Springs v. James

172 F. 626, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 5831
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the Northern District of Georgia
DecidedAugust 21, 1909
DocketNo. 83
StatusPublished

This text of 172 F. 626 (Springs v. James) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the Northern District of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Springs v. James, 172 F. 626, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 5831 (circtndga 1909).

Opinion

NEWMAN, District Judge.

This case is now before the court on a motion by the plaintiffs to strike the answer filed by the defendant, and have a judgment at the present term in the suit, which is on a judgment rendered in favor of the plaintiff against the defendant in the state of New York. The answer sets up that the judgment referred to in the declaration “is based on a claim arising out of a series of wagers, known to be such by the plaintiffs, and which they actively participated in the making thereof, and to which, by certain devices, well known to them and unknown to defendant, they became parties opposed to the defendant. And it is for the winnings on wagers that plaintiff’s claim is made.” And further that:

“The recovery of all such is contrary to the policy of the state of Georgia and to its laws, and hence, even if the plaintiff’s claim was otherwise perfect, the same cannot be enforced in the courts of this state or of the United, States situated in tills state.”

It is further claimed that there has been an appeal from the judgment in New York to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, and that the appeal is there pending and undisposed of. I shall not pass at present on the question raised as to the sufficiency of the plea, but will do that at a later date, when I have had time to fake the matter under more careful advisement. Nor the present, it is only necessary to determine the question of the right of the plaintiffs to have judgment, if they be entitled to the same at all, at this term of the court.

The argument of plaintiffs’ counsel in favor of their right for judgment at the first term of the court is based on the “full faith and credit” clause of the Constitution of the United States. 'The history of this clause and of the statute passed in pursuance thereof, as appears to be correctly set out in the brief of plaintiffs’ counsel, is as follows:

“■When the Articles of Confederation were entered into by the thirteen colonies, which had declared themselves independent states, they placed in article 4 thereof the following language: ‘Full faith and credit shall he given, in each of these states to the records, acts, and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every other state.’
“This provision, like some of the other provisions, of the Articles of Confederation, was not, carried out: by the states; and Washington and others of great influence in the country met to form a more perfect union and to provide ways of enforcing the Constitution and the acts of Congress. In this regard the Constitution was made to read as follows:
‘“Article IV.
‘“Section 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public ac-1s. records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. And the Congress may, by general Jaws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.’
“2 Annals of Congress, 1548, shows Hint a bill to carry out that article of the Constitution was brought in the House of Representatives on April 28, 1790; and
“1 Annals of Congress, 909-990, shows that the Senate received from the Ifouse of Representatives a message that they had passed a bill ‘to prescribe the mode in which the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings, in each state, shall be authenticated, so as to take effect in every other state.’ And it was passed by the Senate.
“1 United States Statutes, page .122, contains the law thus passed to carry out that article of the Constitution; and it is entitled: ‘An act to prescribe [628]*628the mode in which the public acts, records and judicial proceedings, in each state, shall be authenticated so as to take effect in every other state.’
“It reads as follows:
“ ‘Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that the acts of the Legislatures of the several states shall be authenticated by having the seal of their respective states affixed thereto: That the records and judicial proceedings of the courts of any states, shall be proved or admitted in any other court within the United States, by the attestation of the clerk, and the seal of the court annexed, if there be a seal, together with a certificate of the judge, chief justice, or presiding magistrate, as the case may be, that the said attestation is in due form.
“ ‘And the said records and judicial proceedings authenticated as aforesaid shall have such faith and credit given to them in every court within the United States, as they have by law or usage in the courts of the state from whence the said records are or shall be taken.’
“2 United States Statutes, p. 299, section 2, contains a provision that the above act shall apply as well to the public acts, records and judicial proceedings in'the territories of the United States and countries subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. Both of these acts have been combined in the Revised Statutes of the United States, which reads as follows:
“ ‘Section 905. The acts of, the Legislature of any state or territory, or of any country subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, shall be authenticated by having the seals of such state, territory, or country, affixed thereto.
“ ‘The records and judicial proceedings of the courts of any state or territory, or of any such country, shall be proved or admitted in any other court within the United States, by the attestation of the clerk, and the seal of the court annexed, if there be a seal, together with a certificate of the judge, chief justice or presiding magistrate, that the said attestation is in due form.
“ ‘And the said records and judicial proceedings, so authenticated, shall have such faith and credit given to them in every court within the United States as they have by law or usage in the courts of the state from which they are taken.’
“Thus it will be seen that the language in section 905 does not change the law ás it stood originally in regard to judicial proceedings in a state; and those proceedings when authenticated as therein prescribed and presented to a court in any other state, were to ‘take effect.’ ”

The argument .then based on this provision, as I understand it, is that the filing of the record of a judgment of one state properly certified in a court of competent jurisdiction in another state entitles the plaintiff in the judgment to a judgment in the latter state at once as a matter of right. The suit is brought to the May term, 1909, of the Circuit Court of the Western Division of this District. The next term (December, 1909) will be the regular trial term under the Georgia statutes. These statutes, so far as deemed material here, are as follows:

“Section 5076. The court shall render judgment without the verdict of a jury In ail civil cases founded on unconditional contracts in writing, where an issuable defence is not filed under oath, or affirmation.” Civ. Code Ga. 1S95. ' '

Section 5077 is as follows:

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Bluebook (online)
172 F. 626, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 5831, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/springs-v-james-circtndga-1909.