Court Opinion

ID: 9419415
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:49:23.779509+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:17.978541
License: Public Domain

MR. Justice Murphy,
dissenting:
I cannot agree that this appeal was “taken within thirty days after the decision or judgment has been rendered,” as required by the Criminal Appeals Act, 18 U. S. C. § 682. This appeal was allowed by Judge Sweeney of the District *537Court of Massachusetts on April 30, 1943, and is timely only if the formal order signed on March 31 constitutes the final decision or judgment. The particular circumstances of this case, however, forbid such a conclusion.
As the majority opinion states, the final decision or judgment from which the thirty-day appeal period runs requires no peculiar formal act or form of words. The effective act varies from court to court. But there is no doubt as to the practice in the District Court of Massachusetts. As stated by the deputy clerk of that court, whose duties and familiarity with the court’s procedure lend great weight to his statements, “The practice in this District, on the receipt of an opinion granting a motion to quash, is to make an entry on the docket under the judge’s name, 'Indictment quashed.’ It is not the practice to have a written order.” This statement, which appears to have had the approval of Judge Sweeney, clearly indicates that the final judgment in this case is to be found in the docket entry under the judge’s name.
Judge Sweeney’s opinion of March 5 granted the motion to quash the indictment. Pursuant to the District Court’s practice, an entry on the docket under the judge’s name, constituting the final judgment, would normally have been made on the same day, March 5. Because of inadvertence, however, the entry was not made until some time between March 25 and March 29. At that time the docket clerk made the following entry on the docket: "March 5. Sweeney, J. Indictment quashed.” That entry thereby constituted the final and effective judgment. And assuming that this judgment was not entered until March 29, the allowance of this appeal on April 30 was out of time.
It is contended that the subsequent formal order signed on March 31 by Judge Sweeney is the effective judgment. But the procedure in this District Court makes clear that such formal written orders are unnecessary. It is the *538simple docket entry which is the final decision or judgment of the court below.
Moreover, the circumstances surrounding the formal order of March 31 reveal no intention by Judge Sweeney to supersede the effect of the previous docket entry or to extend the time for appeal. The deputy clerk, in a letter written to the Department of Justice, has described the situation in these words:
“On or about March 31st, the Government presented a written order to me, and I accompanied the United States Attorney to Judge Sweeney's chambers. It was entirely new procedure for us to have a written order. I understand it was only because the United States represented that the Department of Justice wanted a written order in this case, so as to conform to the suggestion contained in Mr. Justice Jackson’s concurring opinion in United States v. Swift & Co., 318 U. S. 442, 446, that Judge Sweeney signed the order. I can recall that Judge Sweeney protested against the necessity of signing such an order when it was presented to him, but did sign it at the request of the United States Attorney. I also remember that Judge Sweeney said he was not going to adopt the practice of signing orders in all such future cases. When it came time to make an entry of this order in the books, I assumed that it was to take the place of the entry 'Sweeney, J. Indictment quashed’, which was made between March 25th and March 29th, and I told the docket clerk making the entry to cross out the entry which had been made previously between March 25th and March 29 th.
“When I wrote my letter to you, it seemed to me that I had told the Court that the entry of March 5 would necessarily be stricken out, but I find that the Court has no recollection of being so informed. There was no intention that the order of March 31 should extend the time for appeal, and it is the Court’s recollection that he so stated to counsel.
“By direction of the Court, I am sending a copy of this letter to counsel for the defendant.”
*539It thus clearly appears that the March 5 entry, which was actually made between March 25 and March 29, was intended to be the final decision or judgment of the District Court and that the appeal period began to run from the date of actual entry. The March 31 order was entered at the Government’s insistence merely to conform to a suggestion of one Justice of this Court to the effect that “we would be greatly aided if the District Courts in dismissing an indictment would indicate in the order the ground, and, if more than one, would separately state and number them.” United States v. Swift & Co., 318 U. S. 442, 446. That order was thus no more than a clarification and reiteration of the March 5-judgment. It cannot be considered as a vacation of the prior judgment or as a new or amended judgment.
The very fact that Judge Sweeney stated that the March 31 order did not extend the time for appeal demonstrates his belief and intention that a valid final order had theretofore been entered. Some time after March 31 the deputy clerk on his own initiative ordered the March 5 docket entry stricken in the mistaken belief that it had been superseded. In its place was inserted the entry: “March 31. Sweeney, J. Order quashing indictment.” Such action was obviously insufficient to change either Judge Sweeney’s intention or the finality and effect of the March 5 entry for purposes of appeal to this Court.
Varying and uncertain rules governing criminal appeals are to be avoided whenever possible. Yet the effect of holding this appeal to be timely is to inject into the procedure of the court below an element of confusion and doubt. ' Heretofore parties to a criminal proceeding in the District Court of Massachusetts were entitled to rely on the docket entry, following an opinion granting a motion to quash, as .the final decision or judgment. *540They could calculate appeal periods from the date of that entry. Now they must risk the possibility that at an undeterminable later date one of the parties will convince the court that a formal order should be entered and that the time for appeal will start from that date. No reason of law or policy suggests itself in support of such uncertainty.
Judged by the fixed and simple practice of the court below in entering its final judgments, this appeal cannot be considered timely.
Mr. Justice Douglas and Mr. Justice Rutledge join in this dissent.