Court Opinion

ID: 9442632
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 18:54:03.08149+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:41:10.347831
License: Public Domain

MAJOR, Chief Judge
(concurring).
I agree with the result reached by Judge Duffy and with his reasoning, but I would go further and hold that Rule 17(c) imposes no obligation upon parties, either the defendants or the government, including their attorneys.1 In my view, the rule is so plain and unambiguous as to leave little if any need for construction. More than that, I am unwilling to impute to the rule makers and those associated therewith, including Congress and the Supreme Court, such carelessness and indifference as is inherent in defendants’ position and the argument made in its support.
In order to avoid repetition, I accept what appears to be an accurate statement of the facts as made by Judge Duffy. And I am not too much concerned with the cited authorities because they are so meager and uncertain as to furnish little if any light. In reality, the question posed is one of first impression. The pertinent and controlling language of 17(c) is the first sentence, “A subpoena may also command the person to whom it is directed to produce the books, papers, documents or other objects designated therein.” Two words contained in this sentence, “also” and “person”, are significant and I think determinative. The dictionary definition of the word “also” is, “As something further; tending in the same direction; besides; as well; in addition.” (Funk and Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary of the English Language.) The word as thus defined is no different than its common, every-day meaning. The word presupposes that a previous command has been made upon the *165person who is directed to produce. What is this previous demand and who is the person to whom it is directed ? The answer is found in 17(a), “A subpoena shall be issued by the clerk under the seal of the court. It shall state the name of the court and the title, if any, of the proceeding, and shall command each person to whom it is directed to attend and give testimony at the time and place specified therein. The clerk shall issue a subpoena, signed and sealed but otherwise in blank to a party requesting it, who shall fill in the blanks before it is served.” Thus it is plain that under (a) a person to whom the subpoena is directed is required “to attend and give testimony”, and under (c) such person may also be commanded “to produce the books, papers, documents or other objects designated therein.” As Judge Duffy suggests, this is the traditional trial subpoena, and it is directed at a person in one instance to “attend and give testimony”, and in the other to “also” produce the designated documents.
Evidently “person” refers to one subpoenaed as a witness and not to a party or an attorney. The theory of a party to a suit directing a subpoena to the opposite party or to an attorney is a novelty to me. The government in a criminal case and the plaintiff in a civil suit are in court of their own volition, and the defendants in a criminal case are in court by virtue of a warrant (sometimes a summons) and in a civil suit by summons. When thus in court they are at all times subject to its orders and command, and the same is likewise true of the attorneys of record for the respective parties, and it is an anomaly to think of a party requiring an opposing party or its attorney to do something at the command of a subpoena.
Rule 17 is entitled “Subpoena,” and every paragraph from (a) to (g) inclusive demonstrates that it is directed at witnesses and not to parties. Paragraphs (a) and (c) may be utilized by the parties on both sides alike and either provision is brought into operation without motion and without a court order. The sole requirement is that the clerk issue a subpoena in blank under the seal of the court to a “party requesting it,” which party is required to fill in the blank by inserting the name of the person to be subpoenaed as a witness and to designate the documents which such person is required to produce. 17(b) is for the benefit of “Indigent Defendants,” and provides a procedure for obtaining the attendance of witnesses without cost. Such defendant is required to “state the name and address of each witness and the testimony which he is expected by the defendant to give if subpoenaed”. 17(d) provides for the service of a subpoena “by delivering a copy thereof to the person named and by tendering to him the fee for 1 day’s attendance and the mileage allowed by law.” Is it conceivable that the “person named” has reference to a party or an attorney entitled to a fee for court attendance and for mileage? 17(e) provides that a subpoena requiring the attendance “of a witness at a hearing or trial” may be served any place within the United States, and a subpoena directed to a witness in a foreign country shall be issued and served as provided by statute.
A study of the Rules of Criminal Procedure is convincing that the rule makers carefully differentiated between such words and phrases as “government” or “attorney for the government” or “defendant” or “party” or “person.” The rules state with precision as to when and to whom they are applicable. Illustrative is Rule 16, entitled “Discovery and Inspection”. Judge Duffy has discussed this rule and the notes of the advisory committee. I need not add to what he has shown, except to emphasize that the rule is for the benefit of a defendant and can only be brought into operation by an order of court upon motion of the defendant. It is specifically directed at the “attorney for the government”. And is there any reason to think that if Rule 17 is for the benefit of the defendant and is directed at “the attorney for the government”, as the defendants here contend, that the rule makers would not have expressly so stated as was done in Rule 16? It borders on the absurd to argue for a construction of Rule 17(c) which would confer on a defendant an unlimited right of production by the government when *166such right has been definitely limited in Rule 16 by exact and specific language.
That the word “person” when used in a statute does not include the sovereign unless it is clear from the context, legislative history and background of the statute that such effect was intended, has been held by the Supreme Court. United States v. Cooper Corporation, 312 U.S. 600, 61 S.Ct. 742, 85 L.Ed. 1071; United States v. United Mine Workers of America, 330 U.S. 258, 67 S. Ct. 677, 91 L.Ed. 884. In so holding, the court in the Cooper case stated 312 U.S. at page 604, 61 S.Ct. at page 743: “Since, in common usage, the term ‘person’ does not include the sovereign, statutes employing the phrase are ordinarily construed to exclude it”, and the court further' stated 312 U.S. at page 606, 61 S.Ct. at page 744: “Without going beyond the words of the section, the use of the phrase ‘any person’ is insufficient to authorize an action by the Government. This conclusion is supported by the fact that if the purpose was to include the United States, ‘the ordinary dignities of speech would have led’ to its mention by name * * *.” In the United Mine Workers. of America case, the court stated, 330 U.S. at page 275, 67 S. Ct. at page 687: “The Act [Norris-LaGuardia] does not define ‘persons’. In common usage that term does not include the sovereign, and statutes employing it will ordinarily not be construed to do so. Congress made express provisions, R.S. § 1, 1 U.S.C. § 1, 1 U.S.C.A. § 1, for the term to extend to partnerships and corporations, and in § 13 of the Act itself [Norris-LaGuardia] for it to extend to associations. The absence of any comparable provision extending the term to sovereign governments implies that Congress did not desire the term to extend to them.”
Defendants’ construction of Rule 17 not only brings it in irreconcilable conflict with Rule 16 but strips the latter of all meaning. If such construction be. accepted, I perceive no reason why a defendant would ever proceed under Rule 16. Why bother to go into court and obtain an order directing the government to make the limited production required under Rule 16 when much more could be obtained merely by filling in the blank space of a subpoena as provided for in Rule 17?
Defendants argue that “the authority granted by the terms of Rule 17(c) is discretionary.” This is not correct as to the issuance of the subpoena which, as I have already shown, issues without motion and withortt order of court. The court has nothing to do with the subpoena until it has been issued and served. It is only subsequently thereto that the court is given any discretion, and the only novel feature contained in the provision, which I am able to detect, is the discretion lodged in the court to direct that the documents called for in the subpoena be produced before the court, prior to trial or prior to the time they are to be offered in evidence, and the discretion to permit the documents produced “to be inspected by the parties and their attorneys.” Defendants, grasping at straws, profess to discern something in these last quoted words which fortifies their theory, but to my mind such words, if they have any signifiance, point in the opposite direction. Again, these words show how carefully the words “parties and their attorneys” were distinguished from the word “person.”
Thus, as I read Rules 16 and 17, there is no conflict. Each is designed to serve a separate and distinct purpose. Rule 16 confers a limited privilege upon a defendant and to a like extent imposes an obligation upon “the attorney for the government”. Rule 17 enables either party to obtain the attendance of a witness for the purpose of giving testimony, which witness may “also” be required to produce documents. In the latter event, the court may order such documents produced prior to trial and may permit their inspection by “the parties and their attorneys.”
It is, therefore, my conclusion that the word “person”, as used in Rule 17, does not include and is not applicable to the parties or their attorneys and that it provides for no command which may properly be directed to them. So there may be no mistake, I desire to emphasize that what I have said relates solely to the rule in controversy and has no reference to other *167means which may he employed to obtain the production of documentary evidence.

. I would so hold notwithstanding what I regard as the ill-conceived admission made by counsel for the -government on oral argument that the rule might apply to the government in some instances.