Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/167/178/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 01:21:36+00:00

Document:
The United States court in the District of Washington has jurisdiction of an action brought by the United States against a defendant, found there, to recover for timber unlawfully cut from lands of the United States in Idaho.
It is no defense against such action that the defendant was indicted criminally for cutting such timber and was acquitted.
The ruling of the court about the challenges are without merit.
The provision in the Act of March 3, 1875, c. 152, that the railroad companies therein provided for have "the right to take from the public lands adjacent to the line of said road material," etc., means lands in proximity, contiguous to, or near the road.
As between the government and a settler, the title to public land until the conditions of the law are fulfilled remains in the United States, but in the meantime, if the settler is engaged in improving the land as required by law and disposes of any surplus timber without intent to defraud the government, and the purchaser buys the timber under the belief that there is no intent or purpose to defraud the government, the sale is lawful and the purchaser is protected.
The fact that claimants to lands under the homestead and preemption laws, after occupation for a time, abandon the lands is not alone proof that they intended to defraud the government, although in the meantime they have cut and sold the timber from the lands during the occupation, but the jury should judge of the intent of the parties so acting by all the circumstances surrounding each case, and if these circumstances satisfy the jury that claimants of the land were acting in good faith at the time they sold the timber, and the purchaser had no reasonable ground to believe otherwise, then such sale would be lawful.
A general verdict is not a nullity by reason of its being received or recorded on Sunday.
This action was brought in the District Court of the United States for the District of Washington, Eastern Division, to recover the reasonable value of certain timber and railroad ties manufactured from trees alleged to have been unlawfully cut by the defendant, Stone, from certain lands in Idaho, of which, it was averred, the United States was the owner.
The answer put the United States upon proof of all the material allegations of the complaint.
(1) That, at a term of the United States District Court for the District of Idaho, held in April, 1891, the trespasses and wrongs complained of were presented by the United States to the grand jury for investigation, and such proceedings were then and there taken that the grand jury returned into court true bills of indictment, in which each and all of the wrongs and trespasses complained of herein were included; that the defendant was charged thereby with the commission of an offense against the statutes forbidding the cutting or removal of timber from the lands of the United States; that, on all the charges involving the acts of the defendant as set forth in the complaint filed herein, he was tried and acquitted and discharged therefrom by the judgment of that court, and that judgment was duly entered against the government, "the issues therein being the same as are now presented in this action, and were each and all determined and adjudged in this defendant's behalf." The defendant therefore alleged that the issues tendered by the plaintiff herein have been heard, tried, and adjudged for defendant and against the plaintiff by a court of competent jurisdiction, and that such judgment and determination precluded the maintenance of this suit.
(2) That between the dates mentioned in the complaint, to-wit, between the months of August, 1888, and November, 1890, he had contracts with various customers for supplies of railroad ties and timber for the manufacture of lumber at points along the line of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company in the State of Washington, and adjacent to the region mentioned in the complaint; that he procured his supplies of timber for the purposes aforesaid from lands embraced in the grant made by acts of Congress passed to aid in the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and by contracts with that company, and that at no time did he cut timber on any lands except such as belonged to that company; that during said time, he purchased from other parties, who delivered ties and timber suited for lumber on the railroad, both ties and timber not cut by himself, for which he paid the market price, and which were either cut from the railroad lands or were lawfully cut by the parties who sold and delivered them to him; that no part or portion thereof were cut or taken from lands of the United States, or were unlawfully cut or taken from any lands; that the railroad ties so purchased from other parties, and which were not cut by himself from the lands of the railroad company, were for the use of, and were used in the construction of, the Spokane & Palouse Railway Company's and the Central Washington Railway Company's railroads, respectively, both corporations being organized and constructing their roads under and in compliance with grants made by the Act of Congress of March 3, 1875, authorizing the use of timber, etc., for construction, to be taken from the public lands of the United States, and that the taking for such purpose was not unlawful, but was by authority of law.
The defense based on the criminal prosecution in the United States district in Idaho was adjudged on demurrer to be insufficient in law.
"he was indicted upon a charge of cutting timber unlawfully from the same lands and premises upon which the alleged trespasses complained of in this action are founded at the April term, 1891, of the United States District Court for the District of Idaho; that he was thereafter arrested on that indictment, and appeared in said court; that such proceedings were afterwards had, a judgment was duly given and rendered in favor of the defendant, and he has been fully acquitted and discharged of said offense and of said trespass thereby."
That judgment was pleaded in full discharge of the plaintiff's cause of action, and in bar of all right of action on account thereof. As further special defense, Stone denied that the defendants were, or had ever been, partners in any business. The defense based upon the indictment, trial, and judgment referred to was, on demurrer, adjudged to be insufficient in law. Stone then filed an answer denying each and every allegation of the complaint. Noonan denied all the allegations of the complaint. Kegler was not served with process, and did not appear.
The two actions were tried before the same jury, having been previously consolidated by order of court. In the first case, there was a verdict and judgment in favor of the United States against Stone for $19,000. In that case, the jury, in answer to special questions propounded by the court, stated that Stone had received saw logs unlawfully taken from the lands described in the complaint, and that $15,000 were awarded as damages on that account. They also stated, in response to a special question put by the court, that Stone had received railroad ties unlawfully taken from the lands, and that $4,000 were awarded on that account. In the case against Stone, Noonan, and Kegler as partners, there was a verdict against Stone for $3,000, but the judgment was arrested, and the verdict set aside.
The judgment against Stone for $19,000 was affirmed by the circuit court of appeals. 64 F. 667.
law affords in other cases of the wrongful removal or conversion of personal property."
If a suit like this cannot be maintained, then persons depredating on the public lands may escape civil liability by simply removing from the state in which the depredation occurred, whereby the government would be compelled to rely altogether upon a criminal prosecution, in which it could not succeed except by proving the guilt of the defendant beyond all reasonable doubt.
the United States, every such person shall pay a fine not less than triple the value of the trees or timber so cut, destroyed or removed, and shall be imprisoned not exceeding twelve months."
Did the court below err in adjudging that the defense in this action based upon an acquittal of the criminal charge was insufficient in law?
In our opinion, the record of the criminal proceedings in the court in Idaho was not evidence to establish or disprove any of the material facts involved in the civil action.
"Where an issue raised as to the existence of the act or fact denounced has been tried in a criminal proceeding instituted by the United States, and a judgment of acquittal has been rendered in favor of a particular person, that judgment is conclusive in favor of such person on the subsequent trial of a suit in rem by the United States, where, as against him, the existence of the same act or fact is the matter in issue as a cause for the forfeiture of the property prosecuted in such suit in rem. It is urged as a reason for not allowing such effect to the judgment that the acquittal in the criminal case may have taken place because of the rule required to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, and that, on the same evidence, on the question of preponderance of proof, there might be a verdict for the United States in the suit in rem. Nevertheless the fact or act has been put in issue, and determined against the United States, and all that is imposed by the statute as a consequence of guilt is a punishment therefor. There could be no new trial of the criminal prosecution after the acquittal on it, and a subsequent trial of the civil suit amounts to substantially the same thing, with a difference only in the consequences following a judgment adverse to the claimant. When an acquittal in a criminal prosecution in behalf of the government is pleaded or offered in evidence by the same defendant in an action against him by an individual, the rule does not apply, for the reason that the parties are not the same, and often for the additional reason that a certain intent must be proved to support the indictment, which need not be proved to support the civil action. But upon this record, as we have already seen, the parties and the matter in issue are the same."
"This doctrine is peculiarly applicable to a case like the present, where, in both proceedings, criminal and civil, the United States is the party on one side, and this claimant the party on the other. The judgment of acquittal in the criminal proceeding ascertained that the facts which were the basis of that proceeding and are the basis of this one, and which are made by the statute the foundation of any punishment, personal or pecuniary, did not exist. This was ascertained once for all, between the United States and the claimant, in the criminal proceeding, so that the facts cannot be again litigated between them as the basis of any statutory punishment denounced as a consequence of the existence of the facts. This is a necessary result of the rules laid down in the unanimous opinion of the judges in the case of Rex v. Duchess of Kingston, 20 Howell's State Trials 355, 358, and which were formulated thus: the judgment of a court of concurrent jurisdiction, directly upon the point is, as a plea, a bar, or as evidence, conclusive between the parties upon the same matter directly in question in another court, and the judgment of a court of exclusive jurisdiction, directly upon the point, is in like manner conclusive upon the same matter between the same parties, coming incidentally in question in another court for a different purpose. In the present case, the court is the same court, and had jurisdiction, and the judgment was directly on the point now involved, and between the same parties."
referred to United States v. McKee, 4 Dill. 128, observing that the decision in that case was put on the ground "that the defendant could not be twice punished for the same crime, and that the former conviction and judgment was a bar to the suit for the penalty."
Fourth Amendment. Though the proceeding in question is divested of many of the aggravating incidents of actual search and seizure, yet, as before said, it contains their substance and essence, and effects their substantial purpose."
"This, though an action civil in form, is unquestionably criminal in its nature, and in such a case, a defendant cannot be compelled to be a witness against himself."
the property of the United States, whether the defendant knew that fact or not. Woodenware Co. v. United States, 106 U. S. 432. An honest mistake of the defendant as to his title in the property would be a defense to the indictment, but not to the civil action. Broom's Leg.Max. (5th ed.) 366, 367. It cannot be said that any fact was conclusively established in the criminal case except that the defendant was not guilty of the public offense with which he was charged. We cannot agree that the failure or inability of the United States to prove in the criminal case that the defendant had been guilty of a crime either forfeited its right of property in the timber, or its right in this civil action, upon a preponderance of proof, to recover the value of such property.
3. As heretofore stated, the two actions were consolidated by an order of the trial court. After twelve jurors were selected (the challenges for cause having been determined), the court directed the respective parties to proceed with their peremptory challenges. Thereupon Stone and Noonan, claiming that they were entitled to challenge peremptorily, in each case, three jurors, and announcing that they desired to challenge Giffin in the case against Stone, Noonan, and Kegler, peremptorily challenged him as a juror, although they had already challenged three jurors in the consolidated cases. The court denied the challenge, and the defendants excepted. This ruling of the court is now assigned for error. But there is no merit in the objection. The case here is the one against Stone alone. In that case, the defendant had the benefit of the three peremptory challenges made before the challenge of Giffin. In the other case, the judgment was arrested and the verdict was set aside. If the court committed any error in not allowing the challenge of Giffin in the case against Stone, Noonan, and Kegler, that error did not prejudice Stone in the present case.
"also the right to take from the public lands adjacent to the line of said road material, earth, stone and timber necessary for the construction of said railroad."
"the appointment of the plaintiff in error, John H. Stone, as agent of the Central Washington Railroad Company and of the Spokane & Palouse Railway Company, claiming that said corporations having been organized under the laws of the Territory of Washington, and having filed their articles of incorporation and proofs of organization with the Department of the Interior, which had approved the same, were authorized by the laws of the United States to take the timber included in this action, and such taking by them through their agent was not unlawful, the proof showing that the ties which are sued for in this action were used by the said railroad companies in the construction of their said roads."
This evidence was excluded, and its exclusion is assigned for error. It appears from the record, as stated in the opinion of the circuit court of appeals, that no timber fit for ties was found along the line of either of these roads; that both of them penetrated a barren region almost entirely destitute of timber, and that the timber was cut from lands along the line of the Northern Pacific Railroad about fifty miles distant from the eastern end of the other roads, which was the nearest point where available timber could be found.
means lands in proximity, contiguous to or near to the road, and that lands so far distant from the railroad and mentioned as lands in Kootenai County, Idaho, where it is claimed that railroad ties were cut, were not adjacent lands within the meaning of the law. That takes the whole question and the whole subject matter of that claim from your consideration, and releases you from any consideration in regard to it."
"I certainly do not agree with the idea, which seems to be expressed elsewhere, that the proximity of the land is immaterial, or that Congress intended to grant anything like a general right to take timber from public land where it was most convenient. The grant was limited to adjacent lands, and I do not appreciate the logic which concludes that, if there be no timber on adjacent lands, the grant reaches out and justifies the taking of timber from distant lands -- lands fifty or a hundred miles away."
Under this interpretation of the act of Congress, and under the facts of this case, it is clear that the timber was not taken from lands which, within the true meaning of that act, were adjacent to either of the roads in the construction of which it was used.
5. One of the principal matters contested at the trial was whether the lands were public lands of the United States, in any sense that would entitle the government to claim that it owned the timber taken from them. The defendant introduced evidence to show that certain individuals had acquired the lands under the laws of the United States, and were in the exercise of their rights when cutting timber from them.
obedience to the laws of the United States, he does so unlawfully, and does not make himself the owner of the timber by cutting it, and that even a settler who takes up a claim on public lands, intending to perfect his right to it, has no right, until he has perfected his claim, to cut the timber except so far as it is necessary and reasonable to prepare so much of the lands for cultivation as he intends to cultivate.
but in the meantime, if the settler is engaged in improving the land as required by law, and disposes of any surplus timber without intent to defraud the government, and the purchaser buys the timber under the belief that there is no intent or purpose to defraud the government, the sale is lawful, and the purchaser is protected. The fact that claimants to lands under the homestead and preemption laws, after occupation for a time, abandon the lands is not alone proof that they intended to defraud the government, although in the meantime they have cut and sold the timber from the lands during the occupation; but the jury should judge of the intent of the parties so acting by all the circumstances surrounding each case, and if these circumstances satisfy the jury that claimants of the land were acting in good faith at the time they sold the timber, and the purchaser had no reasonable ground to believe otherwise, then such sale would be lawful."
It is not, in our judgment, necessary to add anything to this clear and satisfactory statement of the law as applicable to the matters referred to by the trial court. They are in accord with the views of this Court as expressed in Shiver v. United States, 159 U. S. 491, 159 U. S. 497-498. See also United States v. Cook, 19 Wall. 591. The objections made at the trial (and repeated here) to what was said to the jury on this part of the case were not well taken. They could not be sustained without encouraging depredations upon the public lands under the guise of establishing settlements upon them in accordance with the liberal policy of the government.
"in giving any instructions to the jury on Sunday, because it had no power to do any judicial act save to receive the verdict and discharge the jury, and all such instructions given to the jury were without authority."
conformity with the order of the judge, without any request by the jury, and without any consent asked or given by the defendant, they came into court, both parties being present by counsel. The court then read the special questions to which reference has been made in the statement of this case, and requested the jury to answer them in addition to their general verdict. Although asked by counsel to do so, the court declined to instruct the jury upon matters covered by its charge of the previous day. A juror having inquired whether the jury were allowed to sign a verdict on Sunday, the court replied: "Yes; and, when you have come to an agreement, send for me, and I will receive your verdict." The verdict was returned into open court on the same day. On the succeeding day, the defendant asked to have the benefit of an exception to the jury having been sent out, and to the receiving of the verdict on Sunday. The court did not directly allow the exception, but expressed its willingness to sign a bill of exceptions reciting facts as they occurred. The judgment on the verdict for $19,000 was entered on the Friday succeeding the day on which the verdict was returned.
received or recorded on Sunday. While many cases hold that a judgment entered on Sunday is absolutely void, the receiving and entering of a verdict cannot be questioned upon the ground that those things occurred on Sunday. It was substantially so held in Ball v. United States, 140 U. S. 131, citing Mackalley's Case, 5 Coke, 111; Swann v. Broome, 3 Burrows 1595; Baxter v. People, 3 Gilman 368, 386, and Chapman v. State, 5 Blackford 111. See also Pierce v. Atwood, 13 Mass. 347; Frost v. Hall, 4 N.H. 153, 156; Nabors v. State, 6 Ala. 200, 201; Story v. Eliot, 8 Cowen 27; Ex Parte White & Pergue, 15 Nev. 146; Hoghtaling v. Osborn, 15 Johns. 119.

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