Court Opinion

ID: 9459919
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:35:27.797415+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:23.758885
License: Public Domain

OPINION OF THE COURT
ALDISERT, Circuit Judge.
We are called upon to review the propriety of a permanent injunction issued by the district court, a federal civilian court, which prohibits the trial of an army sergeant by court-martial on the theory that the military court lacked jurisdiction under O’Callahan v. Parker, 395 U.S. 258, 89 S.Ct. 1683, 23 L.Ed.2d 291 (1969). The Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Army, and the court-martial’s convening authority, a general officer, have appealed.
A general court-martial had been convened to try Army Sergeant First Class Sedivy for possession of amphetamines and marijuana in violation of Articles 92 and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. §§ 892, 934.1 By the terms of the permanent injunction issued by the district court, the military authorities were enjoined from proceeding against Sedivy on these charges. The district court made findings of fact, drew legal conclusions therefrom, and held that Sedivy’s conduct was not service connected, and, therefore, under O’Callahan the military court lacked jurisdiction to try him.
The military prosecution emanated from a December 10, 1971, raid on Sedivy’s off-post house trailer. Civilian and military law enforcement officials conducted the raid, acting pursuant to a search warrant issued by a New Jersey state judge. The authorities found a quantity of amphetamines and marijuana on the premises and arrested Sergeant Sedivy and three other enlisted men attached to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. At that time Sergeant Sedivy served as acting first sergeant of the 241st Military Police Company and was the senior non-commissioned officer of that unit.2 The threshold inquiry concerns the authority of the district court to find the facts and reach the legal conclusions on the O’Callahan issue.
I.
We immediately notice an issue neither argued nor briefed here or in the district court. It was incumbent upon Sergeant Sedivy to assert a claim cognizable under the general federal question jurisdictional statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1331, with the prerequisite $10,000 amount in controversy. Cf., Spock v. David, 469 F.2d 1047 (3d Cir. 1972). This he did by appropriate averments in both the First and Fourth Counts of his complaint. As the concurring opinion indicates, the appellants filed no answer, but in a brief colloquy at trial their counsel refused to stipulate to the court’s jurisdiction. It cannot thus be said that the question of jurisdiction was properly traversed by a pleading or by .a motion under F.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1). As was the case of the trial court in Spock, “[t]he district court assumed that jurisdiction of the federal court was.not in issue.” “Since as the record of the district court comes before us the allegation of jurisdictional amount remains untraversed, ... we cannot say as a legal certainty that [Sedivy] would never be able to establish [his] jurisdictional amount claim.” Spock v. David, supra, 469 F.2d at 1052. Although the jurisdiction averments were not traversed at trial, we are permitted to raise the question sua sponte. “An *1117objection to the adjudicatory power of a tribunal may generally be raised for the first time at any stage of the litigation. See, e. g., Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83, 88 n.2, [88 S.Ct. 1942, 20 L.Ed.2d 947] (1968); United States v. Griffin, 303 U.S. 226, 229, [58 S.Ct. 601, 82 L.Ed. 764] (1938); Fortier v. New Orleans National Bank, 112 U.S. 439, 444, [5 S.Ct. 234, 28 L.Ed. 764] (1884).” Gosa v. Mayden, 413 U.S. 665, 93 S.Ct. 2926, 37 L.Ed.2d 873 (1973) (Marshall, J., dissenting) (footnote omitted). Because the very nature of this action presents an arguable question whether the jurisdictional amount could be satisfied, this is the type of ease most appropriate for factual findings relating to subject matter jurisdiction. Nevertheless, we find it unnecessary to remand for such findings, first, because we are not required to, Spock v. David, supra, and, second, because of the view we take of these proceedings. For the guidance of the district courts, we emphasize the desirability to find jurisdictional facts in all eases arising under the general federal question statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1331, or the diversity statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1332, Nelson v. Keefer, 451 F.2d 289 (3d Cir. 1971). It is the Congressional mandate to restrict federal jurisdiction in these areas and it is incumbent upon the courts to implement this mandate.
II.
The precise question we address is whether the federal civilian courts may prevent absolutely the military from finding the facts and determining whether they have jurisdiction under O’Callahan. The Constitution specifically provides for military punishment of military related offenses, Article 1, § 8, cl. 14; amend. V. . . Congress, in the exercise of its power to ‘make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces,’ has never given . . . [the Supreme] Court appellate jurisdiction to supervise the administration of criminal justice in the military. When after the Second World War, Congress became convinced of the need to assure direct civilian review over military justice, it deliberately chose to confide this power to a specialized Court of Military Appeals, so that disinterested civilian judges could gain over time a fully developed understanding of the distinctive problems and legal traditions of the Armed Forces.” Noyd v. Bond, 395 U.S. 683, 694, 89 S.Ct. 1876, 1883, 23 L.Ed.2d 631 (1969) (footnote omitted).
If the Supreme Court articulates such a rule relating to the exercise of appellate jurisdiction over military court-martial matters, it would seem a fortiori that the inferior Article III courts are precluded from injunctive interference with the trial process of a military court. Civilian federal courts have approached ongoing courts-martial gingerly, and generally only through the means of federal habeas corpus.3
We recently have had occasion to observe that federal habeas corpus preserves the jurisprudential integrity of the military system, because federal habeas corpus, an inquiry into “detention simpliciter,” is not a direct review of a state or military court judgment:
Initially, it is necessary to identify the limited contours of a civilian court’s jurisdiction when presented with a habeas corpus petition from a federal prisoner whose incarceration was ordered by a court-martial. Our statement of this issue is deliberate, for we avoid the imprecise label “review.” Title 10 U.S.C. § 876 provides that military criminal proceedings shall be “final and conclusive,” and “binding upon all departments, courts, agencies, and officers of the United States.” That is, as in the case of petitions for habeas corpus filed by state prisoners under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, where there is no jurisdiction to review the state judgment, here there can be no review of the final judg*1118merit of the court-martial. Naturally, however, a federal court has jurisdiction to examine state prisoner habeas corpus cases, and the basis of this jurisdiction was made clear in Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 430-431, [83 S.Ct. 822, 844, 9 L.Ed.2d 837] (1963): “The jurisdictional prerequisite is not the judgment of a state court but detention simpliciter. . . . Habeas lies to enforce the right of personal liberty; when that right is denied and a person confined, the federal court has the power to release him. Indeed, it has no other power; it cannot revise the state court judgment; it can act only on the body of the petitioner. Medley, Petitioner, 134 U.S. 160, 173, [10 S.Ct. 384, 388, 33 L.Ed. 835].” Thus the federal court inquiry into “detention simpliciter” is not, jurisprudentially speaking, a review of the state judgment, but an inquiry into whether the constitutional rights of the prisoner were properly vindicated in the proceedings which caused his detention.
Levy v. Parker, supra, 478 F.2d at 779. (footnote omitted)
Even under habeas corpus, the opportunity for its exercise is strictly contained. “Gusik v. Sehilder, 340 U.S. 128, [71 S.Ct. 149, 95 L.Ed. 146] (1950), established the general rule that habeas corpus petitions from military prisoners should not be entertained by federal civilian courts until all available remedies within the military court system have been invoked in vain.” Noyd v. Bond, supra, 395 U.S. at 693, 89 S.Ct. at 1882 4
III.
Because our issue is tightly constrained, it is important to emphasize what is not before us. This is not habeas corpus. This is not an inquiry into the present detention of a military prisoner following a court-martial adjudication. Noyd v. Bond, supra; O’Callahan v. Parker, supra; Levy v. Parker, supra; Cole v. Laird, 468 F.2d 829 (5th Cir. 1972). See Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 430-431, 83 S.Ct. 822, 9 L.Ed.2d 837 (1963). What we have is an equity action preventing the military courts from making findings of fact or from interpreting the law pronounced by the Supreme Court. Our research has disclosed no reported case which has denied military courts the opportunity of finding facts relating to the exercise of their jurisdiction, except Moylan v. Laird, 305 F.Supp. 551 (R.I.1969), which we expressly decline to follow. The Moylan court appears to have ignored the Congressional limitations of 10 U.S.C. § 876 as well as every reported case on the subject.5 Moreover, experi*1119ence discloses that . . review of military proceedings is characterized by the law-fact dichotomy articulated most precisely by the Court of Claims: issues of fact are not reviewable; issues of law are. . . . Shaw v. United States, 357 F.2d 949, 953-954, 174 Ct.Cl. 899 (1966). . . .” Levy v. Parker, supra, 478 F.2d at 783.
Statutory proscription and precedent aside, it is important to place the military court system in its proper prospective. “Military courts are legislative courts; their jurisdiction is independent of Art. Ill judicial power.” 6 Parisi v. Davidson, 405 U.S. 34, 41 n.7, 92 S.Ct. 815, 819, 31 L.Ed.2d 17 (1972). They function in a procedural and jurisprudential environment tailored to meet military conditions. Justice Harlan addressed “. . . considerations [which] require a substantial degree of civilian deference to military tribunals. In reviewing military decisions, we must accommodate the demands of individual rights and the social order in a context which is far removed from those which we encounter in the ordinary run of civilian litigation, whether state or federal. In doing so, we must interpret a legal tradition which is radically different from that which is common in civil courts.” Noyd v. Bond, 395 U.S. at 694, 89 S.Ct. at 1883.
Generally speaking, a service man must exhaust remedies within the military judicial system even before habeas corpus recourse may be had to a federal court. “Exhaustion in this context requires completion of all the steps of review provided within the military. Prior to completion of this process, the civilian courts have not entertained petitions for habeas corpus. See Brown v. McNamara, 387 F.2d 150 (3d Cir. 1967). . . . Exhaustion of these administrative remedies generally seems appropriate under Professor Jaffe’s analysis. There is reason to have the military develop and decide the disputed questions of fact; the military is theoretically part of a coordinate branch of government entitled to some deference. L. Jaffe, Judicial Control of Administrative Action 424-26 (1965).” McCormack, Federal Court Intervention in Military Courts — Interrelationship of Defenses and Comity, 6 Ga.L.Rev. 532, 553-54 n.89.
Justice Marshall has recently explained the exhaustion requirement within the military justice system:
“The exhaustion doctrine evolved in the context of collateral attack on state criminal proceedings. See, e. g., Ex parte Hawk, 321 U.S. 114, [64 S.Ct. 448, 88 L.Ed. 572] (1944); Ex parte Royall, 117 U.S. 241, [6 S.Ct. 734, 29 L.Ed. 868] (1886). It generally requires state petitioners to utilize available state court remedies before resorting to federal habeas corpus, and thus serves both to ensure the orderly functioning of state judicial processes, without disruptive federal court intervention, and to allow state courts to fulfill their roles as co*1120equal partners with the federal courts in the enforcement of federal law, thus often eliminating the need for federal court action, and avoiding unnecessary friction between state and federal courts. These same considerations inhere in the context of collateral attack in federal court upon the judgments of military tribunals, which constitute a judicial system — a system with its own peculiar purposes and legal traditions— distinct from the federal judicial system much like the independent state judicial systems. Accordingly, this Court normally has required that military petitioners exhaust all available remedies within the military justice system. See Noyd v. Bond, 395 U.S. 683, 693, [89 S.Ct. 1876, 1882, 23 L.Ed.2d 631] (1969); Gusik v. Schilder, 340 U.S. 128, 131-132, [71 S.Ct. 149, 151-152, 95 L.Ed. 146] (1950).” Gosa v. Mayden, supra, 413 U.S. 665, 711, 93 S.Ct. 2926, 2953, 37 L.Ed.2d 873 (Marshall, J., dissenting) (footnotes omitted).7
We perceive the presence of no countervailing circumstances to necessitate a departure from the normal requirement of exhaustion of military remedies before recourse to federal civilian courts.8 *1121The military court system — including the general court-martial, the Army Court of Military Review, and the Court of Military Appeals — are required to follow the mandate of O’Callahan as further explicated in Relford v. Commandant, 401 U.S. 355, 91 S.Ct. 649, 28 L.Ed.2d 102 (1971).9
It is in the military court that Sergeant Sedivy may present the facts and the appropriate motion to oust military jurisdiction. Those tribunals may freely make the necessary factual determinations and draw conclusions from all the evidence present, including but not limited to the nature of the charges lodged against Sergeant Sedivy, that the seizure of the incriminating evidence was pursuant to a civilian court order, that the incident occurred off-base, that it did not occur in time of war, that Sergeant Sedivy was not on duty, that he was the ranking non-commissioned officer of the Fort Monmouth Military Police Company, that a sign on his house trailer announced that he was a first sergeant in the military police, that arrested with him were three Fort Monmouth enlisted men of inferior rank, that a fourth enlisted man under his command arrived at his trailer while the raid was in process.
Accordingly, we conclude that it was error for the district court to have made the fact findings in the first instance, to have decided the O’Callahan issue, and to have issued the injunction pursuant to a decision on the merits. The district court should have required the appellee to exhaust remedies in the military court system and not have interfered with its orderly process.
IV.
Although we recognize that a jurisprudential premise of Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), is the recognition of comity between courts of two co-equal sovereigns, federal and state, a persuasive ease can be made that the doctrine *1122applies equally to mutual non-intervention by two coordinate courts of the same sovereign.10 It can be contended that the equity postulates of Younger bade fealty to a traditional principle that one court system should not intrude when another court system holds out hope of an adequate remedy.11 Moreover, here, as emphasized in Younger, there appears to be no'barrier to the assertion of Sergeant Sedivy’s constitutional defense in a single criminal proceeding. So conceptualized, we arrive at the same result. Whether it be said that Sergeant Sedivy failed to exhaust avenues for relief in the military court system, or that he had available an adequate remedy at law, he was not entitled to the equitable relief granted by the district court.
The judgment of the district court will be reversed and the proceedings remanded with a direction to vacate the injunction and dismiss the complaint.

. Article 134, 10 U.S.C. § 934 has been declared unconstitutional. Levy v. Parker, 478 F.2d 772 (3d Cir. 1973).

. The Army’s Article 32 investigation discloses that arrested with Sedivy were Specialists Clonnie W. Adkins and Michael Salud and PFC Joseph M. Lunt. Specialist Kenneth E. Hinson, assigned to Sedivy’s MP Company, arrived on the premises while the raid was in progress.

. But see Councilman v. Laird, 481 F.2d 613 (10th Cir., 1973), discussed in footnote 5, infra.

. “Mr. Justice Douglas, for a unanimous Court [in Gusik v. Sehilder, supra] explained some of the important reasons which require civilian courts to respect the integrity of the military court system that Congress has established:
‘An analogy is a petition for habeas corpus in the federal court challenging the jurisdiction of a state court. If the state procedure provides a remedy, which though available has not been exhausted, the federal courts will not interfere. . . . The policy underlying that rule is as pertinent to the collateral attack of military judgments as it is to collateral attack of judgments rendered in state courts. If an available procedure has not been employed to rectify the alleged error which the federal court is asked to correct, any interference by the federal court may be wholly needless. The procedure established to police the errors of the tribunal whose judgment is challenged may be adequate for the occasion. If it is, any friction between the federal court and the military or state tribunal is saved. Such a principle of judicial administration is in no sense a suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. It is merely a deferment of resort to the writ until other corrective procedures are shown to be futile.’ Id., 340 U.S. at 131-132, 71 S.Ct. 151-152.”
Noyd v. Bond, supra, 395 U.S. at 693-694, 89 S.Ct. at 1882.

. In Councilman v. Laird, supra, the court of appeals affirmed an injunction restraining the continuance of a court-martial proceeding after an O’Callalian issue was first presented and rejected by the presiding judge of the court-martial. The issue of prior exhaustion of military remedies was not discussed in the opinion; an examination of the briefs discloses that the point was not *1119raised. The sole question on appeal was whether the offense was “service-connected.” Accordingly, the case has no precedential value for our purposes. See Bishop, Civilian Judges and Military Justice: Collateral Review of Court Martial Convictions, 61 Colum.L.Rev. 40 (1961); Weckstein, Federal Court Review of Courts-Martial Proceedings : A Delicate Balance of Individual Rights and Military Responsibilities, 54 Mil.L.Rev. 1 (1971).

. In a perceptive analysis, Judge Edward D. Re, formerly Professor of Law at St. John’s Law School, has written: “Although courtsmartials are not strictly a part of the judicial system of the United States since they are not ‘ . . . such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish,’ they are, nevertheless, important administrative military tribunals to which far-reaching powers are entrusted. The fact that they are adjuncts of the executive power does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that they are ‘ . . . simply instrumentalities of the executive power, provided by Congress for the President as Commander-in-Chief, to aid him in properly commanding the army and navy and enforcing discipline therein.’ Winthrop, Military Law and Precedents 49 (2d ed. 1920).” Re, The Uniform Code of Military Justice, 25 St. John’s L.Rev. 1, 9-10 (1951) (footnotes omitted.

. Toth v. Quarles, 350 U.S. 11, 76 S.Ct. 1, 100 L.Ed. 8 (1955), was a federal habeas corpus challenge to the right of a military court to try a civilian. The proceeding was a direct challenge to the constitutionality of legislation purporting to give the military court jurisdiction. Reid v. Covert, 354 U.S. 1, 77 S.Ct. 1222, 1 L.Ed.2d 1148 (1957), was a habeas corpus challenge to the constitutionality of the application of Article 2(11) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice to the trial, in capital offenses, of civilian dependents accompanying members of the armed forces overseas. Similarly McElroy v. Guagliardo, 361 U.S. 281, 80 S.Ct. 305, 4 L.Ed.2d 282 (1960), applied the same holding to the trial of civilians in non-capital offenses. Putting aside the procedural context in which these cases arose — each was federal habeas corpus — these three cases did not require a finding of what facts constituted the offense. Rather, each case turned on the civilian status of the relator.

. Parisi v. Davidson, supra, does not undercut these principles. Although the Court used language which questioned the label “exhaustion,” preferring “appropriate demands of comity,” it does not appear that the Supreme Court is diluting the jurisprudential doctrine of exhaustion of remedies in another court system, considering how ingrained is this principle in federal collateral review of state criminal proceedings. Fay v. Noia, supra. The issue before this court — a civilian federal “court’s direct intervention in a case arising in the military court system” —was not before the Court in Parisi. 405 U.S. at 41, 92 S.Ct. 815.
In Parisi the Court stated :
Although this argument, too, is framed in terms of “exhaustion,” it may more accurately be understood as based upon the appropriate demands of comity between two separate judicial systems. Requiring the District Court to defer to the military courts in these circumstances serves the interests of comity, the respondents argue, by aiding the military judiciary in its task of maintaining order and discipline in the armed services and by eliminating “needless friction” between the federal civilian and military judicial systems. The respondents note that the military constitutes a “specialized community governed by a separate discipline from that of the civilian.” Orloff v. Willoughby, 345 U.S. 83, 94, 73 S.Ct. 534, 97 L.Ed. 842; Gusik v. Schilder, 340 U.S. 128, 71 S.Ct. 149, 95 L.Ed. 146, and that in recognition of the special nature of the military community, Congress has created an autonomous military judicial system, pursuant to Art. I, § 8, of the Constitution. They further point out that civilian courts, out of respect for the separation-of-powers doctrine and for the needs of the military, have rightly been reluctant to interfere with military judicial proceedings.
405 U.S. at 40-41, 92 S.Ct. at 819. (footnotes omitted)
The concept of “exhaustion” in the context of the demands of comity between different judicial systems is closely analogous to the doctrine of abstention. For a discussion of the exhaustion and abstention doctrines in the federal-state context, see generally, C. Wright, Handbook of the Law of Federal Courts 186-188, 196-208 (2d ed. 1970).
405 U.S. at 40, n. 6, 92 S.Ct. at 819.
We must confess to a less than complete understanding liow the doctrine of comity may properly apply to two court systems functioning under the same sovereign, since the doctrine is conceptualized on court systems of separate sovereigns. Hilton v. Guyot, 159 U.S. 113, 16 S.Ct. 139, 40 L.Ed. 95 (1895). Justice Douglas observes:
Comity is “a doctrine which teaches that one court should defer action on causes properly within its jurisdiction until the *1121courts of another sovereignty with concur-' rent powers, and already cognizant of the litigation, have had an opportunity to pass upon the matter.” Darr v. Burford, 339 U.S. 200, 204, [70 S.Ct. 587, 598, 94 L.Ed. 761], But the Pentagon is not yet sovereign. The military is simj)ly another administrative agency, insofar as judicial review is concerned. Cf. Comment, 43 S. Cal.L.Rev. 356, 377-378. While we have stated in tiro past that special deference is due the military decision-making process, Gusik v. Schilder, 340 U.S. 128, [71 S.Ct. 149, 95 L.Ed. 146,] this is so neither because of “comity,” nor the sanctity of the Executive Branch, but because of a concern for the effect of judicial intervention on morale and military discipline, and because of the civilian judiciary’s general unfamiliarity with “extremely technical provisions of the Uniform Code [of Military Justice] which have no analogs in civilian jurisprudence,” Noyd v. Bond, supra, at 696, 89 S.Ct. at 1884.
Parisi v. Davidson, 405 U.S. at 51, 92 S.Ct. at 825 (concurring in the result).
Perhaps the concept of “exhaustion” in the context of district court-military court relations is more closely analogous to the doctrine of primary jurisdiction. “The doctrine of primary jurisdiction, like the rule requiring exhaustion of administrative remedies, is concerned with promoting proper relationships between the courts and administrative agencies charged with particular regulatory duties. ‘Exhaustion’ applies where a claim is cognizable in the first instance by an administrative agency alone; judicial interference is withheld until the administrative process lias run its course. ‘Primary jurisdiction,’ on the other hand, applies where a' claim is originally cognizable in the courts, and comes into play whenever enforcement of the claim requires the resolution of issues which, under a regulatory scheme, have been placed within the special competence of an administrative body; in such a case, the judicial process is suspended pending referral of such issues to the administrative body for its views. General American Tank Oar Corp. v. El Dorado Terminal Co., 308 U.S. 422, 433, [60 S.Ct. 325, 331, 84 L.Ed. 361].” United States v. Western Pac. R. Co., 352 U.S. 59, 63-64, 77 S.Ct. 161, 165, 1 L.Ed.2d 126 (1956).

. Indeed, the Supreme Court has recognized that the Court of Military Appeals has some power to issue writs over military courts of inferior jurisdiction, although recognizing some uncertainty as to whether that court has original power to issue a writ of habeas corpus. Parisi v. Davidson, supra, 405 U.S. at 44, 92 S.Ct. 815.

. “ . . . , American courts are heirs to a long standing principle of the common law which finds its historical foundation in the forbearance through which courts exercising coordinate jurisdiction in the name of a single sovereign refrained from interfering with the process of one another and, thereby, direct conflicts with each other were avoided. The utility produced by this concord was alone sufficient justification for its continued existence.” Jennings v. Boenning & Co., 482 F.2d 1128 (3d Cir., 1973).

. Darr v. Burford, supra, 339 U.S. at 204, 70 S.Ct. 587 (1950); Covell v. Heyman, 111 U.S. 176, 182, 4 S.Ct. 355, 28 L.Ed. 390 (1884).