Brinkley v. Louisville & N. R. Co.

95 F. 345, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 3159
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Tennessee
DecidedJune 23, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 95 F. 345 (Brinkley v. Louisville & N. R. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brinkley v. Louisville & N. R. Co., 95 F. 345, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 3159 (circtwdtn 1899).

Opinion

HAMMOND, J.

(after stating the facts as above). This is an application for an appeal on the pauper’s oath, which ought to be disallowed, «ven if .the appeal were sought with the usual security by bond. But I have been very much perplexed to know whether a court or judge ever should or can refuse an application for an appeal from a final order, that being a question, which properly belongs to the appellate court to determine. But inasmuch as the applicant has ample remedy to apply to another judge, or, it may be, for a mandamus, I have concluded to deny this appeal upon the ground that the case is not only vexatious, but is so obviously frivolous, and certáinly beyond the jurisdiction of the court, original or appellate, that it should not be entertained at any stage whatever. Surely the courts have inherent power to protect themselves against the infliction of frivolous litigation, acting with all due regard for the right of the citizen to resort to them with the utmost freedom for the redress of any grievance, real or imaginary. And it seems to me that they are not compelled always to accept every suit offered to be filed or begun, and always to allow it to proceed through all the stages, original and appellate, in order that it may be formally determined only at the end whether there be a grievance, real or imaginary, that the courts should investigate, or have the jurisdiction to entertain. That is certainly the general rule, and adherence to it is necessary to protect the citizen against the-possibility of oppressive denial of resort to the courts. Still, there are limitations, and this power of rejection at the threshold is not more liable to abuse than the same rejection at the end of the bootless litigation; and there is the remedy of supervision by mandamus to compel the court or judge to admit the suit to the court. Fost. Fed. Prac. § 401. Perhaps, however, the remedy of [349]*349Initial rejection would liave been better placed if (his bill in equity-had been refused a place on the files in the first instance, or if a motion to strike it from the files had been made and granted, rather than by a disallowance of a petition for appeal from the final order dismissing it for want of jurisdiction. Yet, if the power to so deal with it exists at the beginning, (here is no injustice in applying the remedy at any stage in the progress of the litigation. As explanatory of the existence of such a suit, the condition of the record, and the present necessity for dealing with if in the manner proposed, it is proper to state that the plaintiff is a colored man conducting his own case, with whom the court has been more considerate than perhaps it would have been if counsel had been conducting it for him. Indeed, it seems quite incredible that any lawyer would have instituted such a suit,— certainly not in form and substance as it appears by this record. Also, the court has no doubt that the plaintiif feels keenly the wrong that was done him by ejection from the railway car,in which he was riding, and that the hopelessness of the remedy which he seeks by this suit is quite incomprehensible to him. It would be plain to any lawyer he might consult, and perhaps that is the reason why he is wiihout counsel to represent him. lie appeared on the first day of the term, holding a paper which he said was a license from the supreme court of California to practice law, and asked his oven admission to the bar. With that freedom which obtains here in admitting to the bar all who hold license, he was enrolled without question. Tie then tiled this “bill of equity.” The clerk advised him not to file it, and foretold to him its inevitable fate; but he persisted, as he has done throughout. In not: taking any advice, — in not accepting any information against his own belief that he had a wrong which he knew how to redress, and that he was pursuing a proper remedy. lie certainly has the right, under the statute, to personally appear and conduct his own suit without the aid of counsel. Rev. St. § 747. He seems somewhat acquainted with the forms of legal procedure, but perverts them in their application, because he is not at all familiar with (lie legal principles controlling his supposed rights or remedies, or flie practice of the court in enforcing them; the whole proceeding, in consequence, being very crude. But the court, being disposed to overlook all this, lias acted with such indulgence as would give effect to the statute allowing a litigant to conduct his own case.

Certainly, in a court of equity, the power always existed to refuse to entertain vexatious and frivolous bills. Mr. Daniell, in the first edition of his Chancery Practice (that edition which describes the particular practice to which equity rule 90 binds us), states that it is necessary that a solicitor shall sign, and that he ought to prepare, the bill; none being allowed to be filed without such signature. This is the guaranty to the court that ihe bill is not improper to be filed, in the essential qualities that it shall not be scandalous, beneath the dignity of the court, and the like, and as a preliminary assurance against frivolity and vexation. He says that before Sir Thomas More’s time, when the requirement of the signature of counsel began, “It seems the practice was for the bill to be examined by one of the masters in chancery, in order that he might consider whether the matter contained therein was fitter to be dismissed by original, or re[350]*350tained by subpoena.” 1 Daniell, Ch. Prac. 409; Id. 402, 461. If the bill be “beneath the dignity of the court,” as where the subject-matter of the litigation* be under £10, it will not be entertained; and it seems that “if a bill is brought for a demand which, by the rule of the court, cannot be sued for, the defendant may either demur to it on the ground that the plaintiff’s demand, if true, is not sufficient to ground a decree upon, or he may (which is the more usual course) move to have the bill dismissed, as below the dignity of the court.” Id. 432; Id. (5th Ed.) 312. And see note 1, where the American cases are cited to the point that counsel, before signing the bill, must satisfy himself “that the bill stated a case in which the plaintiff might be entitled to relief, set forth with so much regard to the essential rules of pleading, and praying relief in such manner, as to entitle it to the consideration of the court.” Davis v. Davis, 19 N. J. Eq. 180. And this object of the signature of counsel is especially set forth in our federal equity rule 24. If the bill, notwithstanding these precautions, gets upon the record, a motion is proper to strike it from the files, which the court may do of its own motion if the signature of counsel is wanting. 1 Daniell, Ch. Prac. (5th Ed.) 307, 309; Id. 312; Id. 314, note 5, where it is stated that it is a fundamental ride in all bills that they must state a case within the appropriate jurisdiction of the court, and the common and familiar rule that in the federal courts of equity the diversity of citizenship must appear in the bill is cited in illustration. It has been especially ruled that a bill may be ordered to be taken from the files if vexatious or illusory. 1 Daniell, Ch. Prac. (5th Ed.) 399, citing Mortlock v. Mortlock, 20 Law T. (N. S.) 773; Seaton v. Grant, 2 Ch. App. 459, 464; Robson v. Dodds, L. R. 8 Eq. 301; Fisher v. London Offices Co. (1870) Wkly. Notes, 113. The trouble here is that the guaranty found in the signature of counsel, against vexatious, frivolous, and otherwise unworthy bills, developed, as we see, for the very purpose of precautionary assurance against entertaining or admitting them at the beginning, has been abrogated by our own Revised Statutes, § 747 (Act Sept. 24, 1789, c. 20, § 351 [1 Stat.

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Bluebook (online)
95 F. 345, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 3159, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brinkley-v-louisville-n-r-co-circtwdtn-1899.