Opinion ID: 1684174
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Heading: The Right to a Jury Trial in the Contempt Hearing

Text: Werblud also says that his constitutional rights were violated by the court's denial of his request for a jury trial. He relies upon Articles V, VI, and XIV of the United States Constitution, as well as Article I, Sections 10 and 15, and Article V, Section 10, of the Texas Constitution. To determine Werblud's right to jury trial, we must first decide whether the contempt for which Werblud was charged was civil or criminal, whether it was direct or constructive, and whether it was petty or serious. The purpose of civil contempt is remedial and coercive in nature. A judgment of civil contempt exerts the judicial authority of the court to persuade the contemnor to obey some order of the court where such obedience will benefit an opposing litigant. Imprisonment is conditional upon obedience and therefore the civil contemnor carries the keys of [his] prison in [his] own pocket. Shillitani v. United States, 384 U.S. 364, 368, 86 S.Ct. 1531, 1534, 16 L.Ed.2d 622 (1966); Gompers v. Buck Stove & R. Co., 221 U.S. 418, 442, 31 S.Ct. 492, 55 L.Ed. 797 (1910). In other words, it is civil contempt when one may procure his release by compliance with the provisions of the order of the court. Ex parte Hosken, 480 S.W.2d 18 (Tex.Civ.App. Beaumont 1972). This is the settled rule in Texas. Ex parte DeWees, 146 Tex. 564, 210 S.W.2d 145, 147 (1948). Criminal contempt on the other hand is punitive in nature. The sentence is not conditioned upon some promise of future performance because the contemnor is being punished for some completed act which affronted the dignity and authority of the court. Shillitani v. United States, supra ; Beale, Contempt of Court Criminal & Civil, 21 Harv.L.Rev. 161 (1908); Magee, Contempt of Court in Texas, 14 S.Tex.L.J. 278 (1973). 17 Am.Jur.2d, Contempt § 4 (1964). This rule was well expressed in Ex parte Hosken at 23: Where the primary purpose of the proceeding is to vindicate public authority, the proceeding is usually denominated criminal. The action is punitive in nature. Nye v. United States, 313 U.S. 33, 43, 61 S.Ct. 810, 85 L.Ed. 1172, (1941); Bloom v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 194, 201, 88 S.Ct. 1477, 20 L.Ed.2d 522 (1968). Ordinarily, the punishment is fixed and definite and no subsequent voluntary compliance on the part of the defendant can enable him to avoid punishment for his past acts. The affidavit of contempt filed by the State prayed that: Texas Pet Foods, Inc., and Maurice Werblud, its owner, operator and principal corporate officer, be held in and punished for contempt of this court ; that Maurice Werblud, as owner, operator and principal officer of the Defendant corporation be fined and imprisoned for such reasonable length of time commensurate with the gravity and seriousness of each act of contemptuous conduct alleged in this Affidavit . . .. [Emphasis added.] The court of civil appeals made clear that its purpose in imposing the two fines upon Werblud was to punish him. The punishment was for completed acts of contempt and was not made conditional upon future compliance by Werblud. As the United States Supreme Court said in Gompers v. Buck Stove & R. Co., supra , and repeated in Shillitani v. United States, supra 384 U.S. at 369, 86 S.Ct. at 1535, It is not the fact of punishment but rather its character and purpose that often serves to distinguish civil from criminal contempt. The test may be what does the court primarily seek to accomplish by imposing sentence? In this instance the answer to that test is punishment. A contempt may also be classified as either direct or constructive. A direct contempt occurs within the presence of the court; while a constructive, or indirect, contempt occurs outside the presence of the court. Ex parte Ratliff, 117 Tex. 325, 3 S.W.2d 406 (1928); Magee, supra at 281. This distinction has more significance than merely identifying the physical location of the contemptuous act, since more procedural safeguards have been afforded to constructive contemnors than to direct contemnors. United States v. Wilson , 421 U.S. 309, 95 S.Ct. 1802, 44 L.Ed.2d 186 (1975); Ex parte Hill, 122 Tex. 80, 52 S.W.2d 367 (1932); Odom & Baker, Direct & Constructive Contempt, 26 Baylor L.Rev. 147 (1974). Note, Mayberry v. Pennsylvania: Due Process Limitation in Summary Punishments for Contempt of Court, 25 Sw.L.J. 805 (1971). The charge against Werblud was, of course, that of a constructive contempt. We have then, a constructive criminal contempt which is charged against one who is tried by judges other than the one who pronounced the original order. One's right to a jury, however, depends upon still another test, whether the offense may be classified as petty or serious. The distinction was noticed in the recent decision of the Supreme Court in Muniz v. Hoffman, 422 U.S. 454, 95 S.Ct. 2178, 2190, 45 L.Ed.2d 319 (1975). Although that case arose in the Federal court, the jury trial requirements of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution apply with equal force to State prosecutions for contempt. Codispoti v. Pennsylvania, 418 U.S. 506, 94 S.Ct. 2687, 41 L.Ed.2d 912 (1974); Bloom v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 194, 88 S.Ct. 1477, 20 L.Ed.2d 522 (1968); Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145, 88 S.Ct. 1444, 20 L.Ed.2d 491 (1968). Muniz summarized the distinctions and from that case we extract these rules: (1) Like other minor crimes, petty contempts may be tried without a jury, but contemnors in serious contempt cases in the federal system have a Sixth Amendment right to jury trial; (2) criminal contempt, in and of itself and without regard for the punishment imposed, is not a serious offense absent legislative declaration to the contrary; (3) lacking legislative authorization of more serious punishment, a sentence of as much as six months in prison, plus normal periods of probation may be imposed without a jury trial; (4) but imprisonment for longer than six months is constitutionally impermissible unless the contemnor has been given the opportunity for a jury trial. Cases of criminal contempt, where the sentence actually imposed does not exceed six months imprisonment, are exempted from the requirements of a jury trial. Taylor v. Hayes, 418 U.S. 488, 94 S.Ct. 2697, 41 L.Ed.2d 897 (1974). This exemption is based upon the historical interpretation of the Sixth Amendment that petty offenses were tried without juries in both England and the colonies and that the framers of the Constitution did not intend the Sixth Amendment jury trial rights to be more comprehensive than the established common law practice. Duncan v. Louisiana, supra ; Frankfurter & Corcoran, Petty Federal Offenses and the Constitutional Guaranty of Trial by Jury, 39 Harv.L.Rev. 917 (1926). Six months imprisonment and/or a $500 fine has been chosen as a somewhat arbitrary line for distinguishing petty offenses from serious offenses, although this does coincide with the statutory definition of a petty offense in Federal criminal law. 18 U.S.C.A. § 1(3). Texas is in accord with these distinctions between petty and serious offenses. The statute which authorizes punishment for criminal contempt allows punishment by a fine of not more than $500, or by confinement in the county jail for not more than six months, or both. Tex.Rev. Stat.Ann. art. 1911a, § 2 (Supp.1975). The authorization of punishment falls within the definition of petty offenses as set forth by the United States Supreme Court. Muniz v. Hoffman, supra ; Duncan v. Louisiana, supra ; Bloom v. Illinois, supra . Furthermore, the legislative history of the Texas contempt statute reveals that it was the drafter's intent to keep punishment within the petty offense category. Greenhill, Proposed New Statute on Contempt, 33 Tex.Bar J. 970 (1970). The fact that two $500 fines were imposed upon Werblud does not take this case out of the petty offense category. These fines constituted punishment for two separate acts of constructive contempt committed on separate dates. Ex parte Genecov, 143 Tex. 476, 186 S.W.2d 225 (1945). Even if the fine was considered as being for a single offense, the United States Supreme Court in Muniz v. Hoffman, supra 422 U.S. at 476, 95 S.Ct. at 2190, held that a fine which exceeds $500 does not in and of itself necessitate the use of a jury. [W]e cannot accept the proposition that a contempt must be considered a serious crime under all circumstances where the punishment is a fine of more than $500, unaccompanied by imprisonment. It is one thing to hold that deprivation of an individual's liberty beyond a six-month term should not be imposed without the protections of a jury trial, but it is quite another to suggest that, regardless of the circumstances, a jury is required where any fine greater than $500 is contemplated. From the standpoint of determining the seriousness of the risk and the extent of the possible deprivation faced by a contemnor, imprisonment and fines are intrinsically different. We hold that under the facts of this case the court of civil appeals was not required to provide a jury trial for Werblud in a case of constructive criminal contempt when two separate $500 fines were imposed.