Opinion ID: 2232184
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Right to Adjournment.

Text: Sec. 256.04, Stats., provides: Contempts committed in the immediate view and presence of the court may be punished summarily; in other cases the party shall be notified of the accusation and have a reasonable time to make his defense. Even without such a statutory command that one accused of having committed a contempt without the presence of the court be granted reasonable time in which to prepare his defense, the due-process clause of the Fourteenth amendment requires that this be done. Cooke v. United States (1925), 267 U. S. 517, 45 Sup. Ct. 390, 69 L. Ed. 767.  Ramsay's disobedience of the September 7th order, which gave rise to the order to show cause of September 8th, occurred without the presence of the court. Therefore, the trial court should have granted the request for an adjournment. The length of time for which such an adjournment should be granted lies within the sound discretion of the court. Situations in which witnesses may have to be contacted, interviewed, and subpoenaed by the party accused of being in contempt in order to prepare his defense, might require a longer period than where the defense rests solely on the legality of the order disobeyed, as was the case here. However, it is difficult to conceive of a situation in which the minimum period encompassed in such an adjournment should be less than two or three days. Here the trial court offered to grant a reasonable period of adjournment on the condition that Ramsay, in the meantime, obey the order and accept the two children into the Home. The court had no right to impose such a condition under the instant facts. Possibly in an emergency situation, where irreparable harm might occur if the court's original order were not obeyed, such a condition might be justified. However, as hereinafter pointed out, the court had available another course of action for providing temporary care for the two children, and there was no necessity for compelling Ramsay to forthwith obey the order as a condition precedent to granting the adjournment required by sec. 256.04, Stats. The state contends that, irrespective of Ramsay's refusal on September 8th to obey the order of the court, he also committed a contempt in the presence of the court at the hearing on September 9th. This is because, when then asked by the court whether he was going to obey the order of September 7th, Ramsay replied that he would accept Delores into the Home but not Ralph. We are of the opinion that the provision of sec. 256.04, Stats., requiring an adjournment to one accused of a contempt without the presence of the court, cannot be circumvented by requiring the accused to  answer in the court's presence whether he will now obey a prior court order, and then finding that his negative answer constitutes a contempt occurring in the presence of the court. It was improper under the facts of this case for the trial court to have asked this question of Ramsay. Cf. State ex rel. Attorney General v. Circuit Court (1897), 97 Wis. 1, 15, 72 N. W. 193. The state relies upon Brown v. United States (1959), 359 U. S. 41, 79 Sup. Ct. 539, 3 L. Ed. (2d) 609, and Levine v. United States (1960), 362 U. S. 610, 80 Sup. Ct. 1038, 4 L. Ed. (2d) 989, as supporting its contention that Ramsay committed a contempt in the presence of the court which rendered inoperative the adjournment provision of sec. 256.04, Stats. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, sec. 42 (b) is similar to that portion of sec. 256.04, Stats., which provides for an adjournment where the alleged contempt occurred outside of the presence of the court. In the Brown and Levine Cases, witnesses who had been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury, and had been granted immunity, refused to testify. Each witness was brought before the United States district judge who had impaneled the grand jury and was ordered to testify. When returned to the grand jury, each again refused to testify in disobedience of such order. Each was again brought before the court and asked if he would then obey the order, and each answered in the negative. In both cases the witnesses were summarily adjudged in contempt and punished by the imposition of a prison sentence. The United States supreme court, by split decisions, affirmed the action of the trial court in each case. The factual difference between the Brown and the Levine Cases and the instant case is apparent from this statement in the majority opinion in the Brown Case (359 U. S. at p. 49):  A grand jury is clothed with great independence in many areas, but it remains an appendage of the court, powerless to perform its investigative function without the court's aid, because powerless itself to compel the testimony of witnesses. It is the court's process which summons the witness to attend and give testimony, and it is the court which must compel a witness to testify if, after appearing, he refuses to do so. The Home is not an appendage of the circuit court for Milwaukee county, nor was its efficient functioning in any manner dependent upon whether Ramsay obeyed the court's order of September 7th. Furthermore, the interpretation which the federal courts place upon Federal Rule, sec. 42 (b), is only persuasive, and not controlling, authority on how this court construes sec. 256.04, Stats. The state also calls attention to the fact that in State ex rel. Reynolds v. County Court (1960), 11 Wis. (2d) 560, 105 N. W. (2d) 876, the county court proceeded against the county clerk upon an order to show cause for an alleged contempt which had occurred without the presence of the court. Then, at the hearing the county clerk was found guilty of contempt and, upon the reconvening of the hearing, was adjudged guilty of a further act of contempt committed in the presence of the court. However, in that case this court did not pass on the issue of whether the county clerk was entitled to an adjournment of the original hearing, in order to prepare his defense pursuant to sec. 256.04, Stats., without being required to state whether he still refused to comply with the prior order of the court. Therefore, that case has no efficacy as a precedent governing the outcome of the issue here under consideration. In criminal-contempt proceedings where the alleged contempt consists of a failure to obey an order or process of the court occurring outside the presence of the court, the judge who issued the disobeyed order or process should give  consideration to whether he should take the discretionary step of disqualifying himself in order to permit another judge to try the contempt issue. This is suggested because of the possibility that the judge, whose order or process has been disobeyed, may not be able to decide the contempt issue as impartially as a judge who has had no part in the proceedings giving rise to the citation for contempt. Federal Rule, sec. 42 (b), requires disqualification of the trial judge where the contempt charged involves disrespect to or criticism of a judge, . . . However, this requirement of disqualification does not apply where the alleged contempt is disobedience of a court order or process. Nilva v. United States (1957), 352 U. S. 385, 396, 77 Sup. Ct. 431, 1 L. Ed. (2d) 415, rehearing denied, 353 U. S. 931, 77 Sup. Ct. 716, 1 L. Ed. (2d) 724. See also Anno. 64 A. L. R. (2d) 600, 634. When confronted with an issue of contempt a court would do well to heed these words of caution expressed by Mr. Justice WINSLOW in State ex rel. Attorney General v. Circuit Court, supra (at p. 8): It [the power to punish acts for contempt] is, perhaps, nearest akin to despotic power of any power existing under our form of government. Such being its nature, due regard for the liberty of the citizen imperatively requires that its limits be carefully guarded, so that they be not overstepped. It is important that it exist in full vigor; it is equally important that it be not abused. The greater the power, the greater the care required in its exercise. Being a power which arises and is based upon necessity, it must be measured and limited by the necessity which calls it into existence. If there were only before us the error in refusing to grant a proper adjournment of the September 9th hearing, the judgment would have to be reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings. However, a remand is unnecessary if the order disobeyed was not a lawful order under sec. 256.03 (3), Stats.