Source: https://www.legalcrystal.com/case/85462/smith-vs-whitney
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 04:18:58+00:00

Document:
The objection, founded on Kurtz v. Moffitt, 115 U. S. 487 , and cases there cited, that this Court has no appellate jurisdiction of the present case, because there is nothing in dispute the value of which can be estimated in money, cannot be sustained. The matter in dispute is whether the petitioner is subject to a prosecution which may end in a sentence dismissing him from the service, and depriving him of a salary, as paymaster general during the residue of his term as such, and as pay inspector afterwards, which in less than two years would exceed the sum of $5,000. Rev.Stat. §§ 1556, 1565, 1624, arts. 8, 22, 48, 53. The case cannot be distinguished in principle from those in which it has been held that a judgment awarding a peremptory writ of mandamus to admit one to an office, or a judgment of ouster from an office, might be reviewed by this Court upon writ of error, if the salary during the term of the office would exceed the sum named in the statute defining its appellate jurisdiction. Columbian Ins. Co. v. Wheelright, 7 Wheat. 534; United States v. Addison, 22 How. 174.
re Forster, 4 B. & S. 187, 199; Mayor, &c.;, of London v. Cox, L.R. 2 H.L. 239, 280; Worthington v. Jeffries, L.R. 10 C.P. 379, 380; Chambers v. Green, L.R. 20 Eq. 552, 555. See also Weston v. City Council of Charleston, 2 Pet. 449, reversing on error S.C., Harper 340.
jurisdiction of the matter complained of," is a general judgment dismissing the petition, with costs, which could not have been awarded upon a judgment of dismissal for want of jurisdiction. Mayor v. Cooper, 6 Wall. 247; Elk v. Wilkins, 112 U. S. 94 , 112 U. S. 98 . The writ of error brings in question the judgment, not the opinion, of the court below. If the petition was rightly dismissed for any reason, whether because that court had no jurisdiction to issue a writ of prohibition to a court-martial, or because the court-martial had jurisdiction of the charges against the petitioner, the judgment must be affirmed.
A writ of prohibition is never to be issued unless it clearly appears that the inferior court is about to exceed its jurisdiction. It cannot be made to serve the purpose of a writ of error or certiorari, to correct mistakes of that court in deciding any question of law or fact within its jurisdiction. These rules have been always adhered to by this Court, in the exercise of the power expressly conferred upon it by Congress to issue writs of prohibition to the district courts sitting as courts of admiralty; United States v. Peters, 3 Dall. 121; Ex Parte Easton, 95 U. S. 68 ; Ex Parte Gordon, 104 U. S. 515 ; Ex Parte Ferry Co., 104 U. S. 519 ; Ex Parte Pennsylvania, 109 U. S. 174 ; as well as by the court of England and of the several states in the exercise of their inherent jurisdiction to issue writs of prohibition to courts-martial. Grant v. Gould, 2 H.Bl. 69; State v. Wakely, 2 Nott & McCord 410; State v. Stevens, 2 McCord 32; Washburn v. Phillips, 2 Met. 296.
And this Court, although the question of issuing a writ of prohibition to a court-martial has not come before it for direct adjudication, has repeatedly recognized the general rule that the acts of a court-martial, within the scope of its jurisdiction and duty, cannot be controlled or reviewed in the civil courts by writ of prohibition or otherwise. Dynes v. Hoover, 20 How. 65, 61 U. S. 82 -83; Ex Parte Reed, 100 U. S. 13 ; Ex Parte Mason, 105 U. S. 696 ; Keyes v. United States, 109 U. S. 336 ; Wales v. Whitney, 114 U. S. 564 , 114 U. S. 570 ; Kurtz v. Moffitt, 115 U. S. 487 , 115 U. S. 500 . See also Wise v. Withers, 3 Cranch 331; Meade v. Deputy Marshal of Virginia, 1 Brock. 324; In re Bogart, 2 Sawyer 396; In re White, 17 F. 723; Barrett v. Hopkins, 7 F. 312.
Porret's Case, Perry's Orient Cases 414, 419. So in Martin v. Nott, 12 Wheat. 19, 25 U. S. 35 , Mr. Justice Story, delivering the opinion of this Court, said that the law by which courts-martial were bound to execute their duties, and to regulate their mode of proceeding, in the absence of positive enactments, was "the general usage of the military service, or what may not unfitly be called the customary military law." The same view, as regarding naval courts-martial, was asserted and acted on by this Court Dynes v. Hoover, 20 How. 65, 61 U. S. 82 .
This legislative recognition of the Navy Regulations of 1870 "must," as was said by Chief Justice Marshall of a similar recognition of the Army Regulations in the Act of April 24, 1816, c. 69, § 9, 3 Stat. 298, "be understood as giving to these regulations the sanction of the law." United States v Maurice, 2 Brock. 96, 105; Ex Parte Reed, 100 U. S. 13 .
20 How. 61 U. S. 82 .
This being the first case of an application to a court of the United States for a writ of prohibition to a court-martial, we have cited the authorities bearing upon the subject more fully than might have been thought fit under other circumstances. It is hardly necessary to add that by the Navy Regulations of 1870, §§ 260-265, the court-martial could only be dissolved by the Secretary of the Navy, and might at any time before he had dissolved it, be lawfully reconvened by him to reconsider its proceedings. Ex Parte Reed, 100 U. S. 13 .

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