Court Opinion

ID: 9419280
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:48:25.569188+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:17.192616
License: Public Domain

Me. Justice Jackson,
dissenting:
I do not agree that we should leave undecided the question whether conduct of this sort constitutes punishable contempt. To use bribery and fraud on the Court to obtain its order for disbursement of nearly $10,000,000 in trust in its custody is not only contempt but contempt of a kind far more damaging to the Court’s good name and more subtly obstructive of justice than throwing an ink*422well at a Judge or disturbing the peace of a courtroom. I would hold the conduct of these petitioners to be “misbehavior” and within the “presence” of the Court and hence a contempt within the meaning of the statute. I should not deflect what seems to be the course of practical and obvious justice in this case by resort to metaphysical speculations as to the effect of absence of the schemers from the courtroom when attorneys whom also they had deceived obtained the order from the Court.
Neither can I agree with the Court’s conclusion that this contempt expired with the setting sun and the statute of limitation then began its work of immunizing these defendants. The fraud had as its object not merely to get the Court order, but to get the money from the Court’s custody. The contempt and the fraud did not cease to operate so long as the money was being disbursed in reliance upon it, and by virtue of its concealment.
Hence, I find no good reason for interfering with the effort of the lower court to bring these men to account for their fraud on it.
Mr. Justice Frankfurter:
I wholly agree with the conclusion of Mr. Justice Jackson that the petitioners’ conduct constituted a contempt within the meaning of § 268 of the Judicial Code, 28 IT. S. C. § 385. But I am also compelled to conclude, for the reasons stated in the opinion of the Court, that prosecution for such offense is barred by the applicable statute of limitations, R. S. § 1044,18 IT. S. C. § 582.