Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/234/459/
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 14:36:31+00:00

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A state cannot burden the right of access to this Court, nor does the power of the state extend to regulating proceedings in this Court.
A state court has not, nor can a statute of the state give it, the power to assess as against one party to a suit in this Court a sum for attorneys' fees for services rendered in this Court as against another party to the suit when such assessment is not authorized by the law of the United States or by the rules of this Court.
A writ of error from this Court to review the judgment of a state court and the supersedeas authorized by the Judiciary Act are federal, and not state, acts.
A state court, when so authorized by the laws of the state, has the power to award actual damages for business losses which are suffered by reason of the acts sought to be controlled or enjoined in the suit after the allowance by this Court of a writ of error and supersedeas, including reasonable attorneys' fees in the proceedings in the state court. Quaere whether the state court can award punitive damages.
The existence of the right to sue on a supersedeas bond does not imply an exclusion of the right to sue under an existing general and applicable law for proper and reasonable damages.
A classification which is based on the distinction between that which is ordinary and that which is extraordinary is reasonable and not repugnant to the equal protection provision of the Fourteenth Amendment which only restrains acts regulating judicial procedure so transcending the limits of classification as to cause them to conflict with the fundamental conceptions of just and equal legislation.
A state statute imposing reasonable attorneys' fees in actual mandamus proceedings against the party refusing to obey a peremptory writ is not repugnant to the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment either because it does not apply to other proceedings or because it is not reciprocal. The classification is not unreasonable, and so held as to the statute to that effect of Kansas involved in this case and as herein applied.
"The court has authority to render judgment in favor of the plaintiff for any damage it has sustained. Gen.Stat. 1901, § 5193. The plaintiff is given ten days in which to file a claim for damages, stating separately the character and amount of each item. The defendant is given ten days after notice of the filing of the claim in which to except to any items which it may deem not recoverable. The court will then pass upon the exceptions if any be taken, and make orders respecting a hearing."
legal services "if this case is taken to the Supreme Court of the United States whatever such services may be worth." A few days after this claim was filed, on December 24, 1906, a writ of error was issued from this Court to the judgment in mandamus, and a bond to operate as a supersedeas was approved. About two years thereafter, on January 11, 1909, the case was decided in this Court and the judgment below was affirmed. 211 U. S. 211 U.S. 612.
After the mandate went down, leave was given to file an amended claim for damages, and on the same day a Commissioner was appointed to hear the testimony concerning it and report. The amended claim was filed. It was divided into three general classes: first, damages asserted to have arisen from loss of business, etc.; second, damages claimed as the result of the expenses and outlay for the suit; third, cost incurred or anticipated, occasioned by the hearing of the claim. The first, that is, the business losses, was embraced in separate items substantially following the order of the original claim; that is, it was based on alleged loss of output, increased cost of operation, etc., etc. The amounts of many of these items were larger, as they covered the time from the discontinuance of the service up to the filing of the amended claim. The aggregate of the claim was $18,921.90, as compared with $4,907.39, made at the time of the first claim. The second, the expenses of the suit, was greatly changed. Leaving out two insignificant items, as amended the claim was in substance follows.
"For the reasonable value of the services of Waters & Waters to bring this action and to attend to the same in the supreme court of the State of Kansas, the sum of $2,500.00. "
"Tenth. For the reasonable value of the services of Waters & Waters in this case in the Supreme Court of the United states, the sum of $40,000.00."
"Eleventh. For cash paid out for printed briefs in the state and United States Supreme Court, the sum of $93.50."
"Twelfth. For the reasonable value of the professional services of John F. Switzer, attorney at law, employed to assist Waters & Waters in the Supreme Court of the United states, the plaintiff, in the best judgment of the partners composing said firm, deeming it necessary, after considering the momentous and far-reaching controversy made, urged, and argued in the Supreme Court of the United States, and which controversy it could not avoid, the sum of $3,000.00."
"Thirteenth. For the reasonable value of the professional services of the firm of Rossington & Smith, attorneys at law, also employed to present the case of the plaintiff in the Supreme Court of the United states, the plaintiff, in the best judgment of the partners composing said firm, deeming it necessary, after considering the momentous and far-reaching controversy made, urged, and contended for in the Supreme Court of the United States, and which controversy it could not avoid, the sum of $30,000.00."
"Fourteenth. For the railroad fare, hotel bills, and reasonable expenses of W. H. Rossington and J. G. Waters in attending on the United States Supreme Court in April, 1908, the sum of $250 each, and making a total of $500.00. "
"Fifteenth. For the railroad fare, hotel bills, and reasonable expenses of Charles Blood Smith and J. G. Waters in attending on the Supreme Court in October, 1908, the sum of $480.60."
"Sixteenth. For the costs due the plaintiff in the Supreme Court of the United states, the sum of $148.25."
The 17th, 18th, and 19th items embraced small items of traveling and other expenses of the parties and some of their attorneys. In the items of court expenses the difference between the original claim was substantially this, that the claim had grown from about $2,800 for attorneys' fees in the state court when the original claim in damages was filed to a sum in excess of $75,000, all of which increase resulted from charges made for professional services rendered in this Court in connection with the trial of the case. The remaining items of the third class related to expenses incurred under the reference to the Commissioner before whom the case was pending, with a reservation of the right to make future charges for such purpose when the reference was completed.
is deprived of all jurisdiction to consider or determine any such question or element of damage in a proceeding of this kind, and because, further, the Supreme Court of the United States, in affirming the judgment of this court . . . allowed to said plaintiffs, on account of attorneys' fees, the sum of $20.00, and assessed the same against the said defendant. . . ."
"I find that no agreement has ever been had between the mill company and any of the attorneys as to the amount of their compensation; that neither of the attorneys has at any time entered on his books a charge against the mill company for services rendered. nor have they informed the mill company of the amount intended to be charged, nor have they determined in their own minds any definite amount intended to be charged."
"I find that the attorneys will claim the full amount, and will accept whatever amount that shall be determined by this court in this proceeding to be a reasonable compensation for their services in the case and allowed as part of the damages."
"I further find that it is mutually understood between the mill company and the attorneys named, that whatever amount is recovered in this proceeding on account of fees and expenses of counsel will be paid by the mill company to and accepted by the attorneys as a full discharge of the liability to them."
Both parties excepted to the report of the Commissioner on various grounds, and after a hearing the supreme court sustained his action and affirmed his report. 85 Kan. 214.
question here for decision. But first we notice a motion to dismiss for want of jurisdiction. It is difficult to grasp the ground upon which it rests. In one aspect, it would seem to assert that there is no jurisdiction because the federal rights which were passed upon below were correctly decided. But this obviously goes to the merits. In the only other possible aspect, it would seem that the motion proceeds upon the theory that the federal rights which were decided below were so obviously rightly decided that the contention of error concerning them is too frivolous to sustain jurisdiction -- a view which is supported by a statement in the argument for the motion that, of course, there would be jurisdiction if it appeared that the judgment below "under the color and sanctity of the law inflicted exceptional and unjust exactions." But, taking the most favorable view for the motion and assuming that it proceeds upon the only ground upon which it can possibly be said to rest -- that is, the frivolousness of the errors relied upon, we pass from its consideration, since upon such hypothesis we think, on the face of the record, the contention is so clearly unsound as to require no further notice.
denial of any power whatever in the court below to deal with the subject, while the other two contentions at best, challenge power but relatively or partially.
First. The question of the power of the court to make the allowance for professional services rendered in this Court on the former writ of error.
Court of the United States."
"Upon this objection I conclude:"
"1. That the jurisdiction of this court in mandamus is the creation of the Constitution and the statutes of the State of Kansas."
"2. That this court is the sole judge of what that Constitution and those statutes provide."
"3. That the jurisdiction of this court in mandamus over persons within its jurisdiction cannot be affected by act of Congress."
"4. That the Judiciary Act does not and was not intended to affect the jurisdiction of this court."
"5. That the jurisdiction of this court in mandamus attaches upon the issuance of the alternative writ, and the subject matter of the proceeding being the awarding a peremptory mandamus, that jurisdiction continues unabated not only until the writ is awarded, but also until the writ is issued and obedience to it enforced."
"6. That the alternative writ is a command of the performance of specified and prescribed duties, and return to the writ is a refusal to perform the duties prescribed; the judgment awarding a peremptory mandamus is a conclusive adjudication that such refusal was wrongful, and the act of the court compelling compliance with the command of the alternative writ."
and the expenses reasonably and necessarily incurred in compelling compliance with the command of the alternative writ."
"8. That the allowance of the writ of error did not operate to remove the suit from the supreme court of the state into the Supreme Court of the United States; its only effect was to bring up the record for purposes of review."
"9. The allowance of the writ of error did not operate as a supersedeas; the taking the supersedeas bond brought about the supersedeas. The taking the bond, and the supersedeas itself, insofar as it can be conceived of as a substantial act, was the action of the Supreme Court of Kansas."
We observe in passing, that the views concerning the Judiciary Act and the effect of the writ of error from this Court and the relevant statutes of the United States which were expounded in this passage are not required to be reviewed, because they are not necessarily involved in the decision below, since that decision did not rest upon them, but was based upon the operative effect of the state statute, and hence the views expressed as to the United States statutes in the passage quoted must have been adopted simply because they were considered to be illustrative of the principle by which the state statute was made to control. We therefore without in the slightest degree admitting their correctness even for argument's sake, pass the conclusions as to the statutes of the United States, expressed in the passages of the report, and shall not recur to them except insofar as, under the principle of noscitur a sociis, we may find it convenient to do so as illustrating the fundamental and destructive error embodied in the conclusion of the court as to the operative power of the state statute.
Supreme Court of the United States a sum for attorneys' fees for services rendered in that court as against another party to the suit, although such assessment, as we have seen, was not authorized by the law of the United States, but was in conflict with the settled rule in the Supreme Court of the United States? It seems superfluous to put the question, since its very statement conveys of necessity a negative answer. For how, on the face of the question, consistently with the most elementary principles of our constitutional system of government, can it be possibly assumed that a state statute could be made operative in the Supreme Court of the United States to the disregard of its settled rule of procedure and of the principles which had guided its conduct from the beginning, directly sustained by express rule adopted under the sanction of Congress?
a writ of error in this Court. By this method, it makes the suit expensive. . . . It was just this situation that the Legislature of Kansas intended to correct. . . ."
And the far-reaching operation of the principle by which the state statute could alone have been made to produce the result attributed to it by the court below is illustrated by the legal conclusions of the operation and effect of the statutes of the United States stated in the report of the Commissioner, which was adopted by the court as expressed in the passage which we have previously quoted. This is the case, since the views thus sanctioned are necessarily illustrative of the mental atmosphere by which alone it could have been possible to conceive that the state power extended to regulate the proceedings in the Supreme Court of the United States to the disregard of the express provisions of the act of Congress. A view which is not an overstatement when it is observed that, among other things, the conclusion which was below sustained was that the writ of error from this Court and the supersedeas authorized by the act of Congress were not federal, but purely state, acts. And moreover, it was concluded that the exertion by the Supreme Court of the United States under the Constitution and laws of the United States of the power to bring up a case from the state court in order to review it and to grant a supersedeas in order to make that right effective, operated to leave the state court in possession of the case and only to move the record, hence creating a residuum of state power which, as to such case, gave authority to the state court to regulate, certainly as to attorneys' fees, the proceedings in the Supreme Court of the United States.
232 U. S. 318, a statute of the State of Oklahoma which burdened or impeded the right of free access to the courts of the United States was held to be repugnant to the Constitution, and the destructive effect of such legislation upon our institutions was pointed out. And light on the subject is afforded by a consideration of the ruling in Tullock v. Mulvane, 184 U. S. 497. See also Home Ins. Co. v. Morse, 20 Wall. 445, 87 U. S. 453; Clark v. Bever, 139 U. S. 96, 139 U. S. 102-103.
Second. The power of the court below to award damages for the business losses which were suffered after the allowance of the writ of error and the supersedeas.
The contention is that the power did not exist, since the effect of the writ of error and the supersedeas was to remove the case to this Court, and therefore deprive the court below of the right to consider any act causing damage done after the prosecution of the writ of error and the supersedeas. But, conceding in the fullest degree the asserted effect of the supersedeas, that effect ceased with the affirmance of the judgment by this Court, and therefore necessarily opened the way for the court below to consider and determine how far the alleged illegal conduct of the railway company had entailed damages and consequent responsibility. Conceding further that the bond for supersedeas embraced such acts and the resulting damages therefrom, and therefore there was a right to sue on the bond, again the deduction is a non sequitur, because the right to resort to the bond did not imply an exclusion of the right to sue under the general law to recover damages if the election was made to follow that course. Of course, as there is nothing in this case even suggesting that the award of damages for acts done pending the writ of error in this Court was so excessive as to justify the extreme inference that punishment for invoking the right to resort to this Court was inflicted, we need not consider the rule which would be applicable in such a contingency.
Third. The power of the court below to award damages for attorneys' fees for services rendered in the state court.
and the right, on the other hand, to bring into play judgment and discretion as prerequisites to the performance of an act of a different character, and the distinction which justifies the classification made by the statute also answers the argument that the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is violated because the allowance of attorneys' fees was not reciprocal. Missouri, K. & T. R. v. Cade, 233 U. S. 642. The ruling in the case last cited also serves to demonstrate the want of merit in the contention that the question here presented is governed by Gulf, C. & S.F. Ry. v. Ellis, 165 U. S. 150.
Again we deem it necessary to observe that the opinion here expressed is confined to the case before us. We do not, therefore, imply that the reasoning here applied would be controlling in a case where, although the name "mandamus" was preserved, in substance and effect the distinction between that writ in an accurate sense and ordinary procedure would have disappeared.
It follows from what we have said that error was committed in the court below in allowing the items of damages for attorneys' fees, traveling expenses, etc., in the Supreme Court of the United States, and that, from a federal point of view, there was no error in the judgment below to the extent that it awarded the damages complained and allowed a claim for attorneys' fees for services rendered in the state court. And, to give effect to these conclusions, the judgment must be reversed and the case remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.

References: § 5193
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