Merchants' Stock & Grain Co. v. Board of Trade of Chicago

201 F. 20, 120 C.C.A. 582, 1912 U.S. App. LEXIS 1988
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedOctober 24, 1912
DocketNo. 3,404
StatusPublished
Cited by57 cases

This text of 201 F. 20 (Merchants' Stock & Grain Co. v. Board of Trade of Chicago) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Merchants' Stock & Grain Co. v. Board of Trade of Chicago, 201 F. 20, 120 C.C.A. 582, 1912 U.S. App. LEXIS 1988 (8th Cir. 1912).

Opinions

SMITH, Circuit Judge.

This case was heretofore submitted and decided by this court. Merchants’ Stock & Grain Co. et al. v. Board of Trade et al., 187 Fed. 398, 109 C. C. A. 230. The Supreme Court of the United States having held in Re Merchants’ Stock & Grain Co., 223 U..S. 639, 32 Sup. Ct. 339, 56 L. Ed. 584, that the contempt here in question was criminal as distinguished from civil, the case was. ordered reargued, and has been again submitted.

The board of- trade of the city of Chicago brought suit against the Merchants’ Stock & Grain Company, Francis J. Miner, Patrick A. .Stephens,, and numerous other defendants to enjoin them temporarily and perpetually from receiving, using; selling, or distributing, directly or indirectly, the quotations of complainant or any of them, and from having and obtaining or permitting any telegraph -or other wire running into or through its, his, or their offices over which said quotations are passing until- they shall have lawfully acquired the right from complainant. or some telegraph company authorized by complainant to-distribute quotations. ■ November 3, 1909, a preliminary injunction was-ordered issued upon complainant giving bond in the sum of $5,000. [23]*23The following day, the bond having been given, a temporary writ of injunction issued substantially as prayed in accordance with the ruling in Board of Trade v. Christie Grain & Stock Co., 198 U. S. 236, 25 Sup. Ct. 637, 49 L. Ed. 1031, Board of Trade v. Celia Commission Co., 145 Fed. 28, 76 C. C. A. 28, and McDearmott Commission Co. v. Board of Trade, 146 Fed. 961, 77 C. C. A. 479, 7 L. R. A. (N. S.) 889, 8 Ann. Cas. 759. The writ was served by the marshal on November 5, 1909, on the Merchants’ Stock & Grain Company, and on Patrick A. Stephens, its chief telegraph operator, and on November 11th on Francis J. Miner, president and general manager of the company. Gn December 22, 1909, an information in contempt was filed in the civil suit against the Merchants’ Stock & Grain Company, Francis J. Miner, Patrick A. Stephens, and others. The testimony was taken before a special examiner, who, as directed, reported the evidence without making any rulings on the -admissibility thereof, or any findings of fact or conclusions of law. The court heard the matter upon his report, and some additional evidence, and adjudged the Merchants’ Stock & Grain Company, Francis J. Miner, and Patrick A. Stephens guilty of contempt, fined them, and directed that three-fourths of the fine be paid to the complainants and one-fourth to the government.

■ The specifications of error are substantially:

First to third: That the trial court erred in appointing Robert M. Fulton examiner, and directing the testimony to be taken before him, and requiring the defendants to appear before the examiner and submit to the taking of testimony,, and in refusing to vacate said order on motion ■ of defendants, and in refusing the defendants a hearing upon the case on evidence adduced in open court.

Fourth to ninth and fourteenth to sixteenth assail the admission'of certain evidence.

¡i Tenth to the twelfth assail the findings of defendants’ guilt. ^•Seventeenth alleges, that there was no evidence of guilt.

■ Thirteenth is .that the court erred in apportioning the fine between complainant and the government.

,. Eighteenth asserts that there is no sufficient finding of facts' made by.the judgment.

■: [1, 2] “Proceedings for contempts are of two classes: Those proser cuted to preserve the power and vindicate the dignity, of. the courts, and to punish for disobedience of their orders, and those instituted to preserve and enforce the rights of private, parties to suits, and to compel obedience to orders and decrees made to enforce the rights, and to .administer the remedies to which the court has found them to be entitled. The former are criminal and punitive in their nature, and the government, the courts, and the. people are interested in their prosecution. The later are civil, remedial, and coercive in their' nature, and the parties chiefly in interest in their conduct and p.ro,secution are th,e.individuals whose private rights and remedies they were instituted to-, protect or enforce. Thompson v. Railroad Co., 48. N. J. Eq. 105, 108, 21 Atl. 182, Hendryx v. Fitzpatrick (C. C.) 19. Fed. 810;. Ex parte Culliford, 8 Barn. & C. 220; Rex v. Edwards, 9 Barn. & C. 652. [24]*24People v. Court of Oyer & Terminer, 101 N. Y. 245, 247, 4 N. E. 259, 54 Am. Rep. 691; Phillips v. Welch, 11 Nev. 187, 190; State v. Knight, 3 S. D. 509, 513, 54 N. W. 412, 44 Am. St. Rep. 809; People v. McKane, 78 Hun, 154, 160, 28 N. Y. Supp. 981, 4 Bl. Comm. 285; 7 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law, 68. A criminal contempt involves no element of personal injury. It is directed against the power and dignity of the court, and private parties have little, if any, interest in the proceedings for its punishment. But if the contempt consists in the refusal of a party or a person to do an act which the court has ordered him to do for the benefit or the advantage of a party to a suit or action pending before it, and he is committed until he complies with the order, the commitment is in the nature of an execution to enforce the judgment of the court, and the party in whose favor that judgment was rendered is the real party in interest in the proceedings.” In re Nevitt, 117 Fed. 448, 54 C. C. A. 622. This language was quoted by the Supreme Court with approval in Bessette v. W. B. Conkey Co., 194 U. S. 324, 328, 24 Sup. Ct. 665, 48 L. Ed. 997, and the rule was followed by this court in Clay v. Waters, 178 Fed. 385, 389, 101 C. C. A. 645, 21 Ann. Cas. 897, and in Merchants’ Stock & Grain Co. v. Board of Trade, 187 Fed. 398, 109 C. C. A. 230.

In Bessette v. W. B. Conkey Co., 194 U. S. 324, 24 Sup. Ct. 665, 48 L. Ed. 997, Mr. Justice Brewer said:

“It may not be always easy to classify a particular act as belonging to either one of these two classes. It may partake of the characteristics of both. A significant and generally determinative feature is that the act is by one party to a suit in disobedience of a special order made in behalf of the other. Yet sometimes the disobedience may be of such a character, and in such a manner as to indicate a contempt of the court rather than a disregard of the rights of the adverse party.”

' No reason can be assigned why disobedience may- not at the same time be of such a character as to indicate a contempt of the court and of all authority and a total disregard of the rights of the adverse party.

The first points made by the plaintiffs in error as before stated are with reference to the appointment of Robert M. Fulton as special examiner to take the testimony, and the refusal to set this order aside. It is contended that, under the authorities, this was a criminal contempt case, and that by its reference to a special examiner they were deprived of the privilege of being confronted with the witnesses against them as provided in the sixth amendment to the federal Constitution, and the question is, Does that provision apply to criminal contempt cases? Closely akin to this question is the one as to whether a criminal contempt case is within the provisions of the fifth amendment to the Constitution.

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Bluebook (online)
201 F. 20, 120 C.C.A. 582, 1912 U.S. App. LEXIS 1988, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/merchants-stock-grain-co-v-board-of-trade-of-chicago-ca8-1912.