Source: http://openjurist.org/416/us/363
Timestamp: 2016-02-13 02:44:16
Document Index: 792513555

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 2', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 13', '§ 202', '§ 13', '§ 142', '§ 13', '§ 2254', '§ 2255', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 2', '§ 1370', '§ 16', '§ 16', '§ 20', '§ 3', '§ 12', '§ 1171', '§ 52', '§ 105', '§ 11', '§ 3', '§ 61', '§ 745', '§ 1923']

416 US 363 Pernell v. Southall Realty | OpenJurist
416 U.S. 363 - Pernell v. Southall Realty Homethe United States Reports416 U.S.
Over the course of its history, the common law developed several possessory actions. Among the earliest of these was the assize of novel disseisin which developed in the latter half of the 12th century and permitted one who had been recently disseised of his tenement to be put back into seisin by judgment of the King's court.6 Trial by assize represented one of the earliest forms of trial by jury. After the plaintiff lodged his complaint, a writ would issue bidding the sheriff to summon 12 good and lawful men of the neighborhood to 'recognize' before the King's justices7 whether the defendant had unjustly disseised the plaintiff of his tenement.8 Like the modern cause of action embodied in § 16—1501, novel disseisin was a summary procedure designed to mete out prompt justice in possessory disputes.9
Writs of entry, dating from about the same period, were developed to encompass situations not covered by the assize of novel disseisin. Novel disseisin, for example, was applicable only where the defendant gained possession wrongfully by putting the plaintiff out of seisin. Writs of entry, in contrast, permitted recovery where the defendant entered into possession lawfully but no longer had rightful possession.10 Indeed, one of the writs of entry, the writ of entry ad terminum qui praeterit, could be used by a plaintiff to recover lands from a defendant who had originally held them for a term of years, which term had expired.11 The writ, in other words, embodied a cause of action quite similar to that encompassed in § 16—1501. Significantly for present purposes, it is clear that either party could demand a jury trial.12
Both of these forms of action, though not legally abolished until will into the 19th century,13 had fallen into disuse by the time our Constitution was drafted. By then, ejectment had become the most important possessory action. Ejectment originated as a very narrow remedy, designed to give the lessee of property a cause of action against anyone who ejected him, including his lessor.14 But by a variety of intricate fictions, ejectment eventually developed into the primary means of trying either the title to or the right to possession of real property.15
In particular, ejectment became the principal means employed by landlords to evict tenants for overstaying the terms of their leases, nonpayment of rent, or other breach of lease covenants.16 Had Southall Realty leased a home in London in 1791 instead of one in the District of Columbia in 1971, it no doubt would have used ejectment to seek to remove its allegedly defaulting tenant. And, as all parties here concede, questions of fact arising in an ejectment action were resolved by a jury.17
Notwithstanding this history, the Court of Appeals reasoned that an action under § 16—1501 was not the 'equivalent' of an action of ejectment. 294 A.2d, at 492. It noted that another section of the D.C.Code sets forth a more specific action of ejectment.18 Moreover, the expedited character of a § 16—1501 proceeding was seen as contrasting sharply with the archaic limitations and cumbersome procedures that marked the common-law action of ejectment. Ibid. Since, in its opinion, neither § 16 1501 nor its equivalent existed at common law, the Court of Appeals held that the Seventh Amendment did not guarantee the right to jury trial.
Whether or not a close equivalent to § 16—1501 existed in England in 1791 is irrelevant for Seventh Amendment purposes, for that Amendment requires trial by jury in actions unheard of at common law, provided that the action involves rights and remedies of the sort traditionally enforced in an action at law, rather than in an action in equity or admiralty. See Curtis v. Loether, supra, at 195, 94 S.Ct., at 1009.
The proceeding established by § 16—1501, while a far cry in detail from the common-law action of ejectment, serves the same essential function—to permit the plaintiff to evict one who is wrongfully detaining possession and to regain possession himself. As one commentator has noted, while statutes such as § 16—1501 were 'unknown to the common law . . . (t)hey are designed as statutes for relief, not to create new causes of action. The evident intention is to give this summary relief in those cases where . . . the action of ejectment would lie.'19 Indeed, the courts of the District themselves have frequently characterized the action created in § 16—1501 as a 'substitute' for an ejectment action.20 Moreover, it appears that every action recognized in 1791 for the recovery of possession of property carried with it the right to jury trial. Neither respondent nor the Court of Appeals was able to point to any equitable action even remotely resembling § 16—1501. Since the right to recover possession of real property governed by § 16—1501 was a right ascertained and protected by courts at common law, the Seventh Amendment preserves to either party the right to trial by jury.
Respondent argues, however, that the closest historical analogue to § 16—1501 was neither an action at law nor an action in equity, but rather a forcible entry and detainer statute enacted in the reign of Henry VI. See 8 Hen. 6, c. 9 (1429). That statute made it unlawful to 'make any forcible Entry in Lands and Tenements, or other Possessions, or them hold forcibly.' § II. Justices of the peace were directed to enforce its provisions. If complaint were made, they were to inquire into the matter and any persons found holding a place forcibly were to 'be taken and put in the next Gaol, there to remain convict by the Record of the same Justices or Justice, until they have made Fine and Ransom to the King.' § I. The justices of the peace were also empowered 'to reseize the Lands and Tenements so entered or holden as afore, and shall put the Party so put out in full Possession of the same Lands and Tenements. . . .' § III.
While respondent's argument is lent some support by the fact that § 16—1501 is presently captioned 'Forcible Entry and Detainer,' closer examination of the pertinement history reveals that respondent has misconstrued the actual relationship between the two statutes.
The first predecessor of § 16—1501 was the Act of July 4, 1864, c. 243, 13 Stat. 383.21 That Act provided a remedy for three separate situations: 'when forcible entry is made'; 'when a peaceable entry is made and the possession unlawfully held by force'; and 'when possession is held without right, after the estate is determined by the terms of the lease by its own limitation, or by notice to quit, or otherwise. . . .' See id., § 2.
There is no question but that the first two of these remedies for forcible entry or for peaceable entry followed by possession unlawfully held by force—can be traced directly to the statute of Henry VI.22 The English statute, however, had no provision like that in the 1864 Act specifically designed for landlordtenant disputes.
In 1953, Congress amended the 1864 Act and did away entirely with the provisions relating to forcible entry and peaceable entry with possession unlawfully held by force which can be traced to the English statute. See Act of June 18, 1953, c. 130, 67 Stat. 66. In its place, Congress enacted a general provision dealing with unlawful detention of property which could be invoked, like § 16—1501 today, '(w)henever any person shall detain possession of real property without right, or after his right to possession shall have ceased. . . .' Ibid.
Not only is the historical nexus between the two statutes weak, it is also evident that the English forcible entry and detainer statute and § 16—1501 serve totally different functions. While the English statute provided for the restitution of possession in appropriate cases, it was essentially a criminal provision, prosecuted through the usual criminal process.23 The gravamen of the offense was the use of violence in obtaining or detaining possession.24 The question in an action brought under the English statute was not who had the better right to possession. If one with the better right used force to oust another, he could be made to relinquish possession to the party he ousted and would be remitted to seeking legal process to obtain his rightful possession. As Blackstone states, there was no 'inquiring into the merits of the title: for the force is the only thing to be tried, punished, and remedied. . . .'25
In contrast, § 16—1501 is not a criminal action intended to redress the use of force, but rather was designed as a general civil remedy to determine which of two parties has the better legal right to possession of real estate. And, in this respect, § 16—1501 is not limited, as was the 1864 Act, to landlord-tenant disputes, but has been held to encompass, for example, suits by a purchaser at a foreclosure sale to evict the former owner,26 by the heir of property to evict the current occupant,27 and by a tenant in common seeking to share possession of the premises.28
Even were we to accept respondent's contention that the statute of Henry VI provides the closest common-law analogue for § 16—1501, that would lend no support to its argument that no right to jury trial should be recognized in actions under § 16—1501. The fact of the matter is that jury trials before justices of the peace were afforded in actions to recover possession of property brought under the statute of Henry VI.29 Indeed, the statute itself provides for jury trials.30
'was not, properly speaking, a judge, or his tribunal a court,—least of all, a court of record. The proceedings before him were not according to the course of the common law. . . . (The Act which permitted him to try cases with a jury) did not require him to superintend the course of the trial or to instruct the jury in matter of law; nor did it authorize him, upon the return of their verdict, to arrest judgment upon it, or to set it aside, for any cause whatever, but made it his duty to enter judgment upon it forthwith, as a thing of course. A body of men, so free from judicial control, was not a common-law jury; nor was a trial by them a trial by jury, within the meaning of the seventh amendment to the constitution.' Id., at 38—39, 19 S.Ct., at 595.
The Court recognized in Hof, however, that English justices of the peace did have criminal jurisdiction. Id., at 16, 19 S.Ct., at 586. And, as we have seen, this criminal jurisdiction extended to trial of forcible entry and detainer and included trial by jury. History plainly reveals that a trial by jury before a justice of the peace in England, unlike trial before a justice of the peace in the District of Columbia, was a jury trial in the full constitutional sense. English justices of the peace were required to be learned in the law. They were judges of record and their courts, courts of record. The procedures they followed differed in no essential manner from that of the higher court of assize held by the King's judges. Trial by jury before the justices of the peace proceeded in the usual manner of a criminal trial by jury in the King's court.31 Respondent's attempted analogy between § 16—1501 and the English forcible entry and detainer statute, rather than cutting against a right to jury trial in the present case, lends further support to our conclusion that § 16—1501 encompasses rights and remedies which were enforced, at common law, through trial by jury.32
The Court of Appeals reasoned that we 'could scarcely have made this observation if the right to jury trial was conferred by the Constitution.' 294 A.2d, at 496. We think the Court of Appeals misunderstood the rationale of this case. Block v. Hirsh merely stands for the principle that the Seventh Amendment is generally inapplicable in administrative proceedings, where jury trials would be incompatible with the whole concept of administrative adjudication. See Curtis v. Loether, 415 U.S., at 194, 94 S.Ct., at 1008. See also NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 U.S. 1, 57 S.Ct. 615, 81 L.Ed. 893 (1937). We may assume that the Seventh Amendment would not be a bar to a congressional effort to entrust landlord-tenant disputes, including those over the right to possession, to an administrative agency. Congress has not seen fit to do so, however, but rather has provided that actions under § 16—1501 be brought as ordinary civil actions in the District of Columbia's court of general jurisdiction. Where it has done so, and where the action involves rights and remedies recognized at common law, it must preserve to parties their right to a jury trial. Curtis v. Loether, supra, 415 U.S., at 195, 94 S.Ct., at 1009.
The Court of Appeals appeared troubled by the burden jury trials might place on the District's court system and by the possibility that a right to jury trial would conflict with efforts to expedite judicial disposition of landlord-tenant controversies. We think it doubtful, however, that the right to a jury trial would significantly impair these important interests. As indicated earlier, the right to trial by jury was recognized by statute for over a century from 1864 to 1970,33 and it does not appear to have posed any unmanageable problems during that period.
In the average landlord-tenant dispute, where the failure to pay rent is established and no substantial defenses exist, it is unlikely that a defendant would request a jury trial. And, of course, the trial court's power to grant summary judgment where no genuine issues of material fact are in dispute provides a substantial bulwark against any possibility that a defendant will demand a jury trial simply as a means of delaying an eviction. More importantly, however, we reject the notion that there is some necessary inconsistency between the desire for speedy justice and the right to jury trial. We note, for example, that the Oregon landlord-tenant procedure at issue in Lindsey v. Normet, 405 U.S. 56, 92 S.Ct. 862, 31 L.Ed.2d 36 (1972), although providing for a trial no later than six days after service of the complaint unless the defendant provided security for accruing rent, nevertheless guaranteed a right to jury trial. Many other States similarly provide for trial by jury in summary eviction proceedings.34
See Act of July 4, 1864, c. 243, 13 Stat. 383. See also infra, at 377—378.
The Senate version of the Court Reform Act retained a statutory guarantee of a right to jury trial almost identical to § 13—702. See S. 2601, 91st Cong., 1st Sess., § 202 (Sept. 16, 1969). While the House bill, which was adopted by the Conference Committee, did not contain a similar provision, the House Report seems to indicate that § 13—702 was not repealed in a conscious effort to change the practice of affording jury trial in actions to recover possession of real property, but was struck 'as superfluous in light of constitutional jury trial requirements . . ..' H.R.Rep.No.91—907, p. 164 (1970). See also H.R.16196, 91st Cong., 2d Sess., § 142(5)(A) (Mar. 13, 1970); H.R.Conf.Rep.No.91 1303 (1970). It appears then that Congress itself believed that jury trials were constitutionally required in all actions previously covered by § 13—702 and would continue to be provided in such actions.
We do not intend to imply that the District of Columbia Superior Court and Court of Appeals must be treated as state courts for all purposes. Cf. District of Columbia v. Carter, 409 U.S. 418, 93 S.Ct. 602, 34 L.Ed.2d 613 (1973). There are apparently several questions as yet unresolved concerning the relationship between the District of Columbia local courts and the United States District Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Among these are whether the United States District Court has jurisdiction under either 28 U.S.C. § 2254 or § 2255 to hear habeas corpus petitions or motions to vacate a sentence brought by persons in confinement by virtue of convictions had in the District of Columbia Superior Court and, if it does not, whether this Court has a special obligation to resolve conflicts between the District's 'local' and 'federal' courts on questions of constitutional law raised in such petitions. See D.C.Code §§ 16—1901 through 16—1909. Other unresolved questions involve the extent to which the principles of Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), and related cases apply to the relationship between the District's two court systems. See generally Sullivan v. Murphy, 156 U.S.App.D.C. 28, 50—54, 478 F.2d 938, 960—964, cert. denied, 414 U.S. 880, 94 S.Ct. 162, 38 L.Ed.2d 125 (1973). We, of course, express no views on these issues.
Prior to the enactment of the Court Reform Act in 1970, D.C.Code § 16—1504 provided that if the defendant in an action brought under § 16—1501 pleads title in himself or in another under whom he claims, and provides a surety to pay damages, costs, and reasonable intervening rent for the premises, the court (then the District of Columbia Court of General Sessions) shall certify the proceedings to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Today, a rule of the Superior Court provides that when an issue of title intrudes in an action brought under § 16—1501, the case is transferred from the Landlord and Tenant Branch which normally tries actions under § 16—1501 to the regular Civil Division. See 294 A.2d 490, 492 and n. 8.
See F. Maitland, The Forms of Action at Common Law 27—29 (1936); 1 F. Pollock & F. Maitland, The History of English Law 145 147 (2d ed. 1899); 3 W. Blackstone, Commentaries *187—188. Novel disseisin, like the action now embodied in § 16—1501, was designed primarily as a possessory action to permit one who had been ejected from his land to be restored to possession. If the ejector wished to raise questions of title, he could proceed later in a separate action. See T. Plucknett, A Concise History of the Common Law 341 (4th ed. 1948). See also Grant Timber & Mfg, Co. v. Gray, 236 U.S. 133, 134, 35 S.Ct. 279, 59 L.Ed. 501 (1915). Cf. n. 5, supra.
See, e.g., Maitland, supra, n. 6, at 83—84. Unlike the forcible entry and detainer remedy discussed infra, at 376—381, assizes of novel disseisin were presided over by a judge of the King's court rather than a justice of the peace. See ibid. The use of itinerant justices of the King's court to travel around the countryside on a regular basis to preside over the assizes was confirmed in Magna Carta, c. XII (1225). See also 1 Pollock & Maitland, supra, n. 6, at 155—156.
In its origin trial by assize was slightly different from trial by jury as we know it today. In particular the jurors, or 'recognitors' as they were then known, were summoned by the original writ and asked to answer a question posed by the writ itself as contrasted to the modern practice whereby jurors are not called into a case until it appears that questions of fact are raised by the pleadings. See generally 1 W. Hold-sworth, A History of English Law 330—331 (1927). In course of time, however, the recognitors summoned by the writ of novel disseisin assumed the functions of a modern jury. See 1 Pollock & Maitland, supra, n. 6, at 149; Maitland, supra, n. 6, at 35.
See Maitland, supra, n. 6, at 44—46; Plucknett, supra, n. 6, at 342—343.
The classic fiction was used where two persons wished to try the title to land. One of them leased it to an imaginary person and the other leased it to another imaginary person. One imaginary lessee 'ejects' the other, and in order to try the right to possession of the rival imaginary lessees, the court must necessarily decide which of the real lessors had title to the land. See Maitland, supra, n. 6, at 57; 3 Blackstone, supra, n. 6, at *199—204. Cf. M'Arthur v. Porter, 6 Pet. 205, 211 (1832).
D.C.Code § 16—1124. This statute is apparently derived from 4 Geo. 2, c. 28, §§ 2—4 (1731). See n. 16, supra.
See 3A G. Thompson, Real Property § 1370, pp. 718—719 (1959).
See generally Beard, supra, n. 29, at 158—164; McVicker, The Seventeenth Century Justice of Peace in England, 24 Ky.L.J. 387, 392, 403—407 (1936).
We disagree. To begin with, the Maryland statute involves a specialized cause of action, limited to landlord-tenant disputes, quite different from § 16—1501, which, as indicated earlier, is a general provision encompassing all disputes over the possession of land. See supra, at 379. Moreover, there is no indication, and the court below did not find, that § 16—1501 or any of its predecessor Acts were derived from this Maryland law. See supra, at 377—378. Whether or not jury trials were constitutionally required in the Maryland action after it was incorporated into the law of the District of Columbia, and whether or not the procedure actually afforded between 1801 and 1864 amounted to a full jury trial under our decision in Hof, are therefore irrelevant to the issue presented in this case. We have no occasion to decide, over 100 years after the fact, whether in suits brought between 1801 and 1864 under this now defunct landlord-tenant statute, parties were denied their Seventh Amendment rights.
The Act of July 4, 1864, c. 243, 13 Stat. 383, contemplated determination of the suit by a justice of the peace with appeal to the Supreme Court of the District and trial de novo before a jury. See, e.g., Luchs v. Jones, 8 D.C. (1 MacArthur) 345 (D.C.Sup.Ct.1874). Subsequent legislation, up to 1970, carefully preserved the right to jury trial. See, e.g., Act of Mar. 3, 1901, c. 854, §§ 20—24 and 80, 31 Stat. 1193 and 1201; Act of Mar. 3, 1921, c. 125, § 3, 41 Stat. 1310.
E.g., Ariz.Rev.Stat.Ann. § 12—1176 (1956); Cal.Civ.Proc.Code § 1171 (1972); Colo.Rule Civ.Proc. 38(a) (1970); Conn.Gen.Stat.Rev. § 52—463 (1973); Ga.Code Ann. §§ 105—1601, 105 1602 (1966); Ill.Rev.Stat., c. 57, § 11a (1973); Ind.Ann.Stat. § 3 1605 (1968), IC 1971, 32—7—3—4; Kan.Stat.Ann. § 61—2309 (Supp.1974); N.Y.Real Prop.Actions § 745, McKinney's Consol.Laws, c. 81 (1963); Ohio Rev.Code Ann. § 1923.10 (1968).