Summers v. United States
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff in error was indicted under section 5209 of the Revised Statutes (12 U.S.C.A. § 592 and note), delating to national banks, and was charged with 56 separate crimes thereunder. He demurred to the indictment on the ground that it violated section 43 of Carter’s Alaska Code, p. 52 (Act March 3, 1899, c. 429, 30 Stat. 1290),
The question presented on the writ of error is whether the procedure in the court below was controlled by section 1024 of the Revised Statutes (18 U.S.C.A. § 557), or by section 43 of the Alaska Code of Criminal Procedure. Section 1024 provides as follows: “When there are several charges against any person for the same act or transaction, or for two or more acts or transactions connected together, or for two or more acts o’r transactions of the same class of crimes or offenses which may be properly joined, instead of having several indictments, the whole may be joined in one indictment in separate counts, and if two or more indictments are found in such cases, the court may order them to be consolidated.”
This section was carried into the Revised Statutes from Act Cong. Feb. 26, 1853, c. 80, 10 Stat. 161, entitled “An act to regulate the fees and costs to be allowed clerks, marshals, and attorneys of the Circuit and District Courts of the United States, and for other purposes.” The act contains numerous provisions for carrying out the purposes thereof, including the regulation, of the fees of officers, witnesses, and jurors, and contains the proviso that: “In the state of California and the territory of Oregon, officers, jurors and witnesses shall be allowed for the term of two years, double the fees and compensation allowed by this act,” etc.
It is contended that section 1024 never applied to territorial courts, but only to the United States Circuit and District Courts, for the reason that the title of the act of February 26, 1853, limits its scope to the Circuit and District Courts of the United States, and the enacting clause limits its application to officers, etc., “in the several states,” and cases are cited which hold that the territorial court of Alaska is not a District Court of the United States. M’Allister v. United States, 141 U.S. 174, 11 S.Ct. 949, 35 L.Ed. 693; Steamer Coquitlam v. United States, 163 U.S.
By that act, Alaska became an organized territory, and was brought within the provisions of section 1891 of the Revised Statutes which declares: “The Constitution and all laws of - the United States which are not. locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within all the organized territories and in every territory hereafter organized, as elsewhere within the United States.”
In Kie v. United States (C.C.) 27 F. 351, Judge Deady held that the District Court of Alaska had jurisdiction under sections 5339 and 5341, Revised Statutes (see 18 U.S. C.A. §§ 452, 453 and notes), to try and punish any inhabitants of the district for the crimes of murder or manslaughter, and that the law of Oregon defining those crimes and describing the punishment therefor was not in force in Alaska, that jurors must be selected in the manner provided by Act Cong. June 30, 1879, c. 52, 21 Stat. 43, and have the qualifications prescribed by the laws of Oregon. Said the court: “No law of Oregon is to have effect in Alaska if it is in conflict with a law of the United States. There is such a conflict within the meaning of the statute, not only when these laws contain different provisions on the same subject, but when they contain similar or identical ones. In the latter case, it is the law of Congress that applies, and not that of the.state.”
In Act March 3, 1899, c. 429, 30 Stat. 1253, entitled “An act to define and punish crimes in the District of Alaska, and to provide a code of criminal procedure for said dis
And section 2, c. 1, tit. 1, provides: “That the crimes and offenses defined in this act committed within the District of Alaska shall be punished as herein provided.”
Then follows a code of criminal procedure in which is found, under title 2, the section 43 above quoted “that the indictment must charge but one crime and in one form only.” From these provisions standing alone, it seems clear that it was the intention of Congress to make section 43 applicable only to the crimes and offenses specifically defined in the act. The offense with which the plaintiff in error was charged is not one of those crimes or offenses, but is an offense against the laws of the United States, which was defined in section 5209 of the Revised Statutes (12 U.S.C.A. § 592 and note). In brief, the enacting clause provides for the procedure which shall be adopted in enforcing the penal and criminal laws which are contained in the Criminal Code of Alaska, and no others, and section 43 is a provision regulating procedure.
But it is said that a contrary intention is shown in the provisions of section 10 of chapter 4, tit. 2, and section 13 of chapter 5, tit. 2. Section 10 provides: “That grand juries to inquire into crimes designated in title 1 of this act, committed or triable within said district shall be selected and summoned, and their proceedings shall be conducted in the manner prescribed by the laws of the United States with respect to grand juries of the United States District and Circuit Courts, the true intent and meaning of this section being that but one grand jury shall be summoned in each division of the court to inquire into all offenses committed or triable within said district, as well those that are designated in title 1 of this act, as those that are defined in other laws of the United States.”
Section 13 provides: “That the grand jury have power, and it is their duty to inquire into all crimes committed or triable within the jurisdiction of the court, and present them to the court, either by presentment or indictment, as provided in this act.”
But, aside from the intention of Congress as expressed in the acts specifically relating to Alaska which we have just considered, there is no substantial reason why that clause in the act of February 26, 1853, which became section 1024 of the Revised Statutes (18 U.S.C.A. § 557), does not now apply to all territorial courts as well as to the Circuit and District Courts of the United States in all cases of offenses against the laws of the United States. It is a general provision, and there is to be found in the act itself and in the subsequent amendment thereof ground for holding that it was the intention to apply it to all courts of the United States, whether in states or territories. The principal object of the act of February 26, 1853, was to reduce the fees and costs of clerks, marshals, and attorneys, etc., in the Circuit and District Courts of the United States, as appears in its title, to which was added “and for other purposes.” The enacting clause declares: “That in lieu of the compensation now allowed by law to attorneys, * * * clerks of the District and Circuit Courts, marshals, witnesses, jurors, commissioners and printers in the several states, the following and no other compensation shall be taxed and allowed.”
In the General Appropriation Act March 3, 1855, c. 175, § 12, 10 Stat. 671, it was provided that the provisions of the act of February 26, 1853, “are hereby extended to the territories of Minnesota, New Mexico, and Utah, as fully in all particulars as they would be had the word ‘territories’ been inserted in the sixth line after the word ‘states,’ and the same had read ‘in the several states and in the territories of the United States.’ ” It is true that there were at that time other territories of the United States than those which were specifically named. But in the Revised Statutes, in section 823, it was provided that the fees as established by the act of February 26, 1853, shall be taxed and allowed “in the several states and territories,” and although section 1024, the purpose of which was also to reduce the fees of officers, was detached from its connection with the regulation of fees which it had in the act of March 3, 1855, it should be held that it was intended to be a general provi
Counsel for the plaintiff in error cite a line of decisions, such as Clinton v. Englebrecht, 13 Wall. 434, 20 L.Ed. 659; Hornbuckle v. Toombs, 18 Wall. 648, 21 L.Ed. 966; Good v. Martin, 95 U.S. 90, 24 L.Ed. 341; Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145, 25 L.Ed. 244; Miles v. United States, 103 U.S. 304, 26 L.Ed. 481; United States v. Pridgeon, 153 U.S. 48, 14 S.Ct. 746, 38 L.Ed. 631; Fitzpatrick v. United States, 178 U.S. 304, 20 S.Ct. 944, 44 L.Ed. 1078— as authority for the proposition that both under the act of May 17, 1884, providing for a civil government for Alaska, and under the act of March 3, 1899, the law of Oregon was adopted as the rule of procedure in all cases in the District of Alaska. It is true that these decisions hold that the territorial courts are not courts of the United States, but are legislative courts of the territories, and that in the manner of summoning and impaneling jurors', the practice, pleadings, forms, and modes of procedure, qualifications of witnesses, and forms of indictment prescribed by statute for the Circuit and District Courts of the United States have no application to them, but that they are required to follow the territorial law in all those respects, unless it be otherwise provided by a statute of the United States. But in Page v. Burnstine, 102 U.S. 664, 26 L.Ed. 268, it was held that section 858 of the Revised Statutes (28 U.S.C.A. § 631 note), which declares that “in actions by or against executors, administrators, or guardians, in which judgment may be rendered for or against them, neither party shall be allowed to -testify against the other as to any transaction with, or statement by the testator, intestate, or ward, unless called to testify thereto by the opposite party, or required to testify thereto by the court,” applies to the courts of the District of Columbia as
The decision in Fitzpatrick v. United States, 178 U.S. 304, 20 S.Ct. 944, 44 L.Ed. 1078, is not authority for a contrary view, notwithstanding that the crime charged was a murder in a “place or district of country under the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States,” as defined in Rev. St. § 5339 (18 U.S.C.A. §§ 452, 454 and notes), and that the court held that the sufficiency of the indictment was to be determined by the law of Oregon as extended to Alaska under the .act of May 17, 1884, and not by the common law. There was no question there of the application of a statute of the United States regulating procedure as against the procedure so adopted for Alaska. The purport of the decision was that the Law of Oregon was not inapplicable, and was not in conflict with the provisions of the act of May 17, 1884, or the laws of the United States.
The judgment is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- SUMMERS v. UNITED STATES
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published