Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/324/42
Timestamp: 2017-04-25 12:48:09
Document Index: 517891349

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 466', '§ 240', '§ 347', '§ 262', '§ 377', '§ 466']

HOUSE v. MAYO, State Prison Custodian. | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute
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324 U.S. 42 (65 S.Ct. 517, 89 L.Ed. 739)
[HTML] On Motion for Leave to File Petition for Habeas Corpus or Certiorari Dec. 9, 1944
Petitioner is confined in the Florida state prison under sentence for burglary. He filed a petition for habeas corpus in the United States District Court for Southern Florida, which denied the petition without calling for a return and without a hearing. The district judge also denied a certificate of probable cause for an appeal to the circuit court of appeals under 28 U.S.C. 466, 28 U.S.C.A. § 466. Section 466 requires such a certificate for an appeal from a judgment denying a petition for habeas corpus when the petition complains of 'detention * * * by virtue of process issued out of a State court.' Since the statute authorizes either the district court or 'a judge of the circuit court of appeals' to issue the certificate, the district judge, in his order, stated that petitioner might apply to a judge of the court of appeals for the certificate and for the allowance of his appeal.
This Court cannot issue a writ of certiorari in the present case under § 240(a) of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C. 347(a), 28 U.S.C.A. § 347(a). Ferguson v. District of Columbia, 270 U.S. 633, 657, 46 S.Ct. 355, 70 L.Ed. 771. Our authority under that section extends only to cases 'in a circuit court of appeals, or in the (United States) Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.' Here the case was never 'in' the court of appeals, for want of a certificate of probable cause.
But § 262 of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C. 377, 28 U.S.C.A. § 377, authorizes this Court 'to issue all writs not specifically provided for by statute, which may be necessary for the exercise of (its jurisdiction), and agreeable to the usages and principles of law.' By virtue of that section we may grant a writ of certiorari to review the action of the court of appeals in declining to allow an appeal to it. In re 620 Church St. Corp., 299 U.S. 24, 26, 57 S.Ct. 88, 89, 81 L.Ed. 16, and cases cited; Holiday v. Johnston, 313 U.S. 342, 348, note 2, 550, 61 S.Ct. 1015, 1017, 85 L.Ed. 1392; Wells v. United States, 318 U.S. 257, 63 S.Ct. 582, 87 L.Ed. 746; Steffler v. United States, 319 U.S. 38, 63 S.Ct. 948, 87 L.Ed. 1197. And not only does our review extend to a determination of whether the circuit court of appeals abused its discretion in refusing to allow the appeal, but if so, it extends also to questions on the merits sought to be raised by the appeal. See Holiday v. Johnston, supra; Steffler v. United States, supra. We hold that the same principles are applicable here. Hence we are brought to the question whether the district court rightly denied the petition.
The district court was of the opinion that 'petitioner has had a full, complete, and competent consideration and decision in the Supreme Court of Florida of all the various matters here sought again to be presented.' The district court had reference to the decisions of the Florida Supreme Court referred to by petitioner in his papers filed with the district court. They were: House v. State, 127 Fla. 145, 172 So. 734, a writ of error from petitioner's conviction
; House v. State, 130 Fla. 400, 177 So. 705, an application for leave to file a coram nobis proceeding; and the denial by the Florida Supreme Court without opinion of three petitions for habeas corpus filed by petitioner. By each form of proceeding petitioner attempted to raise the questions he now raises in the present petition; but in each instance, so far as appears, the Florida Supreme Court, without considering the merits of petitioner's contentions and without affording a hearing on the merits, denied relief to petitioner, on the ground that the particular remedy sought was not the appropriate one under Florida law to raise those contenions. See House v. State, 127 Fla. 145, 148, 172 So. 734; House v. State, 130 Fla. 400, 406, 177 So. 705; cf. Skipper v. Schumacher, 124 Fla. 384, 401-404, 169 So. 58.
The district court also referred to a denial by this Court of a petition for certiorari, filed here after the denial by the Florida Supreme Court of one of the applications for habeas corpus. See House v. Mayo, 322 U.S. 710, 64 S.Ct. 1058. The district court thought that this was an expression 'of the opinion that no meritorious question is presented by the matters of which petitioner here complains.' But as we have often said, a denial of certiorari by this Court imports no expression of opinion upon the merits of a case. See Hamilton-Brown Shoe Co. v. Wolf Brothers, 240 U.S. 251, 258, 36 S.Ct. 269, 271, 60 L.Ed. 629; State of Ohio ex rel. Seney v. Swift & Co., 260 U.S. 146, 151, 43 S.Ct. 22, 24, 67 L.Ed. 176; United States v. Carver, 260 U.S. 482, 490, 43 S.Ct. 181, 182, 67 L.Ed. 361; Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Powe, 283 U.S. 401, 403, 404, 51 S.Ct. 498, 499, 75 L.Ed. 1142. It is true that where a state court has considered and adjudicated the merits of a petitioner's contentions, and this Court has either reviewed or declined to review the state court's decision, a federal court will not ordinarily reexamine upon writ of habeas corpus the questions thus adjudicated. See Ex parte Hawk, supra, 321 U.S. at page 118, 64 S.Ct. at page 450. But that rule is inapplicable where, as here, the basis of the state court decision is that the particular remedy sought is not one allowed by state law, for in such a case this Court lacks jurisdiction to review the decision. Woolsey v. Best, 299 U.S. 1, 2, 57 S.Ct. 2, 81 L.Ed. 3; State of New York ex rel. Whitman v. Wilson, 318 U.S. 688, 690, 63 S.Ct. 840, 841, 87 L.Ed. 1083; Williams v. Kaiser, supra, 323 U.S. 473, 476479, 65 S.Ct. pages 365368.
The decision of the district court is thus not supported by the grounds assigned for it, and should have been reversed by the court of appeals. And the judges of that court erred in not considering whether the case was an appropriate one for a certificate of probable cause, as they were authorized to do by 28 U.S.C. 466, 28 U.S.C.A. § 466. We think that they also erred in not issuing the certificate.