Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/341/737/
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 20:59:03+00:00

Document:
In these related proceedings, this Court (1) grants certiorari in Nos. 697 and 702; (2) denies a motion to vacate an order staying the Court of Appeals' contempt order; (3) continues on the docket a motion for reconsideration of the denial of certiorari in No. 353, and (4) rejects the suggestion that the Court defer adjournment and hear argument within a matter of weeks. Pp. 341 U. S. 737-740.
proceeding, inconsistent with strict compliance with and obedience to the orders heretofore entered by this Court in this cause."
"AND IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that said persons are and each of them is enjoined and restrained until further order of this Court from complying with, taking advantage of, or utilizing, or seeking to comply with, utilize or take advantage of said temporary injunction issued by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Southern Division, in said cause entitled United States v. R. Stanley Dollar et al., or any order of similar tenor which may hereafter be entered by said court or any other court."
(3) No action is taken at this time on petitioners' motion for leave to file a motion for reconsideration of our denial of certiorari in No. 353. The motion is continued on the docket so that there may be no question as to this Court's control over No. 353 for whatever action may be deemed appropriate.
There is a further consideration militating against premature disposition of the issues presented. There is now pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California an action brought by the United States for adjudication of its claim of title in the same shares of stock as those involved in the instant cases. We have heretofore held that judgments entered in the instant cases would not be res judicata against the United States. Land v. Dollar, 330 U. S. 731, 330 U. S. 736-737, 330 U. S. 739 (1947). Appeals have been taken from the temporary injunction issued in that suit on behalf of the United States and with which much of the present phase of this litigation is concerned. We are advised that, on May 31, 1951, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard argument on a motion to stay the temporary injunction pending appeal from the order granting the temporary injunction and has taken that motion under advisement. On June 1, 1951, the District Court for the Northern District of California began its hearing on defendants' (respondents in this Court) motion to dismiss the complaint and for summary judgment.
* No. 353, Land et al. v. Dollar et al., on motion for leave to file a motion for reconsideration of denial of certiorari; No. 697, Land et al. v. Dollar et al., and No. 702, In re Killion, on petitions for writs of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; No. ___, Sawyer et al. v. Dollar et al., and No. ___, In re Killion, on motion to vacate stay of contempt order.
It is not practicable, as a rule, for reasons indicated in my memorandum in Maryland v. Baltimore Radio Show, 338 U. S. 912, to set forth the considerations that move the Court in granting or denying a petition for certiorari. And since an unexplained announcement of an individual vote on such action is too often apt to be equivocal, it has been my unbroken practice not to note my vote on the disposition of such petitions. However, the petition now before the Court is the latest stage in a long process. In different phases, it has been here three times. Because our action may be misleading unless viewed in its setting, a plain narrative of the course of this litigation in its bearing on this petition is, I believe, desirable.
years wound its way through the Court of Appeals to this Court, back to the District Court, and once again to the Court of Appeals. 81 U.S.App.D.C. 28, 154 F.2d 307; 330 U. S. 330 U.S. 731; 82 F.Supp. 919; 87 U.S.App.D.C. 214, 184 F.2d 245. At every stage, the Commissioners were represented by attorneys from the Department of Justice, who asserted as ground for dismissal that the action was a suit against the United States to which consent had not been given. Our decision, 330 U. S. 330 U.S. 731, held that, if the allegations of the complaint were true, the action was not against the United States, but rather against the Commissioners in their individual capacities. The District Court decided on the merits that the facts were not as they had been alleged. 82 F.Supp. 919. But, on July 17, 1950, the Court of Appeals reversed. It held that the stock of the corporation was unlawfully withheld by the members of the Commission, and that, since title to it had never vested in the United States, the suit was not against the sovereign. 87 U.S.App.D.C. 214, 184 F.2d 245. We refused to review this decision. 340 U.S. 884. Later, we refused to reconsider our refusal. 340 U.S. 948.
"title to the shares in question is in the plaintiffs [Dollars], since they were never legally divested of the same, and the asserted title of all others arising out of the same transaction to the contrary [is] null and void. . . ."
"[P]laintiffs [Dollars] are entitled to possession of the shares as against defendants, and the defendants are ordered and directed to deliver forthwith to the plaintiffs the said shares. The possession to which plaintiffs are entitled is an effective possession of the shares. Insofar as such right requires action on the part of defendants in addition to physical delivery of the certificates, such action is hereby directed to be taken. Plaintiffs are entitled under this judgment to all rights belonging to possessors of the shares."
"The District Court is directed to enforce obedience to its order, as herein modified, whether effective process is against the present named defendants or is against another official, or other officials, against whom the order might be lawfully enforced if he or they were a party or parties to the suit."
process for enforcing obedience to that order as if he were a party."
88 U.S.App.D.C. ___, ___, 188 F.2d 629, 632.
4. We were asked to grant certiorari to review this order for enforcement. On March 12, 1951, we refused. 340 U.S. 948. It was at this point that we refused to reconsider our refusal to review the decision on the merits.
5. Accordingly, the case went back to the District Court. That court entered two orders on March 16. The first was in the terms prescribed by the Court of Appeals. The second was designed to enforce the judgment against the Secretary of Commence who, under a Presidential Reorganization Plan, had succeeded the Maritime Commission as custodian of the stock shortly before the Court of Appeals entered its decision on the merits. This order directed the Secretary to endorse the stock certificates in his possession in blank by writing on them the words, "United States Maritime Commission, by Charles Sawyer, Secretary of Commerce." It required further that he deliver the stock to a representative of the Dollars, and that he instruct the corporation to make the transfers of record. In the event that the Secretary failed to endorse the stock before delivery or to issue the instructions prior to March 17, the Clerk of the District Court was directed to perform these acts in his place. 97 F.Supp. 60.
had unsuccessfully advanced in the litigation in the District of Columbia which culminated in the judgment against the individual defendants.
"[s]hould inefficient management replace the existing management' of the corporation, 'grave danger exists that this important unit of the American Merchant Marine may deteriorate as it did before when under the control of plaintiffs in the case of R. Stanley Dollar et al. v. Emory S. Land et al."
On April 6, the District Judge announced that he would issue a temporary restraining order. See 97 F.Supp. 50.
exercising or attempting to exercise any rights or privileges as owners of stock certificates . . . and from making any demands upon [the corporation or its agents] . . . that new certificates representing said shares of stock . . . be issued to [the Dollars] . . . or that said [Dollars] be registered as the owners of the shares of stock represented by said certificates . . . , and from pledging, selling, transferring, or otherwise disposing of said stock certificates and the shares of stock represented thereby, and"
"It is further ordered by this Court that [the corporation and its agents] . . . be, and they hereby are, restrained, pending the entry of final judgment in this action, from issuing any new certificates of stock of [the corporation] representing said shares to [the Dollars] . . . from registering or recording [the Dollars] . . . as owners of any of the shares of stock . . . and from in any way recognizing said [Dollars] . . . as the lawful owners of said shares of stock or said certificates."
Court dismissed the appeals without opinion. At the same time, it took under advisement a motion to impose sanctions on the representatives of the Government.
10. The Court of Appeals acted on the motion to impose sanctions by orders dated April 10, for reasons indicated in a statement read in open court on April 6 and an opinion filed on April 11, 1951. 88 U.S.App.D.C. ___, 190 F.2d 366.
"sought and obtained from the District Court in Northern California an injunction against the Dollar interests restraining them from attempting to secure compliance with the decree of this court."
190 F.2d at 374. The proceedings to which this order has led are not before us on this petition.
with, and in nullification of this Court's decisions and orders"
"whether the United States might seek ancillary injunctive relief in any other respect -- that is, in any respect save only the defeat and nullification of a judgment already finally entered by a court of competent jurisdiction."
"be and they hereby are enjoined and restrained until further order of this Court from proposing, seeking or advocating any step in any proceeding, whether in said suit entitled United States v. R. Stanley Dollar et al. or in any other proceeding, inconsistent with strict compliance with and obedience to the orders heretofore entered by this Court in this cause."
"AND IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that said persons are and each of them is enjoined and restrained until further order of this Court from complying with, taking advantage of, or utilizing, or seeking to comply with, utilize or take advantage of said temporary injunction issued by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Southern Division, in said cause entitled United States v. R. Stanley Dollar, et al., or any order of similar tenor which may hereafter be entered by said court or any other court."
This Court examined the decision of the Court of Appeals that the Dollar interests were entitled to the stock in question, and decided that it did not merit further review. 87 U.S.App.D.C. 214, 184 F.2d 245. Certiorari denied, 340 U.S. 884. The courts below properly understood that we then regarded that litigation as ended, and the District Court entered its mandate. When complete compliance was withheld, the mandate was modified to order officials to deliver up "effective possession" of the stock. Certiorari was sought from this enforcement order, and we were also again asked to review the merits. We denied both. 340 U.S. 948. To date, "effective possession" has not been delivered.
Denial by the full Court of this motion fixes it as the Court's policy to suspend enforcement indefinitely, certainly so long as any phase of this matter is pending here. Successive stays will issue as, of course, until we decide this and perhaps also the case recently commenced in California. No one knows for how long this will continue.
My prediction would be in terms of years, rather than months.
This Court, now asked to vacate the stay order, denies the motion without hearing either of the parties. This matter has become one of considerable delicacy, and I should not, in effect, approve an indefinite stay of proceedings without hearing all the argument and information that either party can offer. I do not think denial without hearing is prudent judicial action. No legitimate interest could suffer from a hearing, and we would surely be better informed as a result of it.
Even if the parties themselves are not strictly entitled to or do not want to argue this motion, I should require them to do so, for hearings are more important here for the benefit of the Court, as a protection against unwise decision, than for benefit of the parties. It is the Court that is now on trial. When the shoe of contempt was on the other foot, we strongly supported the Government's demand for complete submission to court decrees, even before they were sustained by this Court and though their validity was reasonably in doubt. On this basis, a heavy fine was levied against the United Mine Workers. United States v. United Mine Workers, 330 U. S. 258. See also McComb v. Jacksonville Paper Co., 336 U. S. 187.
that some of the Nation's high officials are guilty of contempt of court is not wholesome. The evil influence of such an example will be increased by delay. This Court should exercise utmost care lest it appear to be indifferent to a claim of official disobedience.
Moreover, we owe something in this matter to the Court of Appeals. That court held several hearings, considered every phase of this case in careful and exhaustive opinions, and made detailed findings of fact. It embarked on this effort at enforcement only after this Court had refused to review the basic orders. They were clearly justified in believing that we expected the order to be enforced. Surely we do not want to confirm Mr. Dooley's observation to the effect that an appeal is an occasion for one court to show its contempt for another.
Being outvoted as to the stay, however, I think it is owing to the Court itself, to the courts below, and to both litigants, to hear and decide the controversial orders without delay. Any denial of this motion or continuance of the stay should be conditioned upon a shortening of the time of all parties and an argument of the cases on the merits within two weeks, deferring the Court's adjournment until the controversy is finally cleared up. If the Court of Appeals is wrong, we should promptly vindicate the officials involved. If that court is right, we should not waiver in upholding its hand.

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