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Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 11', '§ 11', '§ 11', '§ 2105', '§ 11', '§ 11', '§ 11', '§ 11', '§ 11', '§ 3770', '§ 3770', '§ 3220', '§ 3772', '§ 3772']

Snyder v. Buck (full text) :: 340 U.S. 15 (1950) :: Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center Log In
› Snyder v. Buck
Snyder v. Buck 340 U.S. 15 (1950)
U.S. Supreme CourtSnyder v. Buck, 340 U.S. 15 (1950)Snyder v. BuckNo. 64Argued October 18, 1950Decided November 13, 1950340 U.S. 15CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
85 U.S.App.D.C. 428, 179 F.2d 466, affirmed. Page 340 U. S. 16
". . . where, during the pendency of an action . . . brought by or against an officer of the United States . . . and relating to the present or future discharge of his official duties, such officer dies, resigns, or otherwise ceases to hold such office, it shall Page 340 U. S. 17 be competent for the court wherein the action, suit, or proceeding is pending, whether the court be one of first instance or an appellate tribunal, to permit the cause to be continued and maintained by or against the successor in office of such officer if, within six months after his death or separation from the office, it be satisfactorily shown to the court that there is a substantial need for so continuing and maintaining the cause and obtaining an adjudication of the questions involved. [Footnote 1]"
Neither party made any effort within the six months period [Footnote 2] to have Buck's successor in office substituted for him. The Court of Appeals therefore ruled that the Page 340 U. S. 18 action had abated; it then vacated the judgment and remanded the cause to the District Court with directions to dismiss the complaint. 85 U.S.App.D.C. 428, 179 F.2d 466.
The complaint in this case makes no claim against Buck personally. Therefore, we put to one side cases such as Patton v. Brady, 184 U. S. 608, dealing with actions in assumpsit against collectors for taxes erroneously collected. The writ that issued against Buck related to a duty attaching to the office. The duty existed so long and only so long as the office was held. When Buck retired from office, his power to perform ceased. He no longer had any authority over death gratuity allowances. Moreover, his successor might on demand recognize the claim asserted and discharge his duty. For these reasons, it was held that, in absence of a statute, an action aimed at compelling an official to discharge his official duties abated where the official died or retired from the office. [Footnote 3] See Secretary of Interior v. McGarrahan, 9 Wall. 298, 76 U. S. 313; United States v. Boutwell, 17 Wall. 604, 84 U. S. 607-608; Warner Valley Stock Co. v. Smith, 165 U. S. 28, 165 U. S. 31; United States ex rel. Bernardin v. Butterworth, 169 U. S. 600.
Congress changed the rule. It provided by the Act of February 8, 1899, 30 Stat. 822, that no action by or against a federal officer in his official capacity or in relation to the discharge of his official duties should abate Page 340 U. S. 19 because of his death or resignation, and it provided a period in which substitution could be made. [Footnote 4] See LeCrone v. McAdoo, 253 U. S. 217; H.R.Rep. No.960, 55th Cong., 2d Sess.
The rule was again changed by § 11 of the Judiciary Act of 1925. The provision that no action should abate was eliminated. It was provided that the action might be continued against the successor on the requisite showing within the stated period. The revision effected a substantial change. The 1925 Act made survival of the action dependent on a timely substitution. Defense Supplies Corp. v.Lawrence Co., 336 U. S. 631, 336 U. S. 637-638. And see Ex parte La Prade, 289 U. S. 444, 289 U. S. 456. Thus, where there was a failure to move for substitution within the statutory period, the judgment below was vacated and the cause was remanded with directions "to dismiss the cause as abated." [Footnote 5] United States ex rel. Claussen v. Curran, 276 U.S. 590-591; Mathues v. United States ex rel. Cunningham, 282 U.S. 802. This was a declared policy of Congress not to be altered by an agreement of the parties, [Footnote 6] or by some theory of estoppel. Nor did the application of § 11 turn on whether the judgment rendered prior to the death or resignation of the official was for or against the plaintiff. The inability of one who no longer holds the office to perform any of the official Page 340 U. S. 20 duties would indeed only be emphasized by the rendition of the coercive judgment.
Section 11, by its terms, applies only during the pendency of an action. But an action is nonetheless pending within the meaning of the section though an appeal is being sought, see Becker Steel Co. v. Hicks, 66 F.2d 497, 499; United States ex rel. Trinler v. Carusi, 168 F.2d 1014, as was implicit in Mathues v. United States ex rel. Cunningham, supra. For, in that case, a writ of habeas corpus, denied by the District Court, had been granted by the Circuit Court of Appeals. While the case was in the Circuit Court of Appeals, the time expired for substituting the successor of the custodian against whom the prisoner had brought the action. Yet, as noted above, the Court applied § 11, vacated the judgments, and ordered the proceeding dismissed as abated.
There is a difference in the present case by reason of the fact that the appeal was taken by Buck after his retirement, and therefore without authority. The judgment concerned the performance of official duties for which Buck was no longer responsible. Hence, he was not in position to obtain a review of it. See Davis v. Preston, 280 U. S. 406. In the Davis case, this Court Page 340 U. S. 21 dismissed a writ of certiorari granted under such circumstances. The argument is that the Court of Appeals should have done no more in the present case. The difference is that the Davis case was a suit against the Federal Agent under the Federal Employers' Liability Act, 35 Stat. 65, in which a judgment was rendered against him. An Act of Congress made special provision for substitution in those cases. [Footnote 7] The Court, however, held that this statute did not affect in any manner the appellate jurisdiction of this Court. But that Act preserved those judgments against abatement by reason of the death or retirement of the Federal Agent, and allowed substitution at any time before satisfaction of the judgment. Therefore, on remand of the cause in the Davis case, the successor Federal Agent could be substituted, and the judgment enforced against him. On remand of the present cause, there would be no way of substituting the successor, as the suit had abated in the District Court. Vacating the judgment of the District Court was therefore the proper procedure.
Nor is there any barrier to our review of this ruling on abatement by 28 U.S.C. § 2105, which prohibits a Page 340 U. S. 22 reversal by the Court of Appeals or this Court for error in ruling upon matters in abatement "which do not involve jurisdiction." The absence of a necessary party and the statutory barrier to substitution go to jurisdiction.
This section was repealed as of September 1, 1948, 62 Stat. 992, 1000. It is argued that, since that date was the date on which the 6 months statutory period for substitution in this case expired, and since the repealing Act preserved any rights or liabilities existing under any of the repealed laws (id., 992), § 11 governs this case. We need not reach the effect of the repealing Act. For the Court of Appeals, during the period material to our problem, had in force its Rule 28(b), which provided that abatement and substitution were governed by § 11 of the 1925 Act.
An exception was a suit to enforce an obligation of the corporation or municipality to which the office was attached. See Thompson v. United States, 103 U. S. 480, 103 U. S. 483, as explained in United States ex rel. Bernardin v. Butterworth, supra, at 169 U. S. 603, and in Murphy v. Utter, 186 U. S. 95, 186 U. S. 101-102.
Under the earlier Act, the passage of the period within which substitution could be made resulted in the proceeding being "at an end." LeCrone v. McAdoo, supra, at p. 253 U. S. 219. The practice of this Court was therefore to dismiss the writ, leaving undisturbed the judgments below. LeCrone v. McAdoo, supra; United States ex rel. Wattis v. Lane, 255 U.S. 566; Payne v. Industrial Board, 258 U.S. 613; Payne v. Stevens, 260 U.S. 705.
At the outset, it is desirable to dispel a misconception regarding the legislation on abatement of suits in the federal courts. In 1899, Congress for the first time made provision for the continuance of a suit involving official conduct which abated by a succession in office during pendency of the suit. 30 Stat. 822. By § 11 of the Judiciary Act of 1925, Congress again dealt with this problem. 43 Stat. 936, 941. The Court finds that the provision of the 1925 Act "effected a substantial change." It does this on the basis of the analysis of the first enactment made in Defense Supplies Corp. v. Lawrence Warehouse Co., 336 U. S. 631, 336 U. S. 637-638. According to what was there said, the Act of 1899 had a categorical command that "no action shall abate," which was eliminated in 1925. So to interpret the relation between the 1899 and the 1925 provisions is to misread legislation by quoting out of context and disregarding authoritative legislative history. Page 340 U. S. 23
So far as concerns the legal effect upon the pendency of an action due to change in the occupancy of an office, a reading of the provisions of the 1899 and 1925 Acts can leave not a shadow of doubt as to their identity of purpose and procedure for its accomplishment. The difference between the two acts is a matter of English, and not of law. In both, Congress assumed that a proceeding by or against an officer of the United States in relation to his official conduct would abate unless within a time certain the court authorized continuance of the proceeding by or against the successor in office. Only the phrasing of this rule differs. In the 1899 Act, Congress said that such an action shall abate unless leave is given for its continuance; in the 1925 Act, Congress said that, unless leave is given for the continuance of such a suit it is at an end. To say, as we said in Defense Supplies Corp. v.Lawrence Warehouse Co., that the 1899 Act "categorically" provided that "no action shall abate" is a mutilating reading. The dominant thought of an enactment controls the primary import of isolated words. To find that the 1925 Act "eliminated" this provision has significance only if what is meant is that certain words of the 1899 Act were "eliminated," while the thought was retained. The full texts of the two provisions, set forth in the margin, speak for themselves. [Footnote 2/1] What emerges is that the two enactments have essentially the same function regarding Page 340 U. S. 24 the abatement and mechanism for securing survival of an action by or against an officer of the United States. The only difference is that the thought is expressed more felicitously in the later enactment, as would be expected from Mr. Justice Van Devanter, who, as is well known, was the chief draftsman of the Judiciary Act of 1925.
The range of the 1899 Act was changed in 1925, which may have stimulated its redrafting. The change concerned not in the slightest the legal consequences to pending suits where the occupancy of an office of the United States was involved. The only modification made by the 1925 Act, apart from cutting down the time for substitution Page 340 U. S. 25 to six months from twelve, was to extend the Act of 1899 so as to permit the substitution of successors of state and local officers as well as those of federal officials. The legislative histories of the 1899 and 1925 enactments, confirming the face of the legislation, demonstrate that the two enactments were conceived for the same purpose, were intended to have the same consequences, and are to be given the same significance, excepting only that the 1925 Act extended the range of applicability.
The Act of 1899 was a response to this Court's suggestion. See United States ex rel. Bernardin v. Butterworth, 169 U. S. 600, 169 U. S. 605. [Footnote 2/2] This was likewise true of the Act of 1925. See Irwin v. Wright, 258 U. S. 219, 258 U. S. 223-224. [Footnote 2/3] The opinion in that case was rendered on March 20, 1922, but, while it was in the bosom of the Court, having been submitted on January 24, Chief Justice Taft sent to Senator Cummins a resume of what was known as the "Judges' Bill," which became the Act of 1925. As to the matter Page 340 U. S. 26 here under discussion, the Chief Justice said that the proposed bill
Confidential Committee Print entitled "Jurisdiction of Circuit Courts of Appeals and of the Supreme Court," Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 67th Cong., 2d Sess. 4. The formulation of what was thus summarized by Chief Justice Taft is the present § 11, and that formulation was in the Judges' Bill from the time it was introduced in the two Houses by Senator Cummins and Congressman Walsh, respectively, on February 17, 1922. [Footnote 2/4] Page 340 U. S. 27
The correctness of the result in Defense Supplies Corp. v.Lawrence Warehouse Co., supra, does not depend on the misconceived relation indicated in its opinion. But it ought not to form a part of the chain of reasoning in disposing of this case. Therefore, insofar as § 11 of the Act of 1925 [Footnote 2/5] is relevant to our present problem, we must reject the notion that, while, under the 1899 Act such an action as this, brought against Paymaster General Buck, "did not abate," the 1925 Act eliminated this "command."
". . . and the defendant is directed to pay the plaintiff Thirteen Hundred and Sixty-five Dollars ($1,365.00) which is the amount equal to six months' pay at the rate received by the deceased at the time of his death. "Page 340 U. S. 28
1. I agree with the Court that this was not a personal action against Admiral Buck, and that the judgment was not against him as an individual. That suits against a collector of revenue for illegal exactions under the Revenue Acts are deemed personal actions enforceable as such against the collector is an anomalous situation in our law which calls for abrogation, instead of extension. For the history of these actions, See Cary v. Curtis, 3 How. 236, and United States v. Nunnally Investment Co., 316 U. S. 258. [Footnote 2/6]
The intrinsic, and not merely formalistic, answer to this question is, of course, entangled with the doctrine of sovereign immunity from suits. In scores of cases, this Court Page 340 U. S. 29 has had to consider when a suit, though nominally against one holding public office, is in fact a suit against the Government, and, as such, barred by want of the sovereign's consent to be sued. See Larson v. Domestic and Foreign Commerce Corp., 337 U. S. 682. The subject, it has been recognized, is not free from casuistry because of the natural, even if unconscious, pressure to escape from the doctrine of sovereign immunity which -- whatever its historic basis -- is hardly a doctrine based upon moral considerations. The trend of deep sentiment, reflected by legislation and adjudication, has looked askance at the doctrine. See Keifer & Keifer v. R.F.C., 306 U. S. 381, 306 U. S. 390-392. If astuteness has been exercised to deny the representative character of an official in order to avoid his identification as the sovereign ad hoc, it runs counter to the rational administration of justice not to find an official the sovereign ad hoc and the suit against him, in effect, a suit against the sovereign when sovereign immunity is not circumscribed thereby.
Under the Court of Claims Act, 12 Stat. 765, as amended, the plaintiff here could have gone to the Court of Claims. [Footnote 2/7] By the Act of march 3, 1887, 24 Stat. 505, as amended, she could have brought suit in the District Court. When the sovereign has in fact, given consent formally to be sued as such on the very claim and to allow, in the same court and by the same procedure (trial without a jury), precisely the same relief as was sought and obtained against the official in his representative capacity, it would needlessly enthrone formality to deny the intrinsic nature of the suit to be a suit against the sovereign. And that is this situation. Certainly those charged with the duty of defending the interests of the United States so Page 340 U. S. 30 conceived it. By denominating Admiral Buck as "Paymaster General of the Navy" in his notice of appeal, the United States Attorney recognized that Paymaster General Buck was, as it were, merely an alias for the United States, the real client of the United States Attorney. The Government, indeed, has consistently recognized that justice does not call for abatement of the suit. Both here and below, it has disavowed a desire for abatement. Of course, if it were a fixed rule of law that a suit such as this should die when the nominal defendant dies, the Court would have to bow to it, however harsh and futile the rule. It required legislation represented by Lord Campbell's Act to make tort liability survive the death of the victim. But it is not the controlling policy of the law that such actions die upon change of officeholders. The policy of the law is to the contrary, even as to suits which could not be brought against the Government directly. So also, it has long been the policy of our law to look behind an officeholder nominally a party litigant in order to find that, for all practical purposes, it is a suit against the Government, and therefore not maintainable. Justice should be equally open-eyed in order to find behind the nominal official defendant the United States as the real defendant.
This seems to me to be the spirit of the decision in Thompson v. United States, 103 U. S. 480. To be sure, Mr. Justice Bradley there differentiated his identification of an officer of a municipality with the municipality from the situation of an officer of the United States because normally the Government could not be sued. But when the Government does allow itself to be sued for the same cause of action for which suit was brought against him who, for the purposes of the litigation, is the United States, the reason for the differentiation disappears.
The differentiation remains in actions brought against officials for remedies which could not be got in a direct Page 340 U. S. 31 suit against the United States. These are the situations in which substitution cannot come into play automatically, and involve recourse to the remedial legislation of 1899 and 1925 in their present form. This gives ample scope to the legislation and, at the same time, avoids treating procedural requirements as tyrannical commands satisfying no other end except sterile formality.
Accordingly, I would recognize that the judgment of the District Court is, in effect, a money judgment against the United States, and would allow the Government's notice of appeal the force it was intended to have as an effective instrument whereby the United States might obtain a review of that judgment. It would be nothing novel in the observance of decorous form by courts to note as a matter of record that the name of the Paymaster General of the Navy is now Fox, and to proceed with the appeal on that basis. [Footnote 2/8]
A final question has to be faced -- a question which should, in logic, have been treated first, for it concerns the Page 340 U. S. 32 power of this Court to decide the case. Section 2105 of 28 U.S.C. provides:
I agree with the Court that this statute is not applicable, but not on the ground that lack of substitution is a question of "jurisdiction." Section 2105 relates only to the modern equivalent of a common law plea in abatement, which was made in the trial court before issue was joined on the merits of the case. [Footnote 2/9] It can have no effect upon a decision by an appellate court that a suit has abated.
Chief Justice Taft used Irwin v. Wright as an illustration in his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on March 30, 1922. Hearings before House Committee on the Judiciary on H.R. 10479, 67th Cong., 2d Sess. 7.
See 62 Cong.Rec. 2686, 2737. The language concerning abatement was the same in the bills introduced in 1922 (S. 3164 and H.R. 10479, 67th Cong., 1st Sess.), in the bills introduced by Senator Cummins and Congressman Graham, respectively, in 1924 (S. 2060 and H.R. 8206, 68th Cong., 1st Sess.), and in the statute as enacted, 43 Stat. 936, 941.
I am partly responsible for the misconception of finding a substantive change between the significance of the 1899 Act and the 1925 Act, because I joined in Defense Supplies Corp. v.Lawrence Warehouse Co., 336 U. S. 631. It is not by way of extenuating my responsibility that I deem it pertinent to suggest that the nature and volume of the Court's business preclude examination of all the judicial and legislative materials of all opinions in which one concurs. In order that the energies of the Court may be concentrated on those cases for which adjudication by this Court is indispensable, I have been insistent in my view that the Court should be rigorous in limiting the cases which it will allow to come here. That it may so control its business, the Congress, by the Act of 1925, gave the Court -- for all practical purposes -- a free hand. See Ex parte Republic of Peru, 318 U. S. 578, 318 U. S. 602-604.
The problems raised by the personal liability of collectors have necessitated special legislation. See I.R.C. § 3770(b), 26 U.S.C. § 3770(b), R.S. § 3220, as amended (authority to reimburse collectors), and I.R.C. § 3772(d), 26 U.S.C. § 3772(d), 56 Stat. 956 (suits against collectors are treated as suits against the United States for purposes of res judicata).
Davis v. Preston, 280 U. S. 406, was a suit under the Federal Employers' Liability Act of 1908, 35 Stat. 65, brought to recover for the death of a railroad employee occurring while the railroad was being operated by the Director General. The Court held a petition for certiorari ineffective when taken in the name of an agent of the Government who had retired from office. A statute there applicable, however, required that the United States conduct the litigation in the name of a special agent. 41 Stat. 461. There is no such requirement in the case at bar, for suit could have been brought against the United States itself. Since this is true, the Court can scarcely refuse to give effect to the notice of appeal filed by the Government attorneys in the name of Buck as Paymaster General.
". . . But there shall be no reversal in either court [i.e., the Circuit Court or Supreme Court] on such writ of error for error in ruling any plea in abatement, other than a plea to the jurisdiction of the court, or such plea to a petition or bill in equity, as is in the nature of a demurrer, or for any error in fact. . . ."
Since the duty sought to be enforced in this action attached to the office of Paymaster General and rested upon Admiral Buck only so long as he held the office, it is clear that petitioner's claim is against Buck in his representative Page 340 U. S. 33 capacity, not personally. After his retirement, it was not within his power to comply with the District Court's injunction, and the judgment ceased to be enforceable against him. [Footnote 3/1] Consequently, Buck lacked standing to obtain review of the judgment on appeal. [Footnote 3/2] Thus, far I agree with the conclusions of the Court.
But I think that, when the attorney for the Government called to the Court of Appeals' attention -- after this suit had been pending there for more than a year -- that the appeal had been taken by Buck after his retirement, and that no appeal had been perfected by or on behalf of his successor, the court should have dismissed the appeal on its own motion. [Footnote 3/3] That is the action which this Court took in Davis v. Preston, 280 U. S. 406 (1930), when review had been allowed at the instance of a federal officer who, it later appeared, because of separation from office had Page 340 U. S. 34 not had standing to petition for certiorari. A unanimous court dismissed the writ as improvidently granted, stating:
Id. at 280 U. S. 408. [Footnote 3/4] Page 340 U. S. 35
This Court now concludes that Davis v. Preston is inapposite because in that case, unlike the situation before us, applicable legislation prevented abatement of the suit against Davis following his separation from office. But the point made in the Davis case was simply that the succession in office had preceded Davis' effort to obtain review by this Court, and pertinent statutes did not enable the former federal officer to invoke review of a judgment which was of no legal concern to him. And, in this case, since an appeal was not properly taken within the time allowed, it does not matter at this time whether the District Court judgment could be enforced by plaintiff against Buck's successor, by substitution of the latter as defendant or by other action. [Footnote 3/5]
Cf. Board of Commissioner v. Sellew, 99 U. S. 624, 99 U. S. 627 (1879); United States ex rel. Emanuel v. Jaeger, 117 F.2d 483, 488 (1941).
Davis v. Preston, 280 U. S. 406 (1930).
In re Michigan-Ohio Bldg. Corp., 117 F.2d 191 (1941); United Porto Rican Sugar Co. v. Saldana, 80 F.2d 13 (1935).
It has been held that, under Federal Rule 73 timely and proper notice of appeal goes to the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals, United Drug Co. v. Helvering, 108 F.2d 637 (1940); Lamb v. Shasta Oil Co., 149 F.2d 729 (1945); Marten v. Hess, 176 F.2d 834 (1949); Tinkoff v. West Pub. Co., 138 F.2d 607 (1943); St. Luke's Hospital v. Melin, 172 F.2d 532 (1949); Spengler v. Hughes Tool Co., 169 F.2d 166 (1948); Walleck v. Hudspeth, 128 F.2d 343 (1942); see Maloney v. Spencer, 170 F.2d 231, 233 (1948), and that this requirement cannot be dispensed with by waiver or consent of the parties. See Lamb v. Shasta Oil Co., supra, 149 F.2d at 730; Marten v. Hess, supra, 176 F.2d at 835; St. Luke's Hospital v. Melin, supra, 172 F.2d at 533. Compare Crump v. Hill, 104 F.2d 36 (1939), with Piascik v. Trader Navigation Co., 178 F.2d 886 (1949).
Accord, Nudelman v. Globe Varnish Co., 312 U.S. 690 (1941).
It seems that plaintiff would not be without a remedy which would give life to her judgment obtained in a court of competent jurisdiction against a federal officer who, at the time of judgment, had full authority in the premises. In Sunshine Anthracite Coal Co. v. Adkins, 310 U. S. 381, 310 U. S. 402-403 (1940), the Court said:
"There is privity between officers of the same government, so that a judgment in a suit between a party and a representative of the United States is res judicata in relitigation of the same issue between that party and another officer of the government. See Tait v. Western Maryland R. Co., 289 U. S. 620. The crucial point in whether or not in the earlier litigation the representative of the United States had authority to represent its interests in a final adjudication of the issue in controversy."