Janus v. United States Ex Rel. Humphrey

38 F.2d 431, 1930 U.S. App. LEXIS 2316
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 17, 1930
Docket5910
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 38 F.2d 431 (Janus v. United States Ex Rel. Humphrey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Janus v. United States Ex Rel. Humphrey, 38 F.2d 431, 1930 U.S. App. LEXIS 2316 (9th Cir. 1930).

Opinion

WILBUR, Circuit Judge.

The appellee moves to dismiss the appeal in this ease upon the ground that it was taken too late. The judgment was entered herein, October 25, 1928, during the October term of the District Court. Said term of court was adjourned without day on October 30, 1928, appellants filed petition for new trial November 3, 1928. No specific order was made by the court, before adjourning, extending the time beyond said term for appellant to file a motion or petition for new trial. The rules of that court, however, did provide that a petition for a new trial could be filed within thirty days after the rendition of the judgment. The trial court filed a memorandum opinion (30 F.[2d] 530), on the motion for new trial on January 29,1929, holding that the verdict was so disproportionate to the injuries sustained by the plaintiff that unless within twenty days thereafter plaintiff filed a remission of all of the judgment above $1,900, the judgment be set aside. This remission was filed on the 4th of February, 1929, and on the 5th of February, the motion for new trial was formally denied. The appellee does not dispute the right of the trial judge to rule on the motion for new trial, notwithstanding the faet that the petition for new trial was filed after the adjournment of court. Appellee’s position is stated in his . brief as follows:

“Rule 75 of the Rules of Procedure of the United States District Court for the District of Idaho provides thirty day period after the entry of judgment for the filing of a petition for new trial and does not, in any manner, conflict with the rule urged by appellee. Under said rule 75, appellants could file their petition for new trial within thirty days and could file their petition for writ on appeal within the three months’ period following the entry of judgment. Such petition for new trial and writ on appeal can be issued in time and in conformity to above rule by the filing of the petition for new trial after the term had closed and within the said thirty day pe *433 riod, but the filing of said petition for new trial within said thirty day period and after the term had closed did not toll or suspend the three months’ period within which it is required to file the petition for writ on appeal.
“The only way that the three months’ period for the filing of the petition for writ on appeal can be extended is by the filing of the petition for new trial before the close of the term of the court when the court still has jurisdiction to modify, change or correct its judgment. If the petition for new trial is filed during the term, it tolls or suspends the statute upon the sole theory and basis that the court has not allowed its judgment to go out of its control or jurisdiction but still retains jurisdiction because of the pendency, before the close of the term, of the petition for new trial.” •

The position of the appellee is entirely inconsistent with the theory upon which the period for taking an appeal is extended in the event that a petition for new trial is filed. Morse v. United States, 270 U. S. 151, 46 S. Ct. 241, 70 L. Ed. 518, and cases cited. The standing rule of the court (rule 75), permitting the filing of a petition for new trial within thirty days after the rendition of a judgment, in effect continued the term for that purpose during the full period of thirty days, otherwise construed the rule would operate as a trap for the unwary. This much seems to be conceded by the appellee. If it be held, as we think it must be, that the petition for a new trial herein was filed in time to invoke the power of the trial court to act upon the petition for a new trial, the petition also tolled the period for the filing of the appeal. The motion will be denied.

This is an action for false imprisonment and is based upon an alleged illegal arrest and detention of appellee, Roy Humphrey, by the appellant, W. H. Jensen, alleged to have been acting under the orders of Stephen Janus, Superintendent of the Et. Hall Indian Agency, Idaho. The undisputed facts and circumstances in connection with the arrest and detention are as follows:

The appellee, Roy Humphrey, was in charge of herding the sheep of Eames and Hanson. Working under him as a sheep herder was one Chase. These sheep were being pastured between Bannock Peak and Quartz Peak within the Port Hall Indian Reservation, belonging to the Bannock and Shoshone tribes and set aside 'for the grazing of Indian cattle. Appellant Jensen was informed that the sheep were being pastured on the reserve, and, acting upon that information, proceeded to the point where the sheep were grazing and there found appellee, Humphrey, in charge of 2,000 sheep which were grazing a mile on each side of the trail as they drifted along. Jensen arrived at the camp of the appellee, Humphrey, about 11 o’clock on the morning of July 13, 1927. Humphrey appeared there about a half hour later. Chase was out with the sheep. Jensen thereupon informed Humphrey that as he was pasturing sheep on the reservation, the owners of the sheep and Humphrey and Chase, as well as the sheep, would be held to pay damages for trespass. He thereupon placed Humphrey under arrest, and later Chase, and after lunch together, all started about 12:30 for Pocatello, Idaho, the nearest point at which a United States Commissioner was accessible. A part of the distance they traveled by horse along the mountain trails, and the latter part of the journey by Jensen’s automobile, and arrived at the sheriff’s office at Pocatello at about 5 o’clock p. m. There Jensen immediately got in communication with the office of the United States Commissioner at Pocatello and ascertained that the commissioner was not at his office but was at his ranch about fifteen miles from Pocatello. There was no telephone at the raneh of the United States commissioner. Thereupon, Jensen left Humphrey and Chase in charge of the sheriff while he sought the United States commissioner. Jensen at once, saw the son of the commissioner at Pocatello, who was a deputy clerk of the United States District Court and who sometimes prepared papers for his father, the commissioner, and advised him he desired to file a complaint against Humphrey and Chase for the trespass they had committed on the reservation by pasturing sheep thereon. The son, Theodore J. Turner, Jr., testified concerning the incident which occurred around seven or eight o’clock, as follows:

“Jensen said he wished to lodge a complaint against two men that were found with sheep trespassing on the reservation. I got the Revised Statutes and General Code and went through them trying to find a section under which to draw such a complaint. I told him that I found one section that dealt with trespassing, but was unable to find anything further. I told him the complaint could not be completed because my father was not in town and that I would have to cheek further because, with the information I had available, I didn’t know how to draw it. I prepared just the formal parts of a complaint that night.”

*434 Cross Examination

“My father was not in his office at any time daring the afternoon or evening of July 13th or during the dáy of July 14th. On the morning of the 14th I took some papers out to my father at the request of Mr. Jensen made on the night of July 13th.”

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Bluebook (online)
38 F.2d 431, 1930 U.S. App. LEXIS 2316, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/janus-v-united-states-ex-rel-humphrey-ca9-1930.