People ex rel. Akin v. Butler Street Foundry & Iron Co.

66 N.E. 349, 201 Ill. 236
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 18, 1903
StatusPublished
Cited by53 cases

This text of 66 N.E. 349 (People ex rel. Akin v. Butler Street Foundry & Iron Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People ex rel. Akin v. Butler Street Foundry & Iron Co., 66 N.E. 349, 201 Ill. 236 (Ill. 1903).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Hand

delivered the opinion of. the court:

It is first contended that the amendment of 1893 (secs. 7a and 76) violates section 10 of article 2 of the constitution of Illinois, which provides that “no person shall be compelled in any criminal case to give evidence against himself,” and the fifth amendment to the constitution of the United States, which provides that “no person * ® * shall be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself.” This contention must be sustained, unless the objection to the statute is removed by the immunity clause contained therein, which is as follows: “Provided, that no corporation, firm, association or individual shall be subject to any criminal prosecution by reason of anything truthfully disclosed by the affidavit required by this act, or truthfully disclosed in any testimony elicited in the execution thereof.”

In order that a statute requiring a person to give evidence which might tend to incriminate him may be held valid, the immunity afforded must be broad enough to protect him against future punishment for the offense to which the evidence relates. (Counselman v. Hitchcock, 142 U. S. 547; Lamson v. Boyden, 160 Ill. 613.) The constitutional privilege is not, however, to be so far extended that it “may be put forward for a sentimental reason, or for a purely fanciful protection of the witness against an imaginary danger, and for the real purpose of securing immunity to some third person who is interested in concealing the facts to which he would testify.” (Brown v. Walker, 161 U. S. 591.) The constitutional privilege that a person shall not be required to give evidence or to be a witness against himself is one of great value to the'citizen; but the authorities, both State and national, recognize the rule that when the testimony sought cannot be used as a basis for or in aid of a prosecution which might be followed by fine or imprisonment or involve a penalty or forfeiture, by reason of an immunity statute, the reason of the rule ceases and the privilege cannot be claimed. Immunity statutes must be given a reasonable construction and not a strained and artificial one, and when the court can clearly see that a person is fully protected from the effect of his testimony he should be required to give evidence, even though it may show him to have been guilty of a criminal offense.

The defendant urges three reasons why the immunity afforded by this statute is not complete: (1) The immunity does not cover prosecutions under the Federal law nor under the law of the other States; (2) the immunity can not be conditioned upon the truthfulness of the disclosure; and (3) the immunity is not co-extensive with the constitutional privilege.

It is fundamental that the legislature of this State is powerless to pass an enactment making an act committed in a foreign State a crime punishable in that State, or

the legislature of a foreign State to pass an enactment to make an act committed in this State a crime punishable in this State. It is therefore evident that a violation of the statute above set forth in this State cannot be punished as a criminal offense in a foreign State, and that the immunity afforded by the statute is complete against a prosecution under the law of the other States of the Union. The Anti-trust statute of 1891 has no extraterritorial effect. While its terms may be broad enough to include trusts, pools, combines, etc., formed with parties residing outside of this State, the courts, in construing jt, must necessarily confine it to those matters upon which the General Assembly has power to act, viz., trusts, pools, combinations, etc., formed within the State of Illinois.

In the construction of a statute the courts will exclude from the operation thereof subjects or classes upon which the State legislature has no power to legislate, although comprehended within the general terms of the act, unless the different parts of the statute are so connected that they cannot be separated without destroying the evident intention of the legislature. (State v. Smiley, 69 Pac. Rep. 199; Supervisors v. Stanley, 105 U. S. 305; Commonwealth v. Gagne, 153 Mass. 205.) In State v. Smiley, supra, it is said: “The general doctrine is, that only the invalid parts of a statute are without legal efficacy. This is qualified by the further rule that if the void and valid parts of the statute are so connected with each other in the general scheme of the act that they cannot be separated without violence to the 'evident intent of the legislature, the whole must fail. * * * The instances in which the application of the rule first mentioned most usually occurs are those where separable words, clauses, sentences or sections of the statute are stricken out, as it were, because constitutionally objectionable. However, the rule is not limited to such instances. It applies as well to exclude from the operation of the statute subjects and classes of things lying without the legislative intent, although comprehended within the general terms of the act, as it does to exclude parts of the verbal phraseology.” In Commonwealth v. Gagne, supra, it is said: “A law which is unconstitutional within certain limitations, if in terms it exceeds or fails to notice those limitations, may yet be entirely operative within its legitimate sphere and properly held to have the application which thus confines it. Indeed, where two governments, like those of the United States and the commonwealth, exercise their authority within the same territory and over the same citizens, the legislation of that which, as to certain subjects, is subordinate should be construed with reference to the powers and authority of the superior government, and not be deemed as invading them unless such construction is absolutely demanded.”

If the statute be confined to its legitimate constitutional scope its proper construction only requires the affidavit to state whether or not the corporation upon whose behalf it is made had violated the statute by performing some one or more of the acts therein prohibited within the State of Illinois, and would not include, but would exclude, all acts which would connect it with any trust, pool, combination, etc., formed outside of the State, and which would violate the Anti-trust statute of the United States. The United States, under its power to regulate inter-State commerce, may legislate upon the subject of private contract in respect to such commerce, and has full and complete jurisdiction over trusts, pools, combinations, etc., so far as they relate to such commerce, but it has no jurisdiction over trusts, pools, combinations, etc., which relate to commerce wholly within a State, and it does not acquire auy jurisdiction over that part of a combination or agreement which relates to commerce wholly within a State by reason of the fact that the combination also covers and regulates commerce which is inter-State. While it may control trusts; pools, combinations, etc., so far as they interfere with inter-State commerce, so far as they interfere with commerce wholly within the State such trusts, pools, combinations, etc., are subject alone to the jurisdiction of the State. (Addyston Pipe and Steel Co. v. United States, 175 U. S. 211

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Grand County v. Emery County
2002 UT 57 (Utah Supreme Court, 2002)
Melnick v. Microsoft Corp.
Maine Superior, 2001
Archer Daniels Midland Co. v. Seven Up Bottling Co.
746 So. 2d 966 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1999)
Abbott Laboratories v. Durrett
746 So. 2d 316 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1999)
United States v. Chicago Title and Trust Company
242 F. Supp. 56 (N.D. Illinois, 1965)
Rudolf Express Co. v. Bibb
153 N.E.2d 820 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1958)
United States v. Murphy
7 C.M.A. 32 (United States Court of Military Appeals, 1956)
González Vélez v. Superior Court of Puerto Rico
75 P.R. 550 (Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, 1953)
González Vélez v. Tribunal Superior de Puerto Rico
75 P.R. Dec. 585 (Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, 1953)
People v. Building Maintenance Contractors' Ass'n
264 P.2d 31 (California Supreme Court, 1953)
Halpin v. Scotti
112 N.E.2d 91 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1953)
State v. Prince
189 P.2d 993 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1948)
The People v. Starks
71 N.E.2d 23 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1947)
Henrys v. Raboin
69 N.E.2d 491 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1946)
Yale University v. Scotts Bluff County
292 N.W. 48 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1940)
Warner v. Hallihan
281 Ill. App. 300 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1935)
Truly Warner Co. v. Kaufman Hats, Inc.
186 N.E. 167 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1933)
In Re Berman
287 P. 125 (California Court of Appeal, 1930)
Frost v. Corporation Comm'n of Okla.
278 U.S. 515 (Supreme Court, 1929)
Williams v. State
125 A. 661 (Supreme Court of New Hampshire, 1924)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
66 N.E. 349, 201 Ill. 236, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-ex-rel-akin-v-butler-street-foundry-iron-co-ill-1903.