Case: William Parsons, Plaintiff in Error vs. Bedford, Breedlove, and Robeson, Defendants
Abbreviation: Parsons v. Bedford, Breedlove, & Robeson
Decision Date: 1830-01
Docket Number: 
Citation: 3 Pet. 433
Volume: 28
Reporter: United States Reports
Court: Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction: United States
Parties: William Parsons, Plaintiff in Error vs. Bedford, Breedlove, and Robeson, Defendants.
Judges: 
Pages: 433–458

Head Matter:
William Parsons, Plaintiff in Error vs. Bedford, Breedlove, and Robeson, Defendants.
This action was instituted in the district court of the United Slates for the eastern district of Louisiana,- according to the forms of proceedings adopted and practised in the courfs of that state. The cause was tried by .a special jury, and a verdict was rendered for the plaintiff. On the trial, the' counsel for the defendant moved the court ‘to direct the clerk of the court to take dojvn in writing the testimony of the witnesses examined in the cause, that, the same might appear on record: such being thg practice of the state courts of Louisiana ; and which practice the counsel for the defendant insisted was to prevail in the courts of the United States, according to the act of congress of the 26th . of May 1824.; which provides, that the mode of proceeding in civil causes, in the courts of the United States established in Louisiana, shall be conformable to the laws directing the practice in the district court of the state, subject to such alterations as the judges of the courts of the United States should establish by rules. The court refused to make the order, or to permit the testimony-to be put down in writing; the judge expressing the opinion, that the courts of the United States are not governed by the practice of the courts of the state of Louisiana. The defendant movedfor a new trial, and the motion being overruled, and judgment entered for the plaintiff on the verdict, the defendant brought a writ of error to this court.
Under the laws of Louisiana, on the trial of a cause before a jury, if either party desires it, the verbal evidence is to be taken down in writing by, the clerk, to be sent to the supreme-court, to serve as a statementof facts in case of appeal; and the written evidence produced on the trial is to be filed with the proceedings. -This is done to enable the appellate court-to exercise the power of granting a new trial, and of revising the judgment of the inferior court. Held that the refusal of the judge of the district court of the United States to permit the evidence to be put in writing, could not be assigned for error in this court, the cause having been tried in the court belo.w, and a Verdict given on the Tacts by a jury; if the same had been put in writing, and been sent up to this court vtdth the record, this court, proceeding under the cdnstitution of the United States, and-of the amendment thereto, which declares, “mo fact once tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examinable in any court of the United Slatei, than according to the rules of ¡.he common lato,” is not competent to redress any error by granting a new trial.
The proviso in the act of congress of the 26lh of May 1824, ch. 181, demonstrates that it was not the intention of congress to give an absolute and imperative force to the state modes of proceeding in civil causes in Louisiana, in the courts of the United States; for it authorizes the judge to modify thoHvao-astoadapt them to the organization of his own courts; and it further demonstrates that no absolute repeal was intended of the antecedent modes of proceeding authorized in the United States courts, under former acts of congress; for it leaves the judge at liberty to make rules, by which discrepancy between the state laws and the laws ofthp United States may be avoided. [444]
The act of congress having made the practice of the state courts the rule for the courts of the United States in Louisiana, the district court’ of the United States in that district is bound to follow the practice of the state ; unless that court had adopted a rule superseding the practice. [44S]
Generally speaking, matters of practice in inferior courts do not constitute subjects upon which errors can be assigned in-the appellate court. [445]
The trial by jury is justly dear to the American people. It has always been an object of deep interest and solicitude, and every encroachment upon it has been watched with great jealousy. The right to such a trial is,” it is believed, incorporated into, and secured in every state constitution in the union. [446]
By “ common law,” the framers of the constitution of the United States meant, whst the constitution denominated in the third article, “ law not merely suits which the common law recogqized among its old and settled’proceedings,.but suits in which legal rights were to be ascertained and determined, in contradistinction to those where equitable rights alone were regarded, and equitable remedies were administered; or where, as in the admiralty,a mixture of public law and of maritime law and equity was often found in the same suit. [447]
The amendment to the constitution of the United States, by which the trial by jury was secured, may, in a just sense, be well construed to embrace all suits Which arq not of equity or admiralty jurisdiction, whatever may be the peculiar form Which they may assume to settle legal rights. [447]
It wasriot the intention of congress, by the general language of the act of 1824,. to alter the appellate jurisdiction of this court, and to confer on it the power of granting a new trial by a re-examination of the facts tried by a jury; and to enable it, after trial by jury, to do that, in respect to the courts of the United States sitting in Louisiana, which’’ is denied to such courts sitting in .all the other states of the union. [447]
No court ought, unless the terms of an act of congress render it unavoidable, to give a construction to the act which should, however unintentional, involve a violation of the constitution. The terms of the aetof 1824 may well he satisfied by limiting its operation to modes of practice’ and proceeding in the courts below, without changing the effect or conclusiveness of the verdict qf a jury upon the facts litigated on the trial. The party may bring the facts into review before the appellate court, so far as they bear upon questions of law, by a bill of .exceptions. If there be any mistake of the facts, the court below is competent to redress it, by granting a new trial. [447]
ERROR to the eastern district of.Louisiana.
This suit was originally brought in the parish .court oí Ne'w Orleans by the défendants in error, by a petition for an attachment against the property of the defendant in the suit; apd wás removed into the district' courtof the United States for the eastern'district of Louisiana, the defendant being, a citizen of- the state of Massachusetts;
; The object, of the suit was the recovery of the amount of certain sales of tobacco,, made by the-plaintiffs to a certain Eben Fiske, represented in the petition, to, be the agent'and. factor of the defendant; and for which he drew bills of exchange ori the defendant, and which bills were refused acceptance and payment. After an answer had been filed, the case was submitted to a special jury, and, a verdict was rendered for the ¡plaintiffs for $6414.
The proceedings , in the Case were instituted and conducted according to the laws of Louisiana, which conforrti in a great degree to the principles and practice nf the civil law.
On the trial, the plaintiffs produced the bills of exchange mentioned in the petition, and many letters written by the • defendant to Fiske, The defendant introduced^ as testimony, other letters written, as above; and also the récord of a suit brought by the-plaintiffs against Fiské, on the same bills, in which they charge, on oath, that the sale was made to Fiske, and that he was their, debtor; all which written testimony was, according to the practice of the state courts, filed in court, and forms part of the record.
The plaintiffs also produced Fiske as a witness, to prove that he acted only as agent for the defendant, arid to make him a witness, gave a full release of all claims on him. He was objected to; but the court overruled the Objection, and a bill of exceptions was tendered and signed.
By the twelfth section of an act of the general assembly of Louisiana, passed the 20th of July 1817, entitled an act “ to amend the several acts passéd to. organize the court of the state, and for other purposed,” it is among other things enacted, “ that when any cause shall be submitted to a jury to be tried, the verbal evidence shall, in all cases where an appeal lies to the supreme' court, if either party'require it, and at the time when the witnesses shall be examined, be taken down in writing by the clerk of the court, in order to be sent up to the supreme'court, to serve as a statement of facts in case of appeal; and the written evidence produced by both parties- shall be filed with the proceedings.”
By a law of the United States, passed the 26th of May 1824, the mode of practice pursued in the state courts is directed to be followed in the courts of the United States in Louisiana.
Under the provisions of these laws, the defendant applied to the court to direct the clerk to take down the verbal proof offered in the cause, or to suffer his counsel, the counsel of the plaiñtiffs, or the witnesses, to take it down'; which the judge refused to do: whereupon a bill of exceptions was tendered and signed.
A motion was made for a new trial, which was overruled ; and a judgment was entered for the amount of the verdict. This writ of error was then prosecuted.
The/plaintiff in error contended:
1. That from the facts apparent on the record, the plaintiffs had no right of action against the defendant, and that therefore this court will decree a judgment to be entered in favour of the defenaa. t.
2. The court will, at least, réverse this judgment, and award anew trial, for one or all of the following reasons:
1. Because the court refused the evidence tq be put upon the record.
2. Because the whole question was a question of law, ánd the decisión was against law.
3. It is not, strictly,, a common law. proceeding, but a proceeding under the peculiar system of Louisiana; and, According to that system, the court has pbwer to reverse the judgment, under circumstances which would not give it that power when the trial had been according to the ciommon law.
The -case was argued by Mr Livingston and Mr Webster for the plaintiff in error, and by Mr Jones for the defendants.
Mr Livingston and Mr Webster, for the plaintiff in error.
The law of Louisiana, of July 1817, directs that in &I1 jury trials, the verbal evidence shall be reduced to writing, and put on record. . The law of congress of the 6th of May 1824, directs that the practice in the courts of the United States, in the state of Louisiana, shall be according to the rules' of practice in the state courts. Before the law of the United States of 1803, all causes came up to this court by writ of error. Under the authority of this law, cases of admiralty and of equity jurisdiction ¿ame up by appeal, and. all cases not embraced by the provisions of the law, are yet. brought up by writ of error. .
The constitution of the United States says, “ all.controversies” between citizens of different states may come to this court; and by the provisions of the law of 1789, the removal of.such cases is to take place when the matter in dispute amounts to two thousand dollars. That law requires a statement of the evidence in appeals, and in matters of admiralty -jurisdiction. It cannot be supposed that there was any intention to exclude cases such as the present from the jurisdiction of this court. It has been the practice for twénty years, ever since, the organization of the courts of the United States in the. state of Louisiana, to bring cases up from that district.
The proceedings in the courts of Louisiana are by petition and answer. To introduce the practice of the common law into any of the courts established in that state, would be against ¿the feelings and wishes of the whole people of the state. The judges of the courts of the United States have adopted the practice of the courts of the state. The position of any one who should come from a- state where the common law is not known, as from' Louisiana, and who should be required to argue a cause on the common law alone, in this court, would be extraordinary.
The twenty-second section of the judiciary law of 1789 says, the supreme court shall not reverse a judgment for error in fact. But" it is claimed, that the seventh amendment of the constitution-of the United States, which dedares that “ no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law,” was not intended to take awáy a remedy which was secured by a.law of the state of Louisiana; and which law is in force in the courts of the United States, under the provisions of the act of congress of 1824.
This case cannot come within the amendment. It is a case not comprehended by it, nor can it have any application to it. The amendment was adopted when all the proceedings in the. courts of the United States, and in the courts of the different states; were under the common law; and the plaintiff in this case has. a complete remedy, independent of the amendment. It was intended to guard the rights of citizens, proceeding according to the common law; and it only provides that the decisions of juries shall not be set aside except according to the common law. How can it apply or operate in a state wherq there is nó common law, where the forms of proceeding under the common law are not known or permitted 9 Where terms are used which embrace the case, and justice requires it, the law must be construed to embrace it. A constitutional law of the United States gives the relief the plaintiff" asks in this case : the amendment of the constitution referred to does not take it away.
There is a rule ot the common law, the effect of which gives the same remedy as to parties as that which is required here; and in this case the equivalent' remedy would have been furnished, had the court directed the clerk to take down in writing the testimony given in this cause. By the common law practice, all evidence may be stated under a bill of exceptions, or the judge may, be called upon to charge on the law and facts; the facts being stated from which the law is supposed to arise. The proceedings in the courts of Louisiana are substituted for these common law proceedings. They should have the same estimate, and be treated in the higher court in the same manner as a bill of exceptions. It is admitted that in the court below, the case must proceed according to the state laws :. those laws say, the evidence shall be put in writing by the clerk. The refusal to permit the clerk to do this was certainly error.
If the laws of the state are not to be the guide, we had better have no right of appeal from the courts of Louisiana to this court. If those laws do not furnish rules of proceeding, we have no appeals in cases where appeals may come from other states. Because, in the courts of Louisiana there is no distinction between common law and equity; and there fcanrtot be one rule in a state court, and another in a féderal court. .The principle, that no relief shall be given in equity where there is a plain remedy at law, would interfere mate rially with proceedings.in the courts of Louisiana. In ev&ry possible case relief is given by a court of law in Louisiana; and the distinction between law, and equity is not there known. To insist on the establishment of the distinction in the courts of the United States there, would be productive of grievous injury. It would give* a foreigner one rule of practice and a citizen another. If the forms of the common láw must be pursued to secure writs of error and appeals from the courts of the United States in Louisiana to this court; alh the system of practice now prevailing in those courts, under the authority of the law of 1824,. must be changed. The forms of the comfnon law, the distinctions between proceedings at law and in equity, must be established there. This will be productive of great inconvenience, and will have other injurious effects.
Putting the evidence in writiifg wás very important to the defendant below, ps he could have demurred; and then this court would have had the whole of the evidence before them.
Mr Jones., for the defendant in error.
Where a local practice, such as that of Louisiana, is adapted only to state courts, and not to the courts of the United States, it will not extend to the latter courts. The supreme court of the state of Louisiana may know and examine the facts which have been reduced to writing on the trial of causes in the inferior courts, and decide whether' a new trial shoiuld not have been granted. But no such power exists in this court. It has no power to look into the facts of the case tried by a jury, only for the purpose of deciding on the law arising on fhe evidence; and this, when they are properly before the court, but not for the purpose of drawing a conclusion from the facts, different from that of the jury. The judiciary law excludes matters pf fact from this court, unless in equity and admiralty causes. This court will never decide on questions of fact; never on a question of new trial, or not; and the only possible use of putting the evidence in writing, in this case, would have been to present the question'of a new trial. This court takes no cognizance of any fact, sitting as a court of common law. A compliance or non-compliance of the court below with the defendant’s prayer, could neither affect the judgment of the court below, or of this court; the judgment here must be. the same, whether the evidence was recorded or not.. There was therefore no error of which this court can take notice in the proceedings below. The proceedings are said not to be according to the common law,'but to the- law of Louisiana, which is said to differ from the common law; and yet we find the trial by jury established, which is the great foundation and first principle and essence of a common law trial, be the forms of the proeess what they may. Trial by jury carries with it all the incidents of a common law trial. The verdict of the jury upon the facts is conclusive in every court, unless set aside by the court before which the cause was tried.
This court will not reverse all its functions,, because the courts-of the United States in Louisiana adopt the state practice. The judiciary act says, all trials in issues of-fact, shall be by jury ; this court will not say, as a rule of practice, there shall be no trial by jury according to the principles of ’the common law in the courts of the United States of Louisiana. As Louisiana has adopted the trial by jury, it must have all its attributes in that- state.
The purpose and meaning of the twenty-second section of the judiciary act, was to exclude this court in all. cases from deciding on a question pf fact. Error in fact, .pjek'ns an error in. deciding on a question of fact.. 'Th.e difference between a writ.of error -and an a'ppeal is veiry, familiar. Appeals, ek vi termini, méfip, the bringing up of every matter-pending in the court below. A writ of error only reaches errors of law, and has nothing to do with questions of fact.
If the law of 1824 imposed on the court the duty of recording the parol evidence, is it assignable for error? Could.it by any possibility have varied the judgment of the: court below, or of this court ? If it could not, there can be no cause of reversal, as no injury has been done to the plaintiff in error. This court will not visit the party with a reversal of the judgment of the district court, when in the judgment there is no error ; although they may compel the court below to record the evidence.

Opinion:
Mr Justice Story
delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is a writ of error to the district court of the United States for the eastern district of Louisiana.
The facts., disclosed on the record are substantially as follows:
The suifc-'was originally commenced by an attachment, brought in.the parish court of New Orleans, and removed, on the petition of defendant, into the district court of the United States for the eastern district of Louisiana: the. plaintiffs being citizens of Louisiana, and the defendant a citizep of Massachusetts.
' The petition of the plaintiffs set out the ground of . their action to be certain sales of tobacco, made by them to one Eben Fiske, as the factor and agent of the defendant, and for his account, at New Orleans, in June and July 1825; and certain bills of exchange drawn in their favour by Fiske at New Orleans, on the defendant at Boston, at several dates from the 2d to the 20th of July 1825, for the amounts of such sales. The defendant's answer (filed in the district court after the removal of the cause from the parish court) contains a general traverse of the allegations of the plaintiffs' petition, and tenders an issue, tantamount to the general issue of nil debet. The answerconclud.es with a petition of reconvention for ten thousand dollars damages. Upon this issue the cause was tried in the district court, by consent of parties, before a special jury, in March 1826, and a verdict passed against the defendant; who moved the court for a new trial; which motion was overruled by the court, and final judgment rendered on the verdict against the defendant, who thereupon sued out this writ of error. The record presents two bills of exceptions on the part of the defendant, now plaintiff in error.
First bill oí exceptions. Fiske, having first received from the plaintiffs a full and absolute release (which recites that the plaintiffs had dealt with him as the factor and agent of the defendant, and upon the credit and responsibility of the latter alone,) from all liability to them on the contract of sale and as drawer of the bills, was produced as a witness on the part of the plaintiffs to prove that he had purchased the tobacco as agent for the defendant. Aft objection on the part of the defendant to the .competency of Fiske, op the ground of interest, was overruled by the court.
Second bill of exceptions. The defendant moved the court to direct the clerk of the court to take down in writing the testimony of the several witnesses examined by the respective parties, in order that the same might appear of record ; such being the practice of the several courts of. the state of Louisiana, according to the constitution and laws thereof, and such being the rule of practice, in the opinion of the' counsel for defendant, to be pursued in this court, accord-? ing to the act of congress of the 26th of May 1824'. But the clerk refused, .&c., and the court refused to order the clerk to write down the same, or to permit the witnesses themselves, the counsel for either of the parties, or any other person, to write down such téstimony; the court expressing the opinion that the court of the United States is not governed by the practice of the courts of the state of Louisiana.
No charge or advice whatever was given or.asked from.the court to the jury on any matter of law or fact in the cáse : nor was any question. whatever raised of the competency or -admissibility of such evidence, other than the specific exception before taken to the competency, of Fiske, on the sole objection of interest; the substance of the facts proved by him being in no manner drawn in'question-before the court.
The record sets out all the documentary evidence; ail of which appears to have been admitted by both parties. This consists' of the protested bills above mtotioned, with an admission upon the record by the defendant, that they hád been regularly returned under protest to the plaintiffs, and that plaintiffs were, at the time the suit was commenced, the holders and owners of the same: and of a series of defendant's letters to his agent Fiske, from the 26th of- March 1823 to the 10th of August 1825, containing evidence that Fiske, during all that time, was settled at New Orleans, and was the factor and agent of the defendant, there to receive sbipmentsfof cargoes from Boston for the New Orleans market, and to purchase and ship from the latter place to the defendant at Boston, cargoes of cotton and tobacco, ,for which he was authorised to draw bills on Parsons at Boston.
Upon the argument in .this court the first bill of exceptions .has been abandoned ás untenable, and in our judgment upon sound reasons.
The second bill of exceptions is that upon which the court is now called upon to deliver its opinion.
By the act of Louisiana of the 28th- of January 1817, section 10, it is provided, that in every, case to be tried by a jury, if one of the parties demands that the facts set forth in the petition and answer should be submitted to the jury to h<ive a special verdict thereon, both parties shall proceed, before the swearing of the jury, to make a written statement of the facts so alleged and denied, the pertinency of which statement shall be judged of by the court, arid signed by the judge; and the jury shall be sworn to decide the question of fact or facts so alleged and denied, and their verdict or opinion thereof shall be unanimously given in open court, &c. and be conclusive between the parties as to the facts in said cause, ás well in the court where the said cause is tried, as on the appeal, and the court shall render judgment; provided, that the jury so sworn shall be prohibited to give any general verdict in the case, but only a special one on the facts submitted to them. This section points out the mode of obtaining a special verdict, in the sense of the common law. The twelfth section then provides, that when any cause shall be submitted to. the court' or to a jury without statements of facts, as is provided in the tenth section of the act, the verbal.evidence shall in all cases where, an appeal lies to the supreme court of the state, if either party requires it, and at the time -when the witnesses shall be examined, be taken down in writing by the clerk of the court, in order to be sent up to the supreme court, tfr serve as a statement of facts' in case óf appeal; and the written evidence produced on the trial shall be filed with the proceedings, &c. &c. The object of this section-is'asserted-to be to enable the appellate court in cases of general verdicts, as well as of submissions to the court, to exercise the power of granting a new trial, and revising the- judgment of the inferior court. It seems to be a substitute for the report of the judge who sat at the trial, in the ordinary course of proceedings at the common law.
Of itself, the course of proceeding under the state law of Louisiana could not have any intrinsic force or obligation in the courts of the United States organized in that state : but by the act of congress of the 26th of May 1824, ch. 181, it is 'provided that the mode of proceeding in civil causes in the courts of the United States that now are or hereafter may be established in the state of Louisiana, shall, be conformable to the laws directing the mode of practice in the district courts' of the said states; provided, that the judge of any such court of the United States may alter the times limited or allowed for different proceedings in the state courts, and make by rule such other provisions as may be necessary to adapt the laws of procedure to the organization of such court of tin. United States, and to avoid any discrepancy, if any such should exist, between such state laws and the laws'of the United States.
This proviso demonstrates, that it was not the intention of congress to give an absolute and imperative force to the. modes of proceeding in civil causes in Louisiana in the court-of the United States; for it authorises the, judge to modify them, so as to adapt them to the organization of his oWn court. It further demonstrates, that no absolute repeal was intended of the antecedent modes of proceeding authorised in the courts under the former acts of congressj for it leaves the judge at liberty to make rules by which to avoid any discrepancy between the state laws and the laws of the United States; and wfoat is material to be observed, there' is no clause in the act pointing in the slightest manner to any intentional change of the mode in which the supreme court of the United States is to exercise its appellate power in causes tried by jury, and coming from the courts of the United States in Louisiana ; or giving it authority to revise the judgments thereof in any matters of fact, beyond what the existing*laws of the United States authorised.
Whether the district court in Louisiana had. adopted any rules on this subject, so as to modify or suspend, the opera tion of the Louisiana state practice, in relation to the taking down the verbal testimony of witnesses, does not appear upon this récord. The coürt expressed an opinion, " that the court of the United States is not governed by the practice of the courts of the state of Louisianaand this would be correct, if, in the particular complained of, the court had adopted any rule superseding that practice. _ If no such rule had been adopted, the act of congress made the practice of the state the rule for the court of the United States. Unless, then, such a special rule existed, the court was bound to follow the general enactment of congress on the subject, and pursue the state practice.
But, admitting that the decision of the court below was wrong, and that the j>arty was entitled to have his testimony taken down in the manner prayed for; still it is important to consider, whether this is such an error as can be redressed by this court Upon a writ of error.
Generally speaking, matters of practice in inferior courts, do not constitute subjects upon which error can be assigned in the appellate court. And unless it shall appear that this court, if the omitted evidence had been before it on the re-, cord, would have been entitled to review that evidence, and might, if upon such review it had deemed the conclusion of the jury erroneous, have reversed the judgment and directed a new trial ift the court below there is no ground upon which-the present writ of error can be sustained.
It was competent for the original defendant to have raised any points of law growing out of the evidence at the trial, by a proper application to the court; and to have brought any error óf the court in its instruction or refusal, by a bill of exceptions, before this court for revision. Nothing of this kind was done or proposed. No bill of exceptions was tendered to the court,* and no points of law are brought under review. The whole object, therefore, of the applica-. tion to recofd the evidence, so far at least as this court can take cognizance of it, was to present the evidence here in order to establish the error of the verdict in matters of fact. Could such matters be properly cognizable in this court upon the present writ of error 9 It is very certain that they could not upon any suit and proceedings in any court of.the United States, sitting in any other state in the union than Louisiana.
The trial by jury is justly dear to the American people. It has always been an object of deep interest and solicitude, and every encroachment upon it has been watched with great jealousy. The right to suclr a trial is, it is believed, incorporated into, and secured in every state constitution in the union; and it is found in the constitution of Louisiana. One of the strongest objections originally taken against the constitution of the United States, was the want of an express provision securing the right of trial by jury in civil cas.es. As soon as the constitution was adopted, this right was secured by the seventh amendment of the constitution proposed by congress; and which received an assent of the people so general, as to establish its importance as a fundamental guarantee of the rights and liberties of the people. This amendment declares, that " in suits .at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved; and no fact once tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examinable in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law." At this time there were no states in the union, the basis of whose jurisprudence was not essentially that of the common law in its widest-meaning; and probably no states were contebriplated, in which it would not.exist. The-.phrase "common law," found in this clause, is used in contradistinction to equity, .and. admiralty, and maritime jurisprudence. The constitution had declared, in the third article, " that the judicial power shall extend to all cases in law and equity arising under this constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made or which shall be made under their authority," &c. and to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction. It is well known, that in civil causes, in courts of equity and admiralty, juries do not intervene, and that courts of equity use the trial by jury only jn extraordinary cases to inform the conscience of the court. When, therefore, we find that the amendment requires that the right of trial by jury shall be preserved in suits at com mon law, the natural conclusion is, that this distinction was present to the minds, of the framers of the amendment. By common law, they meant what the constitution denominated' in the third article " law;" not nierely suits, which the common law recognized among its old and settled proceedings, but suits in which legal rights were to be ascertained and determined, in contradistinction to those where equitable rights alone were recognized, and equitable remedies were administered; or where, as in the admiralty, a mixture of public law, and of maritime law and equity was often found in the same suit. Probably there were few, if any, states in the union, in which some new legal remedies differing from the old common law forms were not in use;buf in which, however, the trial by jury intervened, and the general regulations in other respects were according to the course of the common law. Proceedings in cases of partition, and of foreign and domestic attachment,-might be cited as .'examples variously adopted and modified. In a just sense, the amendment then may well be construed to embrace all suits which are not of equity and admiralty jurisdiction, whatever may be the peculiar form which they may assume to settle legal rights. And congress seems to have acted with reference to this .exposition in the judiciary act of 1789, ch. 20, (which w'as contemporaneous with the proposal of this amendment) ; for in the ninth section it is provided, that " the trial of issues in fact in the district courts in all causes, except civil causes of admiralty, and maritime jurisdiction, shall be by jury;" and in the twelfth section it is provided, that." the trial of issues in fact in the. circuit courts shall in. all suits, except these of equity; and of admiralty and'maritime jurisdiction, be by jury;" and again, in the thirteenth section, it is provided, that " the trial of issues, in fact in the supreme court in all actions at law-against citizens of the United States, shall be by jury."
But the other clause of the amendment is still more important; and we read it as a substantial and independent-clause.- " No fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examinable, in any court of the United States, than according to the rules oUthe common law." This is a prohibition to the courts of the United States to, re-examine any facts tried by a jury in any other manner. The only modes known to the common law to re-examine such facts, are the granting of a new trial by the court where the issue was tried, or to which the record was properly returnable; or the award of a venire facias de novo, by an appellate court, for some error-of law which intervened in the proceedings. The judiciary act of 1789, ch. 20, sec. 17, has giverf to all the courts of the United States " power to grant new trials in cases where there has -been a trial by jury, for reasons for which new trials have usually been granted in the courts of law." And the appellate jurisdiction has also been amply given by the same act (sec. 22,24) to this court, to redress errors of law; and for such errors to award a new trial, in suits at law which have been tried by a jury.
Was it.the intention of congress, by the general language of the act of 1824, to alter the appellate jurisdiction of this court, and to confer on it the power of granting a.new trial by a re-examinatioii of the facts tried by the jury *? to enable it, after trial by jury,' to do that in respect to the courts of the United States, sitting in Louisiana, which is denied to such courts sitting in all the other states in the union? We think not. No general words, purporting-only to regulate the practice of a particular court, to conform its modes of proceeding to those prescribed, by the state to its own courts, ought, in our judgment, to receive an interpretation which would create so .important' an alteration in the laws of .the United States, securing the trial by jury. Especially ought it not to receive such an interpretation, when there,is a power given to the inferior court itself to prevent any discrepancy between the state laws and the laws of the United States; so that it would be left to its sole discretion to supersede, or to give conclusive effect in' the appellate court to the verdict- of the jury.
If, indeed, the construction contended for at the bar were to be given to the act of congress, we entertain the most serious doubts whether it would not be unconstitutional. No court ought, unless the terms of an act rendered it unavoidable,' to give a construction to it which should involve a vio Iation, however unintentional, of the constitution. The4erms of the present, act may well be satisfied by limiting its operation to moues of practice and proceeding in the court belowy without changing the effect or conclusiveness of'the verdict of the.jury upon the facts litigated at the trial. Nor is there any inconvenience from this construction; for the party has still his remedy, by bill of exceptions, to bring the facts in review before the appellate court, so far as those facts bear upon any question of law arising at the trial; and if there be any mistake of the facts, the court below is competent to redress it, by granting a new trial.
Our opinion being that, if the evidence were now before us, it would not be competent for this court to reverse the judgment for any error in the verdict of the jury at the trial; the refusal to allow that evidence to be entered on the record is. not matter of error, for which the judgment can be reversed. The judgment is therefore affirmed, with six per cent damages and costs.