Source: https://m.openjurist.org/200/us/273/gunter-v-atlantic-coast-line-railroad-company
Timestamp: 2019-11-21 09:21:36
Document Index: 376254254

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 8', '§ 81', '§ 81', '§ 137', '§ 720', '§ 720']

200 US 273 Gunter v. Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company | OpenJurist
200 U.S. 273 - Gunter v. Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company
200 US 273 Gunter v. Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company
26 S.Ct. 252
50 L.Ed. 477
U. X. GUNTER, Jr., Attorney General of the State of South Carolina, et al., Appts.,
[Argument of Counsel from pages 274-277 intentionally omitted]
We see no escape from the conclusion that the provision last quoted, where suit was brought concerning state taxes, made a county treasurer, who was the state tax collector, an agent for the state, and empowered him, 'for and on behalf of the state,' to defend the suit, and required him, in order fully to protect the interests of the state, to be represented by the highest law officer of the state,—the attorney general. And the power which we think the section referred to conferred upon the county officers to represent the state in suits or actions is, moreover, persuasively indicated by a consideration of the act of 1870, amending in certain particulars the act of 1868. 14 S. C. Stat. 366. Substantially, that amendment, whilst forbidding the taxpayer from enjoining the collection of taxes, created a remedial system, by which questions of asserted illegality were to be examined by the state auditor, and, where that official disallowed the claim of illegality, made it the duty of the taxpayer to pay, and, subject to certain conditions, gave a right of action to recover back the money paid. And by § 8, where such an action was brought, it was made 'the duty of the attorney general of the state to defend any suit or proceedings against any tax collector or other officer who shall be sued for moneys collected, or property levied on, or sold on account of any tax, when the state auditor shall have ordered such collector to proceed in the collection of any such tax, . . . and any judgment against such collector or officer finally recovered shall be paid in the manner provided in § 81 of the act to provide for the assessment and taxation of the property aforesaid,'—that is, § 81 of the act of 1868. Now, by that section, where a judgment passed against a county official concerning state taxes which had been paid, the state was, in effect, made liable for the amount of the judgment. Thus, in such a case, as in cases provided for in § 137 of the act of 1868, the state, through its officials, was made the real defendant.
If there were doubt—which we think there is not—as to the construction which we give to the act of 1868, that doubt is entirely dispelled by a consideration of the contemporaneous interpretation given to the act by the officials charged with its execution, by the view which this court took as to the real party in interest on the record in the Pegues Case, and by the action as well as nonaction which followed the decision of that case by the state government in all its departments through a long period of years.
The answer in the Pegues Case, which denied the existence of the alleged contract of exemption, and asserted the existing and continuing power of the state to tax, was signed, for the defendants, by the attorney general of South Carolina, who also, in his official capacity, verified such pleading. The word 'defendants' cannot be construed as implying any other than the county officers empowered to represent the state, without imputing to the attorney general a failure to discharge the duty directly imposed upon him by the state. This must result from the command of the statute, that he should defend the suit, the state revenue being concerned, not merely for the county officers, but 'for and on behalf of the state,'—a command which would have been wholly disregarded if the appearance of the attorney general be treated as having been made solely for the purpose of representing the defendants as individuals. And subsequent events show that the highest law officer of the state, when he filed the answer for the defendants in the Pegues Case, intended that answer to be what the statute caused it to be,—that is, an answer for the defendants, standing upon the record, for and in behalf of the state, in defense of the right of the state to collect the taxes. When the appeal was prosecuted from the final decree, perpetually enjoining the officials who were named as the defendants (and, as we have seen, their successors in office) from any attempt in the future to collect a tax upon the property of the Cheraw & Darlington Railroad Company, such appeal was prayed by the same counsel who had signed the answer as attorney general of the state, and who, upon the expiration of his term of office, was retained by his successor in office and the governor of the state (as shown by an official report made to the legislature of the state) to prosecute the appeal, and 'to appear in behalf of the state.' And when the appeal was heard in this court a printed argument was signed, not only by the counsel thus retained on behalf of the state by the governor and the attorney general, but also by the then incumbent of the office of attorney general of the state. That this court, in deciding the appeal in the Pegues Case, considered that the state was the real party appellant, in shown by the opinion, where it was said (p. 247, L. ed. p. 326):
Third. It is insisted that the court below had no power to restrain the attorney general of South Carolina and the counsel associated with him from prosecuting, in the state courts, actions authorized by the laws of the state, and hence that the court erred in awarding an injunction against said officers. Support for the proposition is rested upon the terms of the 11th Amendment and the provisions of § 720 of the Revised Statutes (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 581), forbidding the granting of a writ by any court of the United States to stay proceedings in any court of a state, except in cases where such injunction may be authorized by any law relating to proceedings in bankruptcy. The soundness of the doctrine relied upon is undoubted. Re Ayers, 123 U. S. 443, 31 L. ed. 216, 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 164; Fitts v. McGhee, 172 U. S. 516, 43 L. ed. 535, 19 Sup. Ct. Rep. 269. The difficulty is that the doctrine is inapplicable to this case. Section 720 of the Revised Statutes was originally adopted in 1793, whilst the 11th Amendment was in process of formation in Congress for submission to the states, and long, therefore, before the ratification of that amendment. The restrictions embodied in the section were, therefore, but a partial accomplishment of the more comprehensive result effectuated by the prohibitions of the 11th Amendment. Both the statute and the amendment relate to the power of courts of the United States to deal, against the will and consent of a state, with controversies between it and individuals. None of the prohibitions, therefore, of the amendment or of the statute relate to the power of a Federal court to administer relief in causes where jurisdiction as to a state and its officers has been acquired as a result of the voluntary action of the state in submitting its rights to judicial determination. To confound the two classes of cases is but to overlook the distinction which exists between the power of a court to deal with a subject over which it has jurisdiction, and its want of authority to entertain a controversy as to which jurisdiction is not possessed. From this it follows that, as in the Pegues Case, the court had acquired jurisdiction, with the assent of the state of South Carolina, to determine as to it the controversy presented in that case, the right of the court to administer relief—to make its decree effective—cannot be measured by constitutional or statutory provisions relating to original proceedings where jurisdiction over the controversy did not obtain. In other words, the proposition relied upon is disposed of by the conclusion which we have previously expressed concerning the persons who were parties and privies to the decree rendered in the Pegues Case. Indeed, the proposition that the 11th Amendment, or § 720 of the Revised Statutes (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 581), control a court of the United States in administering relief, although the court was acting in a matter ancillary to a decree rendered in a cause over which it had jurisdiction, is not open for discussion. Dietzsch v. Huidekoper (Kern v. Huidekoper) 103 U. S. 494, 26 L. ed. 497; Prout v. Starr, 188 U. S. 537, 47 L. ed. 584, 23 Sup. Ct. Rep. 398; Julian v. Central Trust Co. 193 U. S. 93, 112, 48 L. ed. 629, 639, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 399.