Source: https://scocal.stanford.edu/opinion/ferguson-v-keays-27611
Timestamp: 2020-08-10 19:19:02
Document Index: 214955801

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1174', '§ 215', '§ 68847', '§ 68846', '§ 69154', '§ 164']

Ferguson v. Keays - 4 Cal.3d 649 - Tue, 04/27/1971 | California Supreme Court Resources
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Citation 4 Cal.3d 649
Ferguson v. Keays , 4 Cal.3d 649
(Opinion by Burke, J., expressing the unanimous view of the court.) [4 Cal.3d 650]
In each of the cases presently before us, an assertedly indigent applicant moved the Court of Appeal for relief from the $50 fee imposed by section 68926. In Ferguson v. Keays, applicant sought to appeal from the trial court's denial of mandate to compel recognition of a claim of exemption regarding certain items of personal property seized in the course of executing a writ of restitution (Code Civ. Proc., § 1174). In Colon v. Superior Court, applicant sought mandate from the Court of Appeal to compel the trial court to order the county to pay the necessary fees for publishing summons [4 Cal.3d 653] in applicant's suit to dissolve her marriage. In Rowe v. Superior Court, applicant sought mandate to compel the trial court to furnish him, for use on appeal, a free transcript of proceedings which led to an order denying modification of child support payments.
Subsequent California cases have followed Martin to the extent of recognizing an inherent power in the trial courts to waive various fees and costs on behalf of indigent litigants in civil actions. (See Isrin v. Superior Court, 63 Cal.2d 153 [45 Cal.Rptr. 320, 403 P.2d 728] (jury fees); Majors v. Superior Court of Alameda Co., 181 Cal. 270, 276 [184 P. 18, 6 A.L.R. 1274] (jury fees); Roberts v. Superior Court, 264 Cal.App.2d 235, 241 [70 Cal.Rptr. 226] (bond on appeal to superior court); Bank of America v. Superior Court, 255 Cal.App.2d 575 [63 Cal.Rptr. 366] (cost bond); County of Sutter v. Superior Court, 244 Cal.App.2d 770, 775 [53 Cal. Rptr. 424] (cost bond); see also Fuller v. State of California, 1 Cal.App.3d 664 [82 Cal.Rptr. 78] (denying waver of cost bond on technical grounds); 2 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (2d ed. 1970) Actions, § 215 et seq., pp. 1073-1078.)
On the other hand in Rucker v. Superior Court, 104 Cal.App. 683, 685 [286 P. 732], involving a request by an indigent for a free transcript on appeal, the court attempted to distinguish Martin v. Superior Court, supra, 176 Cal. 289, on the ground that "The ruling there made was based upon the rights of the courts of common law to admit to sue in forma pauperis, such poor persons as had not ability to pay the expenses incidental to the prosecution of actions to enforce their rights. It is not shown that this right [4 Cal.3d 654] extended to appeals or writs of error. The right of appeal is a creature of written law, and finds its authority in the Constitution and statutes of the state. [Citation.]" The court in Rucker (p. 685) also pointed out that "there is no legal mode of requiring payment [for the transcription fees of the official reporter] ... out of the public treasury." Rucker's holding has been followed in Agnew v. Contractors Safety Assn., 216 Cal.App.2d 154, 156 [30 Cal.Rptr. 690], Legg v. Superior Court, 156 Cal.App.2d 723, 724-725 [320 P.2d 227], and Kaufman v. Brown, 106 Cal.App.2d 686, 688-689 [235 P.2d 632], each involving the cost of transcripts on appeal.
[3] The existence of such a power at common law, however, is not conclusive with respect to the question presently before us, for as suggested in Martin, the courts should only exercise those common law powers which are not otherwise repugnant to or inconsistent with our Constitution and statutes; inherent powers should never be exercised in such a manner as to nullify existing legislation or frustrate legitimate legislative policy. (176 Cal. at pp. 296-297.) [4] Therefore, we must examine the applicable statutory provisions to determine whether or not they disclose a [4 Cal.3d 655] legislative intent to deprive the appellate courts of their inherent power to permit indigents to appear in forma pauperis.
Further provisions require the clerk of the Supreme Court and the clerks of the Courts of Appeal to collect in advance the foregoing fees (Gov. Code, §§ 68847, 69143), which are to be paid to the state Treasury to the credit of the general fund, and provide that each clerk "is responsible and [4 Cal.3d 656] in his settlement with the Controller shall account for, and be charged with, the full amount of all fees collected or chargeable and accruing in the causes brought into the court for services rendered therein up to the time of each settlement." (Gov. Code, § 68846; see Gov. Code, § 69154.)
Under article VI, section 6 of the California Constitution, the Judicial Council is empowered, among other things, to "adopt rules for court administration, practice and procedure, not inconsistent with statute." [5] Thus, the Judicial Council could, in the exercise of its rule-making power, promulgate rules governing applications for in forma pauperis relief. Similarly, the Legislature, being entrusted with the responsibility of providing for the maintenance and operation of the appellate judiciary, has the authority to declare under what circumstances, and upon what terms and conditions, indigent litigants should be permitted free access to the appellate courts. However, until the Judicial Council or Legislature has spoken on the subject, the courts properly may exercise their inherent power to assure that the indigent litigant is given reasonable opportunity to obtain appellate relief. fn. 6 As stated in Martin v. Superior Court, supra, 176 Cal. [4 Cal.3d 657] 289, 294, "[I]mperfect as was the ancient common-law system, harsh as it was in many of its methods and measures, it would strike one with surprise to be credibly informed that the common-law courts of England shut their doors upon all poor suitors who could not pay fees, until parliament came to their relief. Even greater would be the reproach to the system of jurisprudence of the state of California if it could be truly declared that in this twentieth century, by its codes and statutes, it had said the same thing ...."
Thus, in Martin v. Superior Court, supra, 176 Cal. 289, 299, this court suggested that although it was not required by law, the courts may, in their discretion, call for a sufficient affidavit of merits or other form of satisfactory evidence before ordering an action to be commenced in forma pauperis. And in a subsequent case involving the same parties, Majors v. Superior Court of Alameda Co., supra, 181 Cal. 270, the court stated that judicial discretion in this area "should be exercised with a view to confine the privilege most strictly to those who, having a substantial right to enforce or preserve, are absolutely unable otherwise to so do, and who, once having been admitted to proceed in forma pauperis, diligently pursue a course free from unreasonable delay or vexatious conduct of any kind.... [Par.] [S]uch discretion should be used with the utmost care, to the end that unworthy persons who are neither indigent nor possessed of substantial rights may not enjoy this privilege." (Pp. 279-280.) [4 Cal.3d 658]
[8] Although the foregoing showing ordinarily would be sufficient to entitle an indigent applicant to proceed in the appellate courts in forma pauperis, we emphasize that the appellate courts possess the further inherent power to summarily dismiss any action or appeal which has as its object to delay, vex or harass the opposing party or the court, or is based upon wholly sham or frivolous grounds. (Lierly v. McEwen, 208 Cal. 645 [283 P. 943]; Pengelly v. Pengelly, 200 Cal. 381 [253 P. 323]; James v. James, 125 Cal.App.2d 417 [270 P.2d 538]; see 3 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (1954) Appeal, § 164, pp. 2354-2355.) [9] Moreover, the appellate courts have discretion to impose appropriate sanctions or penalties upon the parties or their attorneys, "Where the appeal is frivolous or taken solely for the purpose of delay ...." (Rule 26(a), Cal. Rules of Court.) We are confident that the availability of these sanctions will adequately protect the appellate system from frivolous litigation. It should go without saying that these sanctions must be evenly applied and equally imposed upon indigent and nonindigent alike, for as was recently noted by the United States Supreme Court, "there [is] no necessary connection between [4 Cal.3d 659] a litigant's assets and the seriousness of his motives in bringing suit...." (Boddie v. Connecticut, supra, 401 U.S. 371, 381 [28 L.Ed.2d 113, 121, 91 S.Ct. 780].)
­FN 1. See 4 American Jurisprudence Second, Appeal and Error, sections 345-351; 20 American Jurisprudence Second, Costs, sections 47-51; Silverstein, Waiver of Court Costs and Appointment of Counsel for Poor Persons in Civil Cases, 2 Valparaiso University Law Review, pages 21, 33-36. Silverstein states that "The in forma pauperis statutes vary widely among the states as to which levels of courts are covered. Appellate court fees may be waived in nine states, also in the federal courts. Courts of general jurisdiction are subject to the statutes in 24 states, the federal jurisdictions, and Puerto Rico." (P. 35.)
­FN 2. Courts in other states have reached differing conclusions regarding the existence of an inherent power of the courts to waive fees and costs for indigent litigants. Compare Sloatman v. Gibbons (1969) 104 Ariz. 429 [454 P.2d 574], with O'Connor v. Matzdorff (1969) 76 Wn.2d 589 [458 P.2d 154], and Casper v. Huber (1969) 85 Nev. 474 [456 P.2d 436].
­FN 3. Note, however, that this question is presented in the underlying mandate actions sought to be filed in Colon v. Superior Court and Rowe v. Superior Court.
­FN 4. Statutes of 1963, chapter 873, section 3, as amended in minor respects by statutes 1967, chapter 17, sections 68-70.
­FN 5. Under former Government Code section 68850, the fee for filing a petition for hearing was $2.50.
­FN 6. In view of our determination that the appellate courts have the inherent power to permit indigents to seek appellate relief in forma pauperis, we need not reach the question whether constitutional principles of due process or equal protection of the law would invalidate general fee legislation which has the effect of depriving indigents in ordinary civil cases of access to the courts. For cases and authorities in this developing area of the law, see Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U.S. 371 [28 L.Ed.2d 113, 91 S.Ct. 780]; Williams v. Shaffer, 385 U.S. 1037 [17 L.Ed.2d 683, 87 S.Ct. 772] (Douglas, J. dissenting from den. of cert.); Lee v. Habib (1970) 424 F.2d 891 [137 App.D.C. 403]; Brown v. Chastain (5th Cir. 1969) 416 F.2d 1012, 1014 (dis. op.); Frederick v. Schwartz (D. Conn. 1969) 296 F.Supp. 1321; Jeffreys v. Jeffreys, 58 Misc.2d 1045 [296 N.Y.S.2d 74]; Tamburro v. Trama, 59 Misc.2d 488 [299 N.Y.S.2d 528]; In re Karren (1968) 280 Minn. 377 [159 N.W.2d 402]; Chambers v. District Court of Dubuque County (1967) 261 Iowa 31 [152 N.W.2d 818]; Note, Litigation Costs: The Hidden Barrier to the Indigent, 56 Geo.L.J. 516, 534-543; Willging, Financial Barriers and the Access of Indigents to the Courts, 57 Geo.L.J. 253; Note, Discriminations Against the Poor and the Fourteenth Amendment, 81 Harv.L. Rev. 435, 450-452; Note, Developments in the Law--Equal Protection, 82 Harv. L.Rev. 1065; Sager, Tight Little Islands: Exclusionary Zoning, Equal Protection, and the Indigent, 21 Stan.L.Rev. 767, 785-787.
­FN 7. The certificate need not set forth the facts or contentions which underlie the action or appeal. However, as we explain infra, once the court has permitted the matter to be filed in forma pauperis, the court retains the power to dismiss as sham or frivolous any action or appeal on the basis of the record, evidence and briefs on file before it. Cf. Draper v. Washington, 372 U.S. 487, 499 [9 L.Ed.2d 899, 907, 83 S.Ct. 774]; Coppedge v. United States, 369 U.S. 438, 447-448 [8 L.Ed.2d 21, 29-30, 82 S.Ct. 917]; Ellis v. United States, 356 U.S. 674, 675 [2 L.Ed.2d 1060, 1061, 78 S.Ct. 974].
­FN 8. We accept the view that the applicant need not establish total destitution in order to qualify for in forma pauperis relief. See Adkins v. DuPont Co., 335 U.S. 331, 339-340 [93 L.Ed. 43, 48-49, 69 S.Ct. 85]; Fuller v. State of California, supra, 1 Cal. App.3d 664, 669; 2 Witkin, California Procedure (2d ed. 1970), supra, section 219, pages 1075-1076. Nevertheless, in view of the relatively modest sums required to file appellate actions, the applicant may be required to show more than that payment of the fee would be burdensome or inconvenient to him.
Tue, 04/27/1971 4 Cal.3d 649 Review - Criminal Appeal Opinion issued
1 KATHERINE FERGUSON, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. LESLIE R. KEAYS, as Marshal, etc. (Defendant and Respondent)
2 LESLIE R. KEAYS, as Marshal, etc. (Defendant and Respondent)
Apr 27 1971 Remanded
SCOCAL, Ferguson v. Keays , 4 Cal.3d 649 available at: (https://scocal.stanford.edu/opinion/ferguson-v-keays-27611) (last visited Monday August 10, 2020).