Source: https://www.legalcrystal.com/case/82455/thompson-vs-whitman
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 04:53:33+00:00

Document:
1. Neither the constitutional provision, that full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial, proceedings of every other state nor the act of Congress passed in pursuance thereof prevents an inquiry into the jurisdiction of the court by which a judgment offered in evidence was rendered.
2. The record of a judgment rendered in another state may be contradicted as to the facts necessary to give the court jurisdiction, and if it be shown that such facts did not exist, the record will be a nullity notwithstanding it may recite that they did exist.
3. Want of jurisdiction may be shown either as to the subject matter or the person, or, in proceedings in rem, as to the thing.
4. By a law of New Jersey, nonresidents were prohibited from raking clams and oysters in the waters of that state under penalty of forfeiture of the vessel employed, and any two justices of the county in which the seizure of the vessel should be made were authorized, on information given, to hear and determine the case. Held that if the seizure was not made in the county where the prosecution took place, the justices of that county had no jurisdiction, and that this fact might be inquired into in an action for making such seizure brought in New York, notwithstanding the record of a conviction was produced which stated that the seizure was made within such county.
the rivers, bays, or waters of this state on board of any . . . boat or other vessel, and every person who shall offend herein shall forfeit and pay $20; . . . and the said . . . boat or other vessel, used and employed in the commission of such offense, with all the clams, oysters, clam rakes, tongs, tackle, furniture, and apparel, shall be forfeited, and the same seized, secured, and disposed of, in the manner prescribed in the ninth and tenth sections of this act."
"SECTION 9. It shall be the duty of all sheriffs . . . to seize and secure any such . . . boat or other vessel as aforesaid, and immediately thereupon give information thereof to two justices of the peace of the county where such seizure shall have been made, who are hereby empowered and required to meet at such time and place as they shall appoint for the trial thereof and hear and determine the same, and in case the same shall be condemned, it shall be sold by the order and under the direction of the said justices, who, after deducting all legal costs and charges, shall pay one-half of the proceeds of said sale to the collector of the county in which such offense shall have been committed and the other half to the person who shall have seized and prosecuted the same."
This statute being in force, Whitman, a citizen of New York, sued Thompson, Sheriff of Monmouth County, New Jersey, in the court below in an action of trespass for taking and carrying away a certain sloop of his named the Anna Whitman, her cargo, furniture, and apparel.
"Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the . . . judicial proceedings of every other state; and that Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such . . . proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof"
"The said records and proceedings, authenticated as aforesaid, shall have such faith and credit given to them, in every court within the United States, as they have by law or usage in the courts of the state from whence the said records are or may be taken,"
and the jury, under the direction of the court, found for the plaintiff generally and, in answer to certain questions framed by the court, found specially first, that the seizure was made within the State of New Jersey; secondly, that it was not made in the County of Monmouth; thirdly, that the plaintiff was not engaged on the day of the seizure in taking clams within the limits of the County of Monmouth. Judgment being rendered for the plaintiff, the case was brought here for review.
The chief error assigned was the charge of the court, above mentioned, that the record from New Jersey was only prima facie evidence of the facts which it stated, though the counsel for the plaintiff in error also argued that if the record was not conclusive of the facts stated in it, and if the seizure was first made outside of the limits of Monmouth County, yet that confessedly the vessel was brought right into Monmouth County, so that the seizure, being continuous, might properly enough be held to have been made there, and that this was particularly true if it was assumed, as it was on the other side, that the vessel, when first seized, though seized within the state, was not seized within the limits of any county.
the facts stated therein, but as the jurisdictional question was the principal question at issue, and as the jury was required to find specially thereon, the charge may be regarded as having reference to the question of jurisdiction. And if upon that question it was correct, no injury was done to the defendant.
"it would seem that the operation of every judgment must depend on the power of the court to render that judgment, or in other words, on its jurisdiction over the subject matter which it has determined. In some cases that jurisdiction unquestionably depends as well on the state of the thing as on the constitution of the court. If by any means whatever a prize court should be induced to condemn, as prize of war, a vessel which was never captured, it could not be contended that this condemnation operated a change of property. Upon principle, then, it would seem that to a certain extent the capacity of the court to act upon the thing condemned arising from its being within or without, their jurisdiction, as well as the constitution of the court, may be considered by that tribunal which is to decide on the effect of the sentence. [ Footnote 3 ]"
"and the said records and judicial proceedings, authenticated as aforesaid, shall have such faith and credit given to them in every court within the United States, as they have by law or usage in the courts of the state from whence the said records are or shall be taken."
"But this does not prevent an inquiry into the jurisdiction of the court in which the original judgment was given to pronounce it, or the right of the state itself to exercise authority over the person or the subject matter. The Constitution did not mean to confer [upon the states] a new power or jurisdiction, but simply to regulate the effect of the acknowledged jurisdiction over persons and things within their territory."
judgments of other states domestic judgments to all intents and purposes, but only gave a general validity, faith, and credit to them as evidence. No execution can issue upon such judgments without a new suit in the tribunals of other states. And they enjoy not the right of priority or lien which they have in the state where they are pronounced, but that only which the lex fori gives to them by its own laws in their character of foreign judgments."
"is to be taken with the qualification that in all instances, the jurisdiction of the court rendering the judgment may be inquired into, and the plea of nil debet will allow the defendant to show that the court had no jurisdiction over his person. It is only when the jurisdiction of the court in another state is not impeached either as to the subject matter or the person that the record of the judgment is entitled to full faith and credit. The court must have had jurisdiction not only of the cause, but of the parties, and in that case the judgment is final and conclusive."
"A special plea in bar of a suit on a judgment in another state, to be valid, must deny, by positive averments, every fact which would go to show that the court in another state had jurisdiction of the person, or of the subject matter."
"the judgment of a state court should have the same credit, validity, and effect in every other court of the United States which it had in the state courts where it was pronounced, and that whatever pleas would be good to a suit therein in such state, and none others, could be pleaded in any court in the United States."
should be given to records of judgments as they had in the states where made."
In the subsequent case of Webster v. Reid, [ Footnote 17 ] the plaintiff claimed, by virtue of a sale made under judgments in behalf of one Johnson and one Brigham against "The Owners of Half-Breed Lands lying in Lee County," Iowa Territory, in pursuance of a law of the territory. The defendant offered to prove that no service had ever been made upon any person in the suits in which the judgments were rendered, and no notice by publication as required by the act. This Court held that as there was no service of process, the judgments were nullities. Perhaps it appeared on the face of the judgments in that case that no service was made, but the Court held that the defendant was entitled to prove that no notice was given, and that none was published.
In Harris v. Hardeman, [ Footnote 18 ] which was a writ of error to a judgment held void by the court for want of service of process on the defendant, the subject now under consideration was gone over by Mr. Justice Daniel at some length, and several cases in the state courts were cited and approved which held that a judgment may be attacked in a collateral proceeding by showing that the court had no jurisdiction of the person or, in proceedings in rem, no jurisdiction of the thing. Amongst other cases quoted were those of Borden v. Fitch [ Footnote 19 ] and Starbuck v. Murray, [ Footnote 20 ] and from the latter the following remarks were quoted with apparent approval.
supposed record is, in truth, no record. . . . The plaintiffs in effect declare to the defendant -- the paper declared on is a record, because it says you appeared, and you appeared because the paper is a record. This is reasoning in a circle."
The subject is adverted to in several subsequent cases in this Court, and generally, if not universally, in terms implying acquiescence in the doctrine stated in D'Arcy v. Ketchum.
court exercising authority over a subject may be inquired into in every other court when the proceedings in the former are relied upon and brought before the latter by a party claiming the benefit of such proceedings,"
"the rule prevails whether the decree or judgment has been given in a court of admiralty, chancery, ecclesiastical court, or court of common law, or whether the point ruled has arisen under the laws of nations, the practice in chancery, or the municipal laws of states."
But it must be admitted that no decision has ever been made on the precise point involved in the case before us, in which evidence was admitted to contradict the record as to jurisdictional facts asserted therein, and especially as to facts stated to have been passed upon by the court.
But if it is once conceded that the validity of a judgment may be attacked collaterally by evidence showing that the court had no jurisdiction, it is not perceived how any allegation contained in the record itself, however strongly made, can affect the right so to question it. The very object of the evidence is to invalidate the paper as a record. If that can be successfully done, no statements contained therein have any force. If any such statements could be used to prevent inquiry, a slight form of words might always be adopted so as effectually to nullify the right of such inquiry. Recitals of this kind must be regarded like asseverations of good faith in a deed, which avail nothing if the instrument is shown to be fraudulent. The records of the domestic tribunals of England and some of the states, it is true, are held to import absolute verity as well in relation to jurisdictional as to other facts in all collateral proceedings. Public policy and the dignity of the courts are supposed to require that no averment shall be admitted to contradict the record. But, as we have seen, that rule has no extraterritorial force.
"is at liberty to prescribe its own methods of judicial process and to declare by what forms parties shall be brought before its tribunals. But, in the exercise of this power, no government, if it desires extraterritorial recognition of its acts, can violate those rights which are universally esteemed fundamental and essential to society. Thus, a judgment by the court of a state against a citizen of such state, in his absence, and without any notice, express or implied, would, it is presumed, be regarded in every external jurisdiction as absolutely void and unenforceable. Such would certainly be the case if such judgment was so rendered against the citizen of a foreign state."
On the whole, we think it clear that the jurisdiction of the court by which a judgment is rendered in any state may be questioned in a collateral proceeding in another state, notwithstanding the provision of the fourth article of the Constitution and the law of 1790, and notwithstanding the averments contained in the record of the judgment itself.
"It shall be the duty of all sheriffs and constables, and may be lawful for any other person or persons, to seize and secure any such canoe, flat, scow, boat, or other vessel as aforesaid, and immediately thereupon give information thereof to two justices of the peace of the county where such seizure shall have been made, who are hereby empowered and required to meet at such time and place as they shall appoint for the trial thereof, and hear and determine the same, and in case the same shall be condemned, it shall be sold by the order of and under the direction of the said justices, who, after deducting all legal costs and charges, shall pay one-half of the proceeds of said sale to the collector of the county in which such offense shall have been committed, and the other half to the person who shall have seized and prosecuted the same."
From this it appears that the seizure must be made in a county, and that the case can only be heard by justices of the county where it is made -- "two justices of the peace of the county where such seizure shall have been made." The seizure in this case, as specially found by the jury, was not made in Monmouth County, but the justices who tried the case were justices of that county. Consequently the justices had no jurisdiction, and the record had no validity.
found, still it would not have helped the case. The major proposition is not correct. A seizure is a single act, and not a continuous fact. Possession, which follows seizure, is continuous. It is the seizure which must be made within the county where the vessel is to be proceeded against and condemned. The case may have been a casus omissus in the law; it is certainly not included in it.
1 Stat. at Large 122.
Rose v. Himely, 4 Cranch 269. To the same effect, see Story on the Constitution, chap. xxix; 1 Greenleaf on Evidence § 540.
11 U. S. 7 Cranch 484.
Vol. 1, p. 281; see also vol. 2, 95, note, and cases cited.
16 U. S. 3 Wheat. 234.
51 U. S. 10 How. 348.
Page 51 U. S. 371 .
52 U. S. 11 How. 165.
Page 52 U. S. 176 .
52 U. S. 11 How. 437.
55 U. S. 14 How. 334.
72 U. S. 5 Wall. 290.
Page 72 U. S. 305 .
26 U. S. 1 Pet. 328, 26 U. S. 340 .
31 U. S. 6 Pet. 691.
35 U. S. 10 Pet. 475.
38 U. S. 13 Pet. 511.
43 U. S. 2 How. 59, 43 U. S. 60 .
44 U. S. 3 How. 762.
49 U. S. 8 How. 540.

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 § 540