Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/330/386/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-10-17 00:01:21
Document Index: 370710214

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 205', '§ 205', '§ 205', '§ 205', '§ 205', '§ 205']

TESTA V. KATT, 330 U. S. 386 - Volume 330 - 1947 - Full Text - US Supreme Court Center - USSC Cases - Nolo
US Supreme Court Center > Volume 330 > TESTA V. KATT, 330 U. S. 386 (1947) > Full Text
A state court of competent jurisdiction awarded the purchaser of an automobile at above the ceiling price a judgment for damages and costs under § 205(e) of the Emergency Price Control Act, 56 Stat. 34, as amended. The State Supreme Court reversed and, pursuant to local practice, remitted the case and record to the Superior Court. 71 R.I. 472, 47 A.2d 312. This Court granted certiorari. 329 U.S. 703. Reversed and remanded, p. 330 U. S. 394.
The respondent was in the automobile business in Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island. In 1944, he sold an automobile to petitioner Testa, who also resides
in Providence, for $1100, $210 above the ceiling price. The petitioner later filed this suit against respondent in the State District Court in Providence. Recovery was sought under § 205(e). The court awarded a judgment of treble damages and costs to petitioner. On appeal to the State Superior Court, where the trial was de novo, the petitioner was again awarded judgment, but only for the amount of the overcharge plus attorney's fees. Pending appeal from this judgment, the Price Administrator was allowed to intervene. On appeal, the State Supreme Court reversed, 71 R.I. 472, 47 A.2d 312. It interpreted § 205(e) to be "a penal statute in the international sense." It held that an action for violation of § 205(e) could not be maintained in the courts of that State. The State Supreme Court rested its holding on its earlier decision in Robinson v. Norato, 71 R.I. 256, 43 A.2d 467, 468, in which it had reasoned that a state need not enforce the penal laws of a government which is "foreign in the international sense;" § 205(e) is treated by Rhode Island as penal in that sense; the United States is "foreign" to the State in the "private international," as distinguished from the "public international," sense; hence, Rhode Island courts, though their jurisdiction is adequate to enforce similar Rhode Island "penal" statutes, need not enforce § 205(e). Whether state courts may decline to enforce federal laws on these grounds is a question of great importance. For this reason, and because the Rhode Island Supreme Court's holding was alleged to conflict with this Court's previous holding in Mondou v. New York, N.H. & H. R. Co., 223 U. S. 1, we granted certiorari. 329 U.S. 703. [Footnote 3]
It cannot be assumed, the supremacy clause considered, that the responsibilities of a state to enforce the laws of a sister state are identical with its responsibilities to enforce federal laws. Such an assumption represents an erroneous evaluation of the statutes of Congress and the prior decisions of this Court in their historic setting. Those decisions establish that state courts do not bear the same relation to the United States that they do to foreign countries. The first Congress that convened after the Constitution was adopted conferred jurisdiction upon the
Enforcement of federal laws by state courts did not go unchallenged. Violent public controversies existed throughout the first part of the Nineteenth Century until the 1860's concerning the extent of the constitutional supremacy of the Federal Government. During that period, there were instances in which this Court and state courts broadly questioned the power and duty of state courts to exercise their jurisdiction to enforce United States civil and penal statutes or the power of the Federal Government to require them to do so. [Footnote 6] But, after the fundamental issues over the extent of federal supremacy had been resolved by war, this Court took occasion in 1876 to review the phase of the controversy concerning the relationship of state courts to the Federal Government. Claflin v. Houseman, 93 U. S. 130. The opinion of a unanimous Court in that case was strongly buttressed by historic references and persuasive reasoning. It repudiated
The Claflin opinion thus answered most of the arguments theretofore advanced against the power and duty of state courts to enforce federal penal laws. And, since that decision, the remaining areas of doubt have been steadily narrowed. [Footnote 8] There have been statements in cases concerned with the obligation of states to give full faith and credit to the proceedings of sister states which suggested a theory contrary to that pronounced in the Claflin opinion. [Footnote 9] But when, in Mondou v. New York, N.H. & H. R. Co., supra, this Court was presented with a case
So here, the fact that Rhode Island has an established policy against enforcement by its courts of statutes of other states and the United States which it deems penal cannot be accepted as a "valid excuse." Cf. 297 U. S.
Page 330 U. S. 393
New York, N.H. & H. R. Co., 279 U. S. 377, 279 U. S. 388. [Footnote 10] For the policy of the federal Act is the prevailing policy in every state. Thus, in a case which chiefly relied upon the Claflin and Mondou precedents, this Court stated that a state court cannot
The Rhode Island court, in its Robinson decision, on which it relies, cites cases of this Court which have held that states are not required by the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution to enforce judgments of the courts of other states based on claims arising out of penal statutes. [Footnote 11] But those holdings have no relevance here, for this case raises no full faith and credit question. Nor need we consider in this case prior decisions to the effect that federal courts are not required to enforce state penal laws. Compare Wisconsin v. Pelican Ins. Co., 127 U. S. 265, with Massachusetts v. Missouri, 308 U. S. 1, 308 U. S. 20.
See e.g., 14 U. S. Hunter's Lessee, 1 Wheat. 304, 14 U. S. 334-337; United States v. Bailey, 9 Pet. 238, 34 U. S. 259, 260; Prigg v. Pennsylvania, 16 Pet. 539, 41 U. S. 615; Fox v. Ohio, 5 How. 410, 46 U. S. 438; United States v. Lathrop, 17 Johns. (N.Y.) 4. See also Warren, supra, 580-584.
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