Opinion ID: 326942
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Order of June 20, 1974

Text: 21 On May 10, 1974, Comprehensive filed its Amended Petition for a Rule to Show Cause, and Supplementary Petition for Other Relief against Rosenfeldt, alleging that, in addition to his actions prior to January 7 in violation of the court's Order of October 19, 1973, Rosenfeldt has continued his willful and malicious acts and omissions with the intent to injure Comprehensive. . . . It further alleged that as a result of Rosenfeldt's contemptuous violation of this Court's prior orders, it had suffered actual damages in the amount of $35,565.20, and had been required to expend additional sums for attorney's fees and costs. 22 At the close of a four-day hearing, the district judge reconfirmed and readopted the findings of fact and conclusions of law contained in his January 7, 1974, Order, and found that, in the period since January 7, Rosenfeldt, (i)nstead of purging himself from contempt, . . . was in fact guilty of further contempt of the court by willfully continuing to fail and to refuse to carry out the prior orders of the court. He concluded that David B. Rosenfeldt's willful, wanton and malicious acts of contempt have resulted in damages to Comprehensive Accounts (sic) Service Corporation in the amount of $47,259.08, 6 and ordered Rosenfeldt to pay a fine in that amount to Comprehensive. 7 23 In determining the appealability of this order, we must first determine the nature of the contempt involved civil or criminal. The test for distinguishing between the two has long been established: 24 It is not the fact of punishment, but rather its character and purpose, that often serve to distinguish between the two classes of cases. If it is for civil contempt the punishment is remedial, and for the benefit of the complainant. But if it is for criminal contempt the sentence is punitive, to vindicate the authority of the court. 25 Gompers v. Bucks Stove & Range Co., 221 U.S. 418, 441, 31 S.Ct. 492, 498, 55 L.Ed. 797. See also Fox v. Capital Co., 299 U.S. 105, 108, 57 S.Ct. 57, 81 L.Ed. 67. In Gompers, the Court noted that the relief sought by the petition is significant and determinative in this respect, 221 U.S. at 448, 31 S.Ct. 492; if it had prayed that the court impose a fine payable to the Buck's Stove & Range Company, the language would have left no doubt that remedial punishment was sought. Id. at 449, 31 S.Ct. at 501. 26 In this case there can be no doubt that the fine imposed by the district court was civil in nature. Comprehensive's amended Petition for Rule to Show Cause sought the fine as and for its actual damages. The court's Order awarded the fine in an amount equal to the court's calculation of Comprehensive's actual damages, based on Comprehensive's evidence during the four-day hearing. 27 Having concluded that Rosenfeldt is appealing from an order imposing civil contempt sanctions, the rule is clear that such an order is not final within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and, therefore, is not appealable. As the Supreme Court held in Fox v. Capital Co., supra: 28 The rule is settled in this Court that except in connection with an appeal from a final judgment or decree, a party to a suit may not review upon appeal an order fining or imprisoning him for the commission of a civil contempt. Doyle v. London Guarantee & Accident Co., Ltd., 204 U.S. 599, 27 S.Ct. 313, 51 L.Ed. 641; In re Christensen Engineering Co., 194 U.S. 458, 24 S.Ct. 729, 48 L.Ed. 1072; Hayes v. Fischer, 102 U.S. 121, 26 L.Ed. 95; Worden v. Searls, 121 U.S. 14, 25, 7 S.Ct. 814, 30 L.Ed. 853. 29 299 U.S. at 107-108, 57 S.Ct. at 58. See also International Business Machines Corp. v. United States, 493 F.2d 112, 117 (2d Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 995, 94 S.Ct. 2409, 40 L.Ed.2d 774; Hughes v. Sharp, 476 F.2d 975 (9th Cir. 1973); S. E. C. v. Naftalin, 460 F.2d 471, 475 (8th Cir. 1972); Hodgson v. Mahoney, 460 F.2d 326, 328 (1st Cir. 1972); Fireman's Fund Ins. Co. v. Myers, 439 F.2d 834, 838 (3rd Cir. 1971); Southern Railway Co. v. Lanham, 403 F.2d 119, 124 (5th Cir. 1968); Duell v. Duell, 85 U.S.App.D.C. 78, 178 F.2d 683, 687-688 (1949). 8 30 Rosenfeldt argues, however, that the penalty imposed was in fact a criminal sanction for two reasons. First, he notes that the Order stated:The court hereby imposes a fine in the amount of $47,259.08 upon David Rosenfeldt on account of said contempt, including the $1,000.00 fine originally imposed upon him. (Emphasis added). 31 From the emphasized language, he concludes that a portion of the fine was intended to be punitive rather than remedial. We cannot agree. The district court's Order of May 3, 1974, vacated both the jail sentence and the $1,000 fine imposed January 7. In his June 20 Order, however, the trial judge apparently forgot that he had vacated the fine, for his summary of the proceedings only mentioned the vacating of the jail term. Thus, he obviously intended the $47,259.08 fine to supersede this provision of the earlier Order. As demonstrated above in n. 6, the final amount of the fine was exactly equal to the amount the judge determined Comprehensive had lost on the immediately transferrable accounts. Had the fine included an additional $1,000, Rosenfeldt's argument might well have merit. 32 Second, Rosenfeldt argues that the fine was punitive because the district court awarded Comprehensive some $12,000 more than it had requested in its Amended Petition. Without reviewing the accuracy of the district judge's calculations, it is clear that he was attempting to determine the actual amount by which Comprehensive was damaged. He was unquestionably empowered to award Comprehensive the larger sum if the evidence introduced at the four-day hearing established Comprehensive's entitlement thereto. Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(c). For present purposes we must assume that the evidence supports the order. 33 Finally, Rosenfeldt relies on the Second Circuit's decision in New York Telephone Co. v. Communication Workers of America, 445 F.2d 39 (2d Cir. 1971), for the proposition that an unconditional civil contempt order may be interlocutorily appealable. He notes that Comprehensive has already begun to collect the fine and that there is no way he can purge himself by future conduct. 34 In New York Telephone, the court of appeals determined that it had interlocutory jurisdiction to review the imposition of fines on an international and local union and a union officer, on two grounds. First, the special circumstances of the case rendered the civil contempt order final. While the court noted that execution had issued immediately and that the defendants faced immediate and perhaps irreparable loss, it also found that virtually nothing remained of the case below. The only union practice against which the complaint sought relief had already ended. Accordingly, our intervention by way of appeal runs no risk of disrupting the orderly course of proceedings below. 445 F.2d at 45. Indeed, it was precisely on this ground that the Second Circuit distinguished New York Telephone in its later decision in International Business Machines, supra, 493 F.2d at 117. 35 Such is not the situation in the case before us. Still remaining before the district court are the merits of both the plaintiffs' case and Comprehensive's counterclaim. A resolution of the tangled questions on the merits presented by these appeals might well disrupt the orderly course of proceedings below. Nor does the fact, by itself, that Comprehensive is already executing on this judgment render the matter appropriate for interlocutory review. Rosenfeldt has not petitioned the district court for a stay of execution as far as the record before us discloses. 9 36 The second ground relied on in New York Telephone was that the civil contempt judgments were reviewable in connection with the appeal from an interlocutory order respecting an injunction under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1). Such is not the case here. As discussed in section I, supra, an interlocutory appeal from those portions of the October 19, 1973, Order that Rosenfeldt was subsequently found to have violated is not authorized by § 1292(a)(1). Thus, the special circumstances present in New York Telephone do not exist in this case, and the general rule against interlocutory review of civil contempt judgments dictates that we may not review the Order of June 20, 1974, at this time. 37 Accordingly, these three consolidated appeals are hereby dismissed.