are intended to be final judgments in order to avoid both premature and untimely appeals, to render certain the date of judgment liens, and to enable the procurement of writs of execution, transcripts and certified copies of judgments -- require that a judgment be contained in a separate document so labeled, and urges us so to hold. Whatever may be the practical needs in these respects, the answer is that no present statute or rule so requires, as the Government concedes, and the decisional law seems settled that "[n]o form of words . . . is necessary to evince [the] rendition [of a judgment]." United States v. Hark, 320 U. S. 531, 320 U. S. 534. See also In re Forstner Chain Corporation, 177 F.2d 572, 576.
"upon receipt by [the clerk] of the [opinion]," requires him to "enter judgment forthwith" against the party found liable for the amount awarded, which is to be done by making a brief "notation of [the] judgment in the civil docket [showing the substance of the judgment of the court] as provided by Rule 79(a)." When all of these elements clearly appear, final judgment has been both pronounced and entered, and the time to appeal starts to run under the provisions of Rule 73(a). And, as correctly held by the Court of Appeals, the later filing and entry of a more formal judgment could not constitute a second final judgment in the case, nor extend the time to appeal. 236 F.2d at 892.
But, on the other hand, if the opinion leaves doubtful whether the judge intended it to be his final act in the case -- and, in an action for money, failure to determine either expressly or by reference the amount to be awarded is strong evidence of such lack of intention -- one cannot say that it "directs that a party recover [a sum of] money," as required by Rule 58 before the clerk "shall enter judgment forthwith"; nor can one say that the clerk's "notation . . . in the civil docket" -- if it sets forth no more substance than is contained or directed in the opinion, and, being only a ministerial act (In re Forstner Chain Corporation, supra, 177 F.2d at 576), it may do no more -- " show[s] . . . the substance of [a] judgment" of the court, as required by Rule 79(a), and "constitutes the entry of the judgment" against a party for a sum of money under Rule 58.
States v. Cooke, 215 F.2d 528, 530); and an opinion, in such a case, which does not either expressly or by reference determine the amount of money awarded reveals doubt at the very least, whether the opinion was a "complete act of adjudication" -- to borrow a phrase from the Court of Appeals -- or was intended by the judge to be his final act in the case.
search the whole record to determine the amount, or the facts necessary to compute the amount, of a final judgment for money would be to ignore the quoted provision of Rule 79(a).
In these circumstances, the rule declared by this Court in the Hark case -- though a criminal case, and therefore not governed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which, as we have shown, afford no aid in determining judicial intent -- is exactly apposite and controlling.
"Where, as here, a formal judgment is signed by the judge, this is prima facie the decision or judgment, rather than a statement in an opinion or a docket entry. . . . The judge was conscious, as we are, that he was without power to extend the time for appeal. He entered a formal order of record. We are unwilling to assume that he deemed this an empty form or that he acted from a purpose indirectly to extend the appeal time, which he could not do overtly. In the absence of anything of record to lead to a contrary conclusion, we take the formal order of March 31 as, in fact and in law, the pronouncement of the court's judgment, and as fixing the date from which the time for appeal ran."
United States v. Hark, 320 U.S. at 320 U. S. 534-535. See also United States v. Higginson, 238 F.2d 439, 443.
to be the judge's final act or to constitute his final judgment in the case. Therefore, as in Hark, we must take the court's formal judgment of May 24 and the clerk's entry thereof on that date as, in fact and in law, the pronouncement and entry of the judgment, and as fixing the date from which the time for appeal ran.
Unless otherwise stated, all references herein to Rules are to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
"To the extent that the language of the Schaefer opinion might apply even where no such local rule exists, this decision is not in accord with it."
"Since we viewed the local rule as merely corroborative of the practice actually required by F.R. 58, Judge Hartigan's opinion must be taken as disapproving our reasoning."
Id., 240 F.2d at 518.
The Fourth Circuit's opinion in Papanikolaou v. Atlantic Freighters, 232 F.2d 663, also appears, in result at least, to be in conflict with the Second Circuit's opinion in the instant case.
This case presents the question whether an appeal by the Government to the Court of Appeals from a summary judgment rendered against it was taken within the sixty-day period established by Rule 73(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Ultimately, decision turns on the need felt for nationwide uniformity in the detailed application of rules of procedure within the federal judicial system, as against regard for local conditions and experience in the different circuits in construing rules phrased in broad and functional terms. Though not so formulated by the Court, this is the underlying question for decision, for I cannot believe we brought here for review a discrete instance, a particular, nonrecurring set of circumstances, or that we wish to encourage petitions for certiorari to review, from time to time, other individual sets of circumstances. The issues on the basis of which the Government sought review in this case were said to be of importance because they affected "all litigants in the federal courts."
Respondent taxpayer sued to recover $7,189.57 in stamp taxes, an amount specifically set forth in its complaint, alleged to have been illegally assessed and collected from it, and moved for summary judgment. On April 14, 1955, the District Court filed a "Memorandum Decision" directed to the motion for summary judgment.
In its opinion, the court, relying on Judge Leibell's decision in United States v. National Sugar Refining Co., 113 F.Supp. 157, found that the tax, in the amount of $7,189.57, had been illegally collected, and concluded by stating that, "I am in agreement with Judge Leibell's analysis, and, accordingly, the plaintiff's motion is granted." 130 F.Supp. 322, 324. On the same day, the clerk made the following entry in the civil docket: "Rayfiel, J. Decision rendered on motion for summary judgment. Motion granted. See opinion on file."
"It is ordered, adjudged and decreed that the plaintiff, The F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Co., recover of the defendant, United States of America, the sum of $7,189.57 and interest thereon from February 19, 1954, in the amount of $542.80, together with costs as taxed by the Clerk of the Court in the sum of $37, aggregating the sum of $7,769.37, and that plaintiff have judgment against defendant therefor."
"Rayfiel, J. Judgment filed and docketed against defendant in the sum of $7189.57 with interest of $542.80 together with costs $37 amounting in all to $7769.37. Bill of Costs attached to judgment."
Rule 73(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The court found that judgment had been entered on April 14, 1955, when the motion for summary judgment was granted, and not on May 24, 1955 when the formal "Judgment" was docketed.
"When an appeal is permitted by law from a district court to a court of appeals the time within which an appeal may be taken shall be 30 days from the entry of the judgment appealed from unless a shorter time is provided by law, except that in any action in which the United States or an officer or agency thereof is a party the time as to all parties shall be 60 days from such entry. . . ."
Rule 54(a) defines a "judgment" as: "a decree and any order from which an appeal lies."
effective before such entry. The entry of the judgment shall not be delayed for the taxing of costs."
"All papers filed with the clerk, all process issued and returns made thereon, all appearances, orders, verdicts, and judgments shall be noted chronologically in the civil docket. . . . These notations shall be brief, but shall show the nature of each paper filed or writ issued and the substance of each order or judgment of the court. . . ."
Thus, before the time for appeal begins to run under Rule 73(a), a judgment as contemplated in Rule 58 must have been rendered by the court and, in compliance with Rule 79(a), entered by the clerk in the civil docket. The judgment must have been both properly rendered and properly entered, and the entry of judgment is the decisive procedural moment. In the present case, the question is whether the memorandum decision of April 14, 1955, was a "judgment" within the meaning of the Rules, and, if it was, whether the clerk's docket notation of that date showed the "substance" of the judgment.
judgment on the verdict shall be entered forthwith by the clerk, without further direction from the court. When the case is tried to the court and the relief awarded is complex, the court must approve the form of the judgment and direct that it be entered by the clerk. However, when the court directs that a party recover money only, and that is the situation in the present case, or that all relief be denied, the clerk is to enter judgment forthwith upon receipt of the direction.
when only money or costs are awarded, there is no such requirement.
"When the court directs the entry of a judgment that a party recover only money or costs or that there be no recovery, the clerk shall enter judgment forthwith upon receipt by him of the direction. . . ."
"When the court directs that a party recover only money or costs or that all relief be denied, the clerk shall enter judgment forthwith upon receipt by him of the direction. . . ."
"The substitution of the more inclusive phrase 'all relief be denied' for the words 'there be no recovery' makes it clear that the clerk shall enter the judgment forthwith in the situations specified without awaiting the filing of a formal judgment approved by the court."
28 U.S.C., p. 4343. (Emphasis supplied.) Moreover, the elimination of the words "the entry of a judgment" made it clear that it is the direction to recover that is the essential act, and not a direction explicitly to enter judgment or a direction framed in any particular manner.
under state law, or for divers purposes unrelated to the taking of an appeal. In the present case, for example, the Government states that, under Treasury Department procedures, respondent could not have secured payment of the judgment without submitting a certified copy stating the precise amount of the judgment plus interest and costs. But these requirements, admitting their relevance to the particular purposes for which they are designed, do not justify eroding an important federal procedural policy in favor of speed and simplicity in taking appeals by demanding that because the definitive adjudication of a claim must be in a particular form for a particular purpose it must be so for all.
carelessness at cost of . . . serious losses in effective court procedure. . . ." Matteson v. United States, 240 F.2d 517, 519.
It is readily apparent that these criteria set only very broad limits on the interpretation of judicial action, and that considerable scope is left for variation according to local custom and practice, properly so in a country as diversified and vast as ours. In this regard, the judgment in United States v. Hark, 320 U. S. 531, supra, a criminal case involving an appeal direct to this Court under the Criminal Appeals Act, now 18 U.S.C. § 3731, is not significantly different from a judgment under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. There, the District Court rendered an opinion granting the defendants' motion to quash the indictment, and, some weeks later, signed a formal order to the same effect. This Court concluded that the formal order, rather than the earlier opinion, was the judgment of the court within the meaning of the statute, and that the appeal from it was timely. This conclusion was reached, however, only after finding that the customary practice in the District Court for the District of Massachusetts, from which the appeal had come, was to issue a formal order quashing an indictment and to regard it as the judgment. The Court expressly refused, because of the diversity of practice in the lower courts, to lay down a "hard and fast rule" that, when a formal judgment is filed, it must necessarily be regarded as the judgment for purposes of appeal. In saying that a formal judgment is prima facie the judgment of the court, we made it clear that this presumption could be overcome by a showing of local practice to the contrary.
"Whether the announcement of an opinion and its entry in the docket amounts to a judgment for purposes of appeal, or whether that must await some later formal act, ought not to be decided on nice-spun argumentation in disregard of the judicial habits of the court whose judgment is called into question, of the bar practicing before it, of the clerk who embodies its procedural traditions, as well as in conflict with the assumption of the reviewing court."
325 U.S. at 325 U. S. 287-288. Procedural requirements within the federal judicial system are not to be fitted to a Procrustean bed. To the extent that the Federal Rules clearly contemplate a certain manner of doing things, of course such explicitness must be respected. But when the Rules do not so require, and the subject is one intimately associated with local practice and custom and adequately dealt with on that basis, loyalty to the Rules precludes imposition of uniformity merely for its own sake.
938, reflected a position taken in a line of earlier authorities, [Footnote 2/1] and it has since been repeated with increasing emphasis and clarity. [Footnote 2/2] That Court has continually admonished the District Courts to be clear and explicit in their adjudications, so that certainty will not be sacrificed and litigants confused, but no less has it been concerned, because of the volume of litigation in the courts of that harried circuit and the widespread criticism of the law's delays, to formulate and enforce procedures that by their speed and simplicity will best expedite cases to a final determination.
weight is given to the later filing of a formal judgment, e.g., United States v. Higginson, 238 F.2d 439, 441-443, it cannot be said that the view adopted by the Second Circuit is without reason or inappropriate to the needs and practicalities of litigation in that circuit. [Footnote 2/3] In view of the varying problems in different circuits, we should, in this matter, leave to a Court of Appeals a considerable measure of freedom to interpret and form the practice in the District Courts in the light of its experience with the procedural relations between itself and those courts.
specifically provides that the entry of judgment shall not be delayed for the taxing of costs, and, since the date of the payment of the tax was not in dispute, the interest due was a simple, mathematically ascertainable item, and the failure to state it explicitly in the opinion neither qualified nor delayed the definitive aspect of the judgment.
The Court itself recognizes that a "judgment" for the purposes of appeal is no more than an action by the court that finally and completely adjudicates the issues presented by the litigation, and that ultimately the question is one of ascertaining the intention of the District Court in a given case. Nevertheless, the Court reverses the unanimous determination of the Court of Appeals on this question, and it appears to rest this unusual action on the slender reed that the opinion of the District Court failed to show on its face the amount of the interest. In judging whether the District Court intended to make a final disposition of the case, the Court of Appeals surely was correct in concluding that this trivial circumstance was more than outweighed by the other circumstances of the case.
established practice in the Second Circuit, the time for appeal commenced to run automatically by force of Rule 73(a). The fact that the court or either of the parties later proceeded on the assumption that further action was necessary or desirable to obtain a judgment, or for whatever reason, could in no way enlarge the time within which to invoke the jurisdiction of the appellate court. Such action could not prevent either respondent or the Court of Appeals from insisting on the finality of the District Court's first decision.
What has been said in regard to the rendering of judgment applies equally to the entry of judgment on the civil docket. Rule 79(a) requires that the notation on the docket be brief but show the "substance" of the judgment rendered. "Substance" in this context is not a term of Aristotelian metaphysics; it has no meaning apart from the realities of custom and practice and adequacy of notice to those whose conduct is governed by the docket entries and the information they reasonably convey. Such a practical reading of the Rule does not, contrary to the Government's contention, render nugatory the requirement that the substance of the judgment be shown, but properly interprets that requirement in terms of the purpose for which it was designed.
conveyed the vital information necessary to protect their interests. The use of the word "judgment," or the recital of the amount of the judgment in the docket as well as in the opinion would have done no more, and a flat rule that such recitals must be included would convert Rule 79(a) from a common sense direction to maintain a docket useful to the court, the clerk, and interested parties into a demand for pointless technicalities that ultimately might well seriously inconvenience them. If the amount of the judgment must necessarily appear in the docket, so also, it can be argued, must the terms of an injunction, the substance of that judgment; but by such inclusions the usefulness of the docket as an index and brief history of the proceedings would be substantially impaired, if not defeated.
It must be remembered that the problem before us concerns not the niceties of abstract logic or legal symmetry, but the practicalities of litigation and judicial administration in the federal courts of New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, comprising the Second Circuit. Doubtless the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, insofar as they govern the time for taking appeals, must be observed throughout the country by all eleven Courts of Appeals. But since the Rules do not lay down self-defining specifications or mechanically enforceable details on many matters, including the rendition and entry of judgments, does due regard for the Rules require more than obedience to the functional purposes they express? Does their observance necessarily imply a nationwide uniformity in their formal application? We have for review the practical construction given to Rule 73(a) by a Court of Appeals with as large a volume of business as any. By this practice, the appellate jurisdiction of that court has been guided for some years, and it has been approved by every appellate judge in the circuit who has had occasion to consider the question. The membership of the Court of Appeals reflects the experience of judges among those of longest experience in our judiciary, both on the District Courts and the Courts of Appeals, judges who have had extensive experience at the bar both in private and public litigation, and judges of special competence in the domain of procedure. [Footnote 2/4] A rule of procedure authenticated by such a weighty certificate of legitimacy should not be nullified out of regard for considerations of elegantia juris. Certainly we should not upset it unless compelled to do so by the clear requirements of unambiguous legislation or the enforcement of unassailable even if implicit standards for the fair administration of justice.
See Leonard v. Prince Line, Ltd., 157 F.2d 987, 989; Murphy v. Lehigh Valley R. Co., 158 F.2d 481, 484-485; Binder v. Commercial Travelers Mut. Acc. Assn., 165 F.2d 896, 901; Markert v. Swift & Co., 173 F.2d 517, 519, note 2.
United States v. Roth, 208 F.2d 467; Napier v. Delaware, L. & W. R. Co., 223 F.2d 28; Matteson v. United States, 240 F.2d 517; Edwards v. Doctors Hospital, Inc., 242 F.2d 888; Repan v. American President Lines, Ltd., 243 F.2d 876.
"A memorandum of the determination of a motion, signed by the judge, shall constitute the order; but nothing herein contained shall prevent the court from making an order, either originally or on an application for resettlement, in more extended form."
However, in Matteson v. United States, 240 F.2d 517, following the decision in the present case, the Court of Appeals explained that it "viewed the local rule as merely corroborative of the practice actually required by F.R. 58. . . ." 240 F.2d at 518.
Chief Judge Clark -- 6 years' private practice, 19 years on the Court of Appeals, 21 years member of the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
Judge Frank -- 22 years' private practice, 6 years' federal administrative service, 16 years on the Court of Appeals.
Judge Medina -- 35 years' private practice, 4 years on the District Court, 7 years on the Court of Appeals.
Judge Hincks -- 14 years' private practice, 22 years on the District Court, 5 years on the Court of Appeals.
Judge Lumbard -- 21 years' private practice, 6 years in the United States Attorney's Office, 3 years on the Court of Appeals.
Judge Waterman -- 29 years' private practice, 3 years on the Court of Appeals.
Judge Learned Hand -- 12 years private practice, 15 years on the District Court, 27 years on the Court of Appeals at retirement.
Judge Augustus N. Hand -- 19 years' private practice, 13 years on the District Court, 26 years on the Court of Appeals at retirement.
Judge Swan -- 13 years' private practice, 26 years on the Court of Appeals at retirement.
Judge Chase -- 7 years' private practice, 10 years on state courts, 25 years on the Court of Appeals at retirement.
The effort which has gone into this case has at least ended happily from the point of view of preserving the integrity of those provisions of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure bearing on the timeliness of appeals. The Court's opinion, and the dissent of MR. JUSTICE FRANKFURTER which I have joined, are at one on the basic issue, namely, that entry of a formal judgment is not necessary to start the time for appeal running, and also agree that the determinative question in any given case is whether the District Court intended its decision on the merits to be a final disposition of the matter. After an en banc Court of Appeals had decided that the District Court in this instance did intend to make a final disposition of the case, I should have thought this Court would have considered it the better course to affirm the judgment below, with an appropriate suggestion to district judges, to leave no room for argument about their intentions respecting finality, rather than to reverse the Court of Appeals on what was essentially an issue of fact.
Even so, the Court's action perhaps has a silver lining, for I daresay it will stimulate district judges to be more at pains in the future, cf. Matteson v. United States, 240 F.2d 517, 518, to give in their opinions in these "money" cases an affirmative indication of intention regarding the finality or nonfinality of their decisions. If such is the effect of this decision, it will be a healthy thing, for surely such a commonplace affair as the time for appeal should not be permitted to breed litigation.

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