Court Opinion

ID: 6952495
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-07-24 01:33:47.239088+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:08:07.832803
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Breese : I concur in much of the reasoning, and generally, in the conclusions reached in the above opinion. I cordially concur in the sentiment, that the Constitution of the United States was designed by its framers, and has been hitherto so understood by the people, to be the sam# protecting instrument in war as in peace; that a state of war does not enlarge the powers of any one department of the government established by it, nor has any one of these defendants any right to urge “ necessity,” or “ extraordinary emergencies,” as a plea for the usurpation of powers not granted. The first is the tyrant’s plea, and the other places the dearest rights of the citizen at the mercy of a dominant party, who have only to declare “ the emergency,” which they can readily create, pretexts for which, bad men are keen to find and eager to act upon. There can be, and there should be, no higher law for the conduct of the government in its relations to the citizen, than the Constitution of the United States. I cannot accede fully to the doctrine declared in the last clauses of the opinion. Holding, as we do, that the executive order under which the defendants attempt to justify their conduct, was illegal and void, it ought not to go in evidence for any purpose—it is not in the case. A subordinate ought not to be permitted to extenuate his offense by the allegation, his superior ordered him to commit it. The marshal was not bound to execute the order, he knowing it was arbitrary and had not the sanction of the law. He should take all the consequences of his obedience. In these disjointed times, under this ruling of the court, a jury might very easily be impaneled, who would not assess more than nominal damages for one of the greatest outrages ever perpetrated in a country claiming to be governed by a written constitution and having a code of laws. But I do not suppose pecuniary considerations influenced the , plaintiff to bring this action, but rather to vindicate that Constitution and the laws so grossly violated in his person. This he has effectually done, by the unanimous judgment of this court, in holding, that the proceedings of which he complains were without any warrant of law, and in direct and palpable violation of the letter and spirit of the Constitution. At the September Term, 1867, the appellant entered his motion, that the foregoing opinion of the court be amended, so far as relates to the question of practice therein decided, whereupon the court delivered the following additional opinion: Per Cubiam : A motion has been made in this ease by the appellant, that the court amend the opinion filed herein, so far as relates to the question of practice on the trial of the general issue pleaded by a portion of the defendants. The motion is overruled. The proper practice is correctly stated in the opinion. As therein stated, the defendants who pleaded the general issue had the right to have that issue, as to them, tried, and by insisting on such trial, to disclaim any benefit they might have claimed from a mistaken ruling of the court on the special plea. Their co-defendants had no right, by pleading a defective special plea, to compel them also to rest their defense upon a plea which they did not file, and thus be made liable to be brought again before the court for trial by a reversal of the judgment on the special plea, which might be had at any time before the statute had barred a writ of error. An action of trespass is several as to each defendant, and each has a right to make his own defense and to have it tried, without being compelled to rely upon a defective defense made by a co-defendant. Counsel for appellant err in supposing they would not have been entitled to a judgment against the defendants who pleaded only the general issue if they had proved the trespass. When these defendants went to trial on that issue, declining to shelter themselves under the judgment of the court on the special plea, the court would have told the jury to find upon that issue only, and to assess the damages if they found the defendants guilty, and on that verdict the court would have rendered judgment. In remanding the case we reverse only the judgment on the demurrer. The judgment upon the verdict, as to those defendants who pleaded the general issue, and which is an entirely distinct and independent judgment, must stand. We take this occasion to say, that the opinion hitherto filed in this case, in which the court below is directed to receive evidence of the facts set up in the special plea in mitigation of damages and to rebut the presumption of malice, must be construed as referring to vindictive or exemplary damages. Motion overruled,.