1. The Supreme Court of the District of Columbia is a court of
the United States, and its judgment, when suit is brought thereon
in any the Union, is, under the legislation of Congress, conclusive
upon the defendant except for such cause as would be sufficient to
set it aside in the courts of the district.
2. A. recovered judgment in that court against B. and C., who,
when sued thereon in a state court, filed their bill to enjoin the
collection of so much thereof as they claimed was in excess of the
amount due on the original cause of action, and alleged, as a
ground of relief, matter available as a defense in the action at
law, which they were not prevented from setting up by accident, or
by the fraud of A. unconnected with the negligence of themselves or
agents. The court perpetually enjoined A. from suing on the
judgment on their paying into court that amount. They did so, and
A. received it. The decree was affirmed by the court of last resort
in the state.
Held 1. that, according to the law then in
force in the District of Columbia, the
Page 107 U. S. 4
bill not being sufficient to authorize the relief granted, the
decree does not give the required effect to the judgment, and this
Court has jurisdiction to reexamine it on a writ of error; 2. that
A. by accepting the amount so paid, is not estopped from
prosecuting that writ.
James H. Embry, administrator of Robert J. Atkinson, deceased,
brought, in January, 1872, his action in the Supreme Court of the
District of Columbia, against Stanton and Palmer, to recover
compensation for professional services alleged to have been
rendered, in their behalf and at their request, by his intestate,
in prosecuting and recovering for them the amount of certain claims
in their favor against the United States. In this action, they
appeared and defended and judgment was rendered against them upon a
verdict for $9,185.18. Upon a writ of error, issued out of this
Court, this judgment was affirmed, upon grounds which appear in the
report of the case.
Stanton v. Embry, 93 U. S.
548.
Subsequently, in 1877, Embry brought his action upon this
judgment against the defendants, in the Superior Court for New
London County, Connecticut, where they resided, in order to obtain
judgment and execution thereof in that state. Thereupon they filed
their petition in equity in the same court, the object and prayer
of which were to obtain a perpetual injunction restraining him from
prosecuting his action upon that judgment or in any manner
enforcing it against them, upon their payment of $2,296.25, which
they alleged was as much as be was equitably entitled to on account
of the causes of action, on which the judgment had been
rendered.
The grounds of relief alleged in this petition may be shortly
but sufficiently stated, as follows,
viz., that the claim
in question was for collecting from the United States the sum of
$45,925.91, under a special written agreement for a compensation to
Atkinson of five percent on that amount, the existence of which was
well known to Embry when he brought his suit in the Supreme Court
of the District of Columbia; that when he, as administrator of
Atkinson, first presented to Stanton and Palmer the account for
payment, it was for $2,296.29, being at that rate; that they,
claiming to have a good defense
Page 107 U. S. 5
against it, declined to pay it, when Embry thereupon brought
suit for that amount, in Connecticut, in 1871, which he
discontinued in 1872, and, during its pendency, brought the action
in which the judgment complained of was rendered, in which he
ignored the special agreement, and sued upon a
quantum
meruit; that Palmer, one of the defendants at the time of the
trial was absent from the District of Columbia, and was not
notified of the day of trial in time to be present; that Stanton,
though present in Washington at the time, was unable to attend the
trial on account of sickness; that since the trial, Stanton, on
examination, had found among his papers two letters from Atkinson,
in which the latter expressly acknowledged the existence of the
special contract for fees at five percent, as claimed, but they
were discovered too late for use on the trial, and that Embry, in
suppressing his knowledge of the existence of this contract, and in
procuring a judgment for a larger sum, was guilty of fraud, which
made it inequitable in him to enforce the judgment to its full
extent.
A general demurrer to this petition was reserved to the Supreme
Court of Errors of Connecticut for its advice, and was overruled,
that court being of opinion that the petition was sufficient. Its
decision is reported in 46 Conn. 65, treating the case made in the
petition as one of fraud in procuring an unjust judgment, admitted
by the demurrer.
The defendant Embry then filed his answer to the petition, in
which he denied that he made out the account as originally
presented at the rate of five percent on the amount collected, to
conform to any agreement between the parties, but because he found
from Atkinson's books that he had charged at that rate in other
cases, and without considering the difference of value in the
services rendered in them, and that Atkinson kept no copies of the
letters written to the petitioners. He claims that the question,
whether there was any contract between the parties, and if so, what
were its terms, was fully tried and finally decided in the action,
which resulted in the judgment complained of, and which he sets up
as an estoppel. He denies that he then or any time knew of any
contract between the parties as to fees, and claims that if the
defendants failed in that action to substantiate a defense, it was
through their own laches, and not by reason of any fraud on his
part.
Page 107 U. S. 6
In accordance with the practice in that state, the cause was
referred to a committee, whose report of the facts constitutes part
of the record, from which the following extract is taken:
"At [the time of] the trial of this case at Washington neither
Mr. Stanton nor Palmer were present in court. Mr. Palmer was at
Stonington. His attendance might have been secured by reasonable
diligence, if such attendance had been deemed very important. Mr.
Stanton was ill at his hotel in Washington -- too ill to attend the
trial. His counsel asked for a postponement on that account, but no
affidavit was offered in support of the motion, and it was denied.
The petitioner's counsel appears to have been content to proceed
with the trial in the absence of his clients. He had full and, as
it turned out, undue confidence in the legal defenses which appear
by the record to have been set up at the trial, and took it for
granted that in no event could more be recovered than $2,296.29.
The letters of Mr. Atkinson of February 18, 1870, and May 7, 1870,
recognizing the special agreement for five percent on claim D, were
not in Washington at the trial there; they were received by Mr.
Stanton, the active partner at a time when his mind was much
depressed; they were stored for safekeeping at his home in
Stonington, Connecticut, and the contents had escaped his
recollection; they were not found by him until after the trial and
disposal of the case at the general term."
"After the commencement of the suit at Washington, he made
search for all letters and papers relating to the case, and placed
in possession of his counsel such as he found, and he then supposed
that he had found and placed in the hands of counsel all the
letters and papers pertaining to the matters in suit. As bearing on
the question how it happened that these letters escaped the
recollection of Mr. Stanton, it appears that for several reasons
the attention of the petitioners was not alive to the importance of
being prepared at the trial in Washington with the proof of the
special agreement which the letters furnished: 1. because the
petitioners took it for granted that the full extent of the
plaintiff's claim at the trial would be $2,296.29, that being the
amount of the claim D presented through Mr. Pratt, and it did not
occur to them that a larger amount might be claimed under the
quantum meruit count;
Page 107 U. S. 7
2. because their counsel had undue confidence in legal defenses
against the entire demand, and therefore did not apprehend the full
importance to the interests of his clients of being prepared with
proof of the special agreement."
"As to specification 7 in the petition, Mr. Atkinson, while
living, had full knowledge that the amount due him was but
$2,296.29, on a special contract for that amount, and he, if
living, could not, with a good conscience, have presented a claim
for a greater amount. Mr. Embry, the administrator, knew that
Messrs. Stanton and Palmer claimed a special contract, and was
willing before trial was brought to settle on that basis, but his
claim in court on a
quantum meruit was not on his part an
intentional
suggestio falsi. He did not know that the
claim was unfounded; the full proof of the special agreement was
not in his possession, and had not been fully brought to his
knowledge."
What decree should be passed in the cause upon this report was
reserved for the action of the Supreme Court of Errors, which
court, after argument, advised that the prayer of the petition be
granted, on condition that the petitioners pay to the respondent
the sum of $2,296.29, within a reasonable time to be fixed, with
interest thereon from March 10, 1871, which was accordingly so
ordered, and the said sum of money having thereupon been paid by
the petitioners to the attorney of the respondent, and received by
him, with the interest thereon, it was ordered and decreed by the
supreme court that Embry be enjoined, under a penalty of $20,000,
payable to the petitioners, to abstain and desist from the further
prosecution of his suit upon the judgment, and from instituting any
other suit or action thereon, or from executing or in any manner
enforcing the same against them.
Proceedings in error were taken in due form to review this
judgment in the Supreme Court of Errors of the state, it being
assigned for error
"that the judgment and decree is in contravention of Article IV,
Section 1, of the Constitution of the United States, and sec. 905,
c. 17, tit. 13, of the Revised Statutes of the United States in
that it enjoins 'the prosecution of a suit on a judgment of the
Supreme Court of the District of Columbia,'"
and "that the decree enjoins the collection of a judgment of a
court of the United States."
Page 107 U. S. 8
The opinion of the Supreme Court of Errors in passing upon the
case as presented by the report of the committee and advising as to
the decree to be rendered thereon is reported in
Stanton v.
Embry, 46 Conn. 595.
The final decree entered in pursuance thereof, and affirmed by
that court, is now brought into review in this Court by writ of
error.
MR. JUSTICE MATTHEWS delivered the opinion of the Court.
A suggestion is made in argument that the plaintiff in error is
estopped to prosecute this writ to the reversal of the decree below
because it appears that the amount of money ordered by it to be
paid to him as a condition of relief granted has been accepted by
him. It is said that this is a release of errors. Without entering
upon a discussion of the general question, it is sufficient for the
present purpose to say that no waiver or release of errors,
operating as a bar to the further prosecution of an appeal or writ
of error, can be implied except from conduct which is inconsistent
with the claim of a right to reverse the judgment or decree which
it is sought to bring into review. If the release is not expressed,
it can arise only upon the principle of an estoppel. The present is
not such a case. The amount awarded, paid, and accepted constitutes
no part of what is in controversy. Its acceptance by the plaintiff
in error cannot be construed into an admission that the decree he
seeks to reverse is not erroneous; nor does it take from the
defendants in error anything, on the reversal of the decree, to
which they would otherwise be entitled, for they cannot deny that
this sum at least is due and payable from them to the plaintiff in
error. But in every point of view, the objection is met and
answered by the decision of this Court in the case of the
United States v.
Dashiel, 3 Wall. 688.
The jurisdiction of the court invoked by this writ of error is
conferred by ยง 709, Rev.Stat., it being a case in which a title or
right is claimed under an authority exercised under the
Page 107 U. S. 9
United States, and the decision of the state court being in
denial of the title or right so asserted. It was decided in
Dupasseur v.
Rochereau, 21 Wall. 130, that such a question is
undoubtedly raised whenever
"a state court refuses to give effect to the judgment of a court
of the United States rendered upon the point in dispute, and with
jurisdiction of the case and of the parties."
The judgment, which is the subject matter of the litigation, is
that of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, which is a
court of the United States. The question we have to determine is
whether the Supreme Court of Errors of the State of Connecticut, in
the decree complained of, gave to that judgment its due effect.
Section 905, Rev.Stat., which embodies the original act of 1790,
and the supplement thereto of 1804, provides that the records and
judicial proceedings, not only of the courts of any state, but also
of any territory or of any country subject to the jurisdiction of
the United States, authenticated as therein prescribed,
"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,"
which, by supplying the ellipsis, must be taken to mean such
faith and credit as they are entitled to in the courts of the
state, territory, or other country subject to the jurisdiction of
the United States from which they are taken.
So far as this statutory provision relates to the effect to be
given to the judicial proceedings of the states, it is founded on
Article IV, Section 1, of the Constitution, which, however, does
not extend to the other cases covered by the statute. The power to
prescribe what effect shall be given to the judicial proceedings of
the courts of the United States is conferred by other provisions of
the Constitution -- such as those which declare the extent of the
judicial powers of the United States -- which authorize all
legislation necessary and proper for executing the powers vested by
the Constitution in the government of the United States or in any
department or officer thereof, and which declare the supremacy of
the authority of the national government within the limits of the
Constitution. As part of its general authority, the power to give
effect to the judgment
Page 107 U. S. 10
of its courts is coextensive with its territorial jurisdiction.
That the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia is a court of
the United States results from the right which the Constitution has
given to Congress of exclusive legislation over the District.
Accordingly, the judgments of the courts of the United States have
invariably been recognized as upon the same footing, so far as
concerns the obligation created by them, with domestic judgments of
the states, wherever rendered and wherever sought to be enforced.
Barney v. Patterson, 6 Har. & J. 182;
Niblett v.
Scott, 4 La.Ann. 246;
Adams v. Way, 33 Conn. 419;
Womack v. Dearman, 7 Port. (Ala.) 513;
Pepoon v.
Jenkins 2 Johns.Cas. (N.Y.) 119;
Williams v. Wilkes,
14 Penn.St. 228;
Turnbull v. Payson, 95 U. S.
418;
Cage's Ex'rs v.
Cassidy, 23 How. 93,
64 U. S. 109;
Galpin v. Page, 3 Sawyer 93, 109.
The rule for determining what effect shall be given to such
judgments is that declared by this Court, in respect to the faith
and credit to be given to the judgments of state courts in the
courts of other states, in the case of
McElmoyle
v. Cohen, 13 Pet. 312,
38 U. S. 326,
where it is said:
"They are record evidence of a debt, or judgments of record, to
be contested only in such a way as judgments of record may be; and,
consequently, are conclusive upon the defendant in every state,
except for such causes as would be sufficient to set aside the
judgment in the courts of the state in which it was rendered."
The question then arises, what causes would have been sufficient
in the District of Columbia, according to the law then in force, to
have authorized its courts to set aside the judgment recovered
there by Embry against Stanton and Palmer?
This is answered by the decision of this Court, upon the point,
in the case of
Marine Insurance Company of
Alexandria v. Hodgson, 7 Cranch 332. That was a
bill in equity, filed in a court of the District of Columbia,
perpetually to enjoin the collection of so much of a judgment at
law recovered in the district as was in excess of an amount claimed
to be the sum equitably due. The grounds of relief alleged were
that a fraud had been practiced upon the underwriters in a valued
policy of marine insurance, by an overvaluation of the ship, and
that the complainant had been prevented from making the defense
Page 107 U. S. 11
at law. Chief Justice Marshall, delivering the opinion of the
Court, affirming the decree of the court below dismissing the bill,
stated the rule as follows:
"Without attempting to draw any precise line to which courts of
equity will advance, and which they cannot pass, in restraining
parties from availing themselves of judgments obtained at law, it
may safely be said that any fact which clearly proves it to be
against conscience to execute a judgment, and of which the injured
party could not have availed himself in a court of law, or of which
he might have availed himself at law, but was prevented by fraud or
accident, unmixed with any fault or negligence in himself or his
agents, will justify an application to a court of chancery. On the
other hand, it may with equal safety be laid down as a general rule
that a defense cannot be set up in equity which has been fully and
fairly tried at law, although it may be the opinion of that court
that the defense ought to have been sustained at law. In the case
under consideration the plaintiffs ask the aid of this Court to
relieve them from a judgment, on account of a defense, which, if
good anywhere, was good at law, and which they were not prevented,
by the act of the defendants, or by any pure and unmixed accident,
from making at law."
This was held to be the law prevailing in the District of
Columbia, not by reason of any local peculiarity, but because it
was a general principle of equity jurisprudence. It was repeated in
Hendrickson v.
Hinckley, 17 How. 443, where the rule was condensed
by Mr. Justice Curtis into the following statement:
"A court of equity does not interfere with judgments at law,
unless the complainant has an equitable defense, of which he could
not avail himself at law, because it did not amount to a legal
defense, or had a good defense at law, which he was prevented from
availing himself of by fraud or accident, unmixed with negligence
of himself or his agents."
Creath v.
Sims, 5 How. 192;
Walker v.
Robbins, 14 How. 584. It was reaffirmed in
Crim
v. Handley, 94 U. S. 652, and
in
Brown v. County of Buena Vista, 95 U. S.
157.
This is the doctrine recognized and applied by the Supreme Court
of Errors of Connecticut in the case of
Pearce v. Olney,
20 Conn. 544. That was a bill in equity to restrain the
collection
Page 107 U. S. 12
of a judgment recovered in New York, upon the ground that the
complainant had a good defense at law to the action, which he was
prevented from making by the fraud of the defendant. It was there
said by that court:
"It is well settled that this jurisdiction will be exercised
whenever a party, having a good defense to an action at law, has
had no opportunity to make it or has been prevented by the fraud or
improper management of the other party from making it, and by
reason thereof a judgment has been obtained which it is against
conscience to enforce."
Then stating that the action was founded on an alleged contract,
on which the complainant was not personally liable, having been
made by him as agent for a corporation, and that this was known to
the party suing, the court continue:
"If this was all, the plaintiff would have no remedy, however
unjust it might be to compel him to pay that judgment. Still, as he
was duly served with process in that suit, it was his duty to make
defense in it, and an injunction ought not to be granted to relieve
him from the consequences of his own neglect."
The court then proceeds to show that he not only had a good
defense, but that it was his intention to make it, which he would
have done had he not been led by the assurances of the attorney for
the plaintiff in the action to believe that it had been abandoned,
so that its subsequent prosecution, without further notice,
operated as a surprise tantamount to a fraud, and that consequently
there was no ground on which to impute laches to the complainant in
not defending himself at law.
A subsequent action was brought in New York upon the same
judgment by an assignee of the plaintiff, to which the defendant
set up as a bar the Connecticut decree perpetually enjoining its
execution, which, by the judgment of the Court of Appeals of New
York, was sustained.
Dobson v. Pearce, 12 N.Y. 156. The
court said:
"The decree of the Court of Chancery of the State of
Connecticut, as an operative decree, so far as it enjoined and
restrained the parties, had and has no extraterritorial efficacy,
as an injunction does not affect the courts of this state; but the
judgment of the court upon the matters litigated is conclusive upon
the parties everywhere and in every forum where the same matters
are drawn in question.
Page 107 U. S. 13
It is not the particular relief which was granted which affects
the parties litigating in the courts of this state; but it is the
adjudication and determination of the facts by that court -- the
final decision that the judgment was procured by fraud -- which is
operative here, and necessarily prevents the plaintiff from
asserting any claim under it."
P. 167.
The same rule as to the jurisdiction in equity to enjoin the
enforcement of judgments at law was declared by the Supreme Court
of Errors of Connecticut in the case of
Carrington v.
Holabird, 17 Conn. 530, in these words:
"This jurisdiction will be exercised where to enforce a judgment
recovered is against conscience, and where the applicant had no
opportunity to make defense, or was prevented by accident, or the
fraud or improper management of the opposite party, and without
fault on his own part."
To the same effect is the case of
Borland v. Thornton,
12 Cal. 440, where the subject is discussed and the authorities
cited.
These, then, are the principles which should have governed the
Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut in the proceedings and
judgment now under review. It remains to ascertain whether they
were in fact applied in its dealing with the judgment sought to be
enforced by the plaintiff in error.
No question is made of the right of that court to entertain the
jurisdiction to enjoin proceedings upon the judgment,
notwithstanding it was the judgment of a court of the United
States. It had jurisdiction of the person of the plaintiff in
error, who was himself seeking the aid of the courts of that state
in his suit at law upon the judgment for the purpose of enforcing
it.
Nor is any inquiry opened, upon this writ of error, as to any
matter of fact found in the record before us. The facts, as
ascertained and acted upon by the state court, are assumed to be
true. They are contained in the report of the committee appointed
to hear the evidence and report his conclusions of fact, which were
accepted by the court, and they are not the subject of any
exception.
The Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut state the grounds of
their judgment in the report of the case,
Stanton
Page 107 U. S. 14
v. Embry, 46 Conn. 595, and hold that upon its
circumstances it comes within the rule laid down in
Pearce v.
Olney, 20 Conn. 544, already noticed. The conduct of the
plaintiff in error, alleged as the ground for granting the relief
decreed, is that he
"unintentionally gave them [the complainants] every reason for
thinking that he did not believe that he had any right to ask for a
judgment for a larger sum, and, of course, that he would not; he
unintentionally led them to believe, and act upon the belief, that
the only loss which could possibly ensue from either a partial or a
total omission of preparation for trial would be the sum of
$2,296.25."
The solitary fact upon which these inferences rest is that the
plaintiff in error originally presented an account for payment,
claiming that sum as a commission at the rate of five percent upon
the amount collected, and the complainants refusing to pay any part
of it, on the ground of defenses which applied to the whole of it,
brought his first suit in Connecticut against them, and in his
declaration joined a special count on an agreement for this rate of
compensation, with a general count upon a
quantum meruit.
The declaration in the action, in which judgment was rendered by
the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, contained two
similar counts. It is argued from this that the claim for $10,000
damages, appropriate to the
quantum meruit count, could
only have been regarded as a form of pleading, not calculated to
remove from the minds of the defendants sued "the effect produced
by the precise and explicit statement of the bill of particulars,"
which, regarding as obtained presumptively from the papers of the
decedent, they had a right to treat as "equivalent to a declaration
that those papers furnished positive evidence that there was a
contract calling for payment at that rate;" that the plaintiff in
error by "no act or word gave any intimation that he considered
himself entitled to or intended to claim more," and that all this
was
"calculated to and did in fact produce the belief on their part
that no more would, in any event, be asked of the court than to
assess the damages according to the terms of the contract."
It is admitted, however, that the plaintiff in error did not
know of the alleged special contract; that he did not intend to
give to the defendants in error any assurances on the subject,
Page 107 U. S. 15
and that he did not know that they were relying upon what they
now allege has misled them.
In all this, there is certainly no fraud; in fact, there is not
enough to suggest a fault on the part of the plaintiff in error. He
presented an account, which, it is now confessed, for them if not
by them, that the defendants in error ought at the time to have
paid. This they refused to do, denying all liability for any
amount, on the ground that no legal claim could arise for services,
such as were rendered, no matter how valuable they had been. Suit
was then brought upon the claim, both upon an express and an
implied contract. It was contested at every point. The parties were
adversaries, and there is no ground whatever for any claim on the
part of the defendants in error that they were relying upon
assurances of any character upon the part of Embry. If they took
anything for granted, it was upon their own responsibility and at
their own risk. They neither expected nor feared a recovery against
them for any excess beyond the contract rate, because they were
confident they would defeat it altogether. Embry was an
administrator. He had sought to obtain payment without litigation,
and failed. It was his duty to sue for and recover whatever the law
would give him. He owed no duty to his adversaries, except the
opportunity of defense. That they have enjoyed, if not improved,
and if it has not been as available as it would have been in case
they had limited themselves, as they claim their opponent should
have done, to the special contract, which they now insist was
binding upon both him and them, it was, as found in this record, in
part at least,
"because their counsel had undue confidence in legal defenses
against the entire demand, and therefore did not apprehend the full
importance to the interests of his clients of being prepared with
proof of the special agreement."
That agreement they sought to avoid, on the ground that it was
illegal and immoral to contract for any compensation for the
services rendered, and having deliberately staked their case upon
that single issue, they seek to impute to their adversaries the
responsibility of their own mistake.
The laches of the defendants in error is equally manifest. One
of them was absent from the trial; the report of the
Page 107 U. S. 16
committee states that "his attendance might have been secured by
reasonable diligence, if such attendance had been deemed very
important." The other was in Washington, but too ill to attend the
trial. His counsel asked a postponement on that account, but, as
the report continues,
"no affidavit was offered in support of the motion, and it was
denied. The petitioners' counsel appears to have been content to
proceed with the trial in the absence of his clients. He had full
and, as it turned out, undue confidence in the legal defenses which
appeared by the record to have been set up at the trial, and took
it for granted that in no event could more be recovered than
$2,296.29."
There were two letters from Mr. Atkinson to the defendants in
error in their possession, and not known to the plaintiff in error,
expressly referring to the special agreement as fixing the rate of
compensation, which might have been produced on the trial, but were
not. They had escaped the recollection of the active partner,
Stanton, who, for the preparation of the defense, had placed in the
hands of his counsel in Washington all the papers which he supposed
related to the subject of the suit. The letters referred to were
not found by him until after the trial and disposition of the case
in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. It is entirely
clear from this statement that the defendants in error are
chargeable with carelessness and want of diligence in not making
and sustaining the defense on the ground of an express agreement
for a fixed rate of compensation. It is fully accounted for by the
other facts in the case. The report of the committee states that
they were "not alive to the importance of being prepared at the
trial in Washington with the proof of the special agreement which
the letters furnished," and for the reason that they took it for
granted, without sufficient grounds, as we have already seen, that
no recovery could be had for a larger amount, and this was based
chiefly on their overweening confidence in their ability to defeat
the recovery altogether.
But this is not all. The question whether there was not a
special agreement limiting the compensation, as appears by the
record in the case, was left to the jury upon evidence submitted.
It was one of the points of the issue, and was so regarded by both
parties. The counsel for the defendants in
Page 107 U. S. 17
error asked an instruction to the jury on the subject, and the
court did instruct the jury in reference to it. After the verdict,
a motion for a new trial was made on the two grounds -- first, that
the damages were excessive, and second "that since the trial
evidence vital to the case has been discovered." That motion was
overruled and an appeal was taken to the general term, where the
judgment was affirmed. The motion for a new trial does not disclose
what new evidence had been discovered, nor was any affidavit filed
setting out its materiality, the circumstances of its discovery,
and the reasons why it could not have been produced at the trial.
There is no reason to doubt but that the evidence in question
consisted of the very letters referred to.
It thus appears that after the trial, and after the consequences
of the failure of the defendants in error to make good the defense
now relied on had become manifest, they had the opportunity to
bring the very matter to the attention of the Supreme Court of the
District, and did in fact appeal to its discretionary power to
grant a new trial for reasonable and sufficient cause. The motion
for a new trial was made March 17, 1873, was not overruled at
special term till April 19, 1873, and the appeal to the general
term was not disposed of until October 27, 1873; and, in fact owing
to an irregularity in the entry of judgment, the verdict was under
the control of the court until September 28, 1874. During this
interval, there was ample time in which to present the facts and
the application, and all illusions as to the intentions of the
plaintiff in error had been dispelled by the trial and verdict. If
it was not brought forward, it was from pure neglect. If it was as
it appears to have been, a court of competent jurisdiction has
passed upon the very matter sought to be again litigated in the
courts of Connecticut. The judgment of the Supreme Court of the
District of Columbia refusing to grant a new trial was final. It
was not, for that cause, subject to be reviewed on an appeal or a
writ of error in any superior jurisdiction, and, for the same
cause, it is not to be reviewed elsewhere. In the case of
Marine Insurance Company v. Hodgson, supra, the court had
refused to permit the defendant to file the additional pleas
raising the defense which was the basis of the application for
relief in equity.
Page 107 U. S. 18
The Court, when the original case was before it on a writ of
error, said:
"This Court does not think that the refusal of an inferior court
to receive an additional plea, or to amend one already filed, can
ever be assigned for error. This depends so much on the discretion
of the court below, which must be regulated more by the particular
circumstances of every case, than by any precise and known rule of
law, and of which the supreme court can never become fully
possessed, that there would be more danger of injury in revising
matters of this kind than what might result now and then from an
arbitrary or improper exercise of this discretion."
10 U. S. 6 Cranch
206,
10 U. S.
217.
In
Crim v. Handley, 94 U. S. 652,
94 U. S. 659,
it was said:
"Nor does the allegation that one of his witnesses was sick
during the examination, that it impaired his recollection and
rendered him incapable of stating material facts within his
knowledge, afford any sufficient support to the present
application. Accidents of the kind occasionally occur in the course
of the trial; but the plain remedy for such an embarrassment is an
application to the court to postpone the trial or continue the
case, as the circumstances may require. Applications of the kind,
if well founded, are seldom or never refused; but if a party elects
to proceed and take his chance of success, he cannot, if the
verdict and judgment are against him, go into equity and claim to
have the judgment enjoined. If a witness is too unwell to testify
understandingly, the proper remedy for the party is to move for a
postponement of the trial, and if he elects to proceed and is
unsuccessful, his only remedy is a motion for new trial to the
court where the accident occurred."
The Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut rest their judgment
upon another ground, which it is proper to examine and consider. It
may be stated as follows: that Atkinson himself, if alive, could
not have obtained a judgment, except upon his special contract,
without such a suggestion of a falsehood as would have made it
unconscionable for him to retain it; that the administrator,
representing him, stands in no different position, as he is seeking
to enforce a judgment, which his intestate could not equitably do,
and that his having
"failed to come to the knowledge of the truth as to the debt,
and in ignorance misled the court into the rendition of a wrongful
judgment,
Page 107 U. S. 19
does not destroy the right of the petitioners to have the wrong
corrected now that it is pointed out."
But in our opinion this view cannot be maintained. It seems to
constitute the plaintiff the guardian not only of his own rights,
but also of his adversary, and to relieve the latter from the
obligation of taking any care of himself. We are not prepared to
say that if Atkinson in his lifetime had presented his account for
the amount now admitted to be due upon the contract, and had been
told by Stanton and Palmer that they repudiated all liability, on
the ground that his services were illegal and against public
policy, and therefore not entitled to compensation at all, he would
have been guilty of any breach of law or morals in insisting upon
whatever the law would award for their actual value. Certainly, he
was not bound after that to confine his claim to the limits of a
contract which the other parties refused either to recognize or
perform, and if, on suit brought, he left them to use it as a
defense, if they saw fit, or to waive it for the chance of
defeating his recovery altogether, we know of no principle of
equity which would forbid it. It is to be remembered that there is
nothing unconscionable or oppressive in the judgment itself which
is the subject of the present complaint. It represents, by the
adjudication of a competent judicial tribunal, having full
jurisdiction of the parties and the controversy, the reasonable,
actual value of beneficial services rendered by Atkinson to the
defendants in error. No fraud or unfairness was practiced by the
plaintiff in error in procuring it. The defendants in error had
abundant opportunity to make the defense they now urge, and if they
failed to do so it was altogether their own fault. The judgment is
conclusive between the parties, upon all the points made in the
present suit, in the jurisdiction where it was rendered, and was
entitled to be so regarded in the courts of Connecticut. In
restraining further proceedings upon it, in the terms of the decree
under review, the Supreme Court of Errors of that state have not
given it that due effect to which, under the authority of the
Constitution and laws of the United States, it is entitled. In that
respect there is manifest error in its decree to the prejudice of
the plaintiff in error, for which it must be reversed. It is
accordingly so ordered, and the cause remanded to
Page 107 U. S. 20
the Supreme Court of Errors of the State of Connecticut, with
instructions to reverse the decree of the superior court within and
for the County of New London, and to direct that court to render a
decree dismissing the bill. It is accordingly
So ordered.
