Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/166/424/case.html
Timestamp: 2016-09-28 03:28:52
Document Index: 559768710

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 637', '§ 641', '§ 9', '§ 1', '§ 563', '§ 629', '§ 633']

Hunt v. United States :: 166 U.S. 424 (1897) :: Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center Log In
Hunt v. United States 166 U.S. 424 (1897)
U.S. Supreme CourtHunt v. United States, 166 U.S. 424 (1897)Hunt v. United StatesNo. 230Submitted March 25, 1897Decided April 12, 1897166 U.S. 424ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF
An answer to the writ of scire facias was filed by Hunt and Ward, and a demurrer and a replication to the answer by the United States. A jury was waived in writing, and the case tried by the court, which gave judgment for the United States. The case was taken by writ of error to the circuit court of appeals, which affirmed the judgment and denied a Page 166 U. S. 425 petition for a rehearing. 61 F. 795; 63 F. 568. The defendants thereupon sued out this writ of error.
In the earlier Judiciary Acts of the United States, the general jurisdiction of the courts of the United States, as depending upon the suit being of a criminal or of a civil nature, was usually defined by the words "any cause, civil Page 166 U. S. 426 or criminal," Rev.Stat. § 637, or "any civil suit or criminal prosecution," Rev.Stat. §§ 641, 643, or, on the one hand, by the words "crimes and offenses" and, on the other hand, by the words "suits of a civil nature at common law or in equity," or "suits at common law," or "civil actions," Act Sept. 24, 1789, c. 20, §§ 9, 11, 22, 1 Stat. 76-79, 84; Act March 3, 1875, c. 137, §§ 1, 2, 18 Stat. 470; Rev.Stat. § 563, cls. 1, 4; Id., § 629, cls. 1, 3, 20; Id., § 633.
Under those acts, a writ of scire facias upon a recognizance to answer a criminal charge might have been deemed a civil action. Stearns v. Barrett, 1 Mason 153; United States v. Payne, 147 U. S. 687, 147 U. S. 690; Commonwealth v. McNeill, 19 Pick. 127; Commonwealth v. Stebbins, 4 Gray 25; State v. Kinne, 41 N.H. 238. Yet see 3 U. S. Cobbet, 3 Dall. 467; s.c., 2 Yeates 352; Commonwealth v. Philadelphia Commissioners, 8 S. & R. 151; State v. Cornig, 42 La.Ann. 416; State v. Murmann, 124 Mo. 502, 507.
A writ of scire facias upon a recognizance to answer to a charge of crime, even if it be, technically considered, a civil action and only incidental and collateral to the criminal prosecution, is certainly a case arising under the criminal laws, for it is a suit to enforce the penalty of a recognizance taken to secure the appearance of the principal to answer the charge and to abide any sentence against him. The provision of section 1014 of the Revised Statutes, under which the recognizance in suit was taken, is contained in chapter 18 of title 13 of the Revised Statutes, under the Page 166 U. S. 427 head of "Criminal Procedure," and in the first of the sections regulating arrest, bail, indictments, pleadings, commitments, challenges, witnesses, trial, verdict, sentence, and execution, in criminal cases, and this recognizance is, as it is described in section 1020, a "recognizance in a criminal cause."