delivered the opinion of the court.
This is a writ of error bringing into review a judgment of the Supreme Court of the State of Louisiana, reported in
The plaintiff in error is a corporation created by the laws of Louisiana, which, by an act of the legislature of that staté, passed March 8,1869, wras invested with the sole and exclusive privilege of conducting and carrying on the live-stock landing and-slaughter-house business within the city of New Orleans and the parishes of Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard. The validity of this monopoly was sustained by the decision of this court in the
Slaughter-House
Cases,
“ Article 248. The police juries of the several parishes, and the constituted authorities of all incorporated municipalities of the State, shall alone have the power of regulating the slaughtering of cattle and other live-stock within their respective limits; provided no monopoly or exclusive privilege shall exist in this state, nor such business be restricted to the land or houses of any individual or corporation; provided the ordinances designating places for slaughtering shall obtain the concurrent approval of the board of health or other sanitary organization.”
“ Article 258. The monopoly features in the charter of any corporation now existing in the State, save such' as may1, be contained in the charters of railroad companies, are hereby abolished.”
The city of New Orleans, by ordinances adopted in 1881, proceeded to declare, under Art. 248 of the constitution, within what, limits in the parish of Orleans animals, intended for food, might be slaughtered, in which the Board of Health of the State of Louisiana concurred. In 3VIarch/ 1880, the Butchers’ Hnion Slaughter-House and Live-Stock Landing Company, the defendant in error, became incorporated under the General Law of Louisiana, and was authorized by. its charter “to erect, at any point or place in the parish of Orleans, wharves, stables, sheds, yards, and buildings necessary to land,. stable, shelter, protect, and preserve all lands of horses, mules, cattle, and other animals, for the purpose of carrying on the live-stock landing and slaughter-house business, and for the purpose of sheltering and protecting all such cattle or other animals which may be sent to said company destined for slaughter; and the said company shall, as soon as practicable, build and complete a slaughter-house; also a sufficient number of sheds and stables and other buildings as may be deemed necessary for the carrying on said slaughtering business.”
This company having begun to acquire the necessary plant for conducting the live-stock and slaughtering business, in pur
*144
suance of its charter, the plaintiff in error, on the 23d. of November,' 1881, filed its bill in the Circuit Court of the United .States for the Eastern District of Louisiana against the defendant in error, setting up its exclusive right and privilege as claimed by it under its original charter and grant, alleging that the defendant was about- to violate the same, and praying for an injunction to restrain that- company from carrying out its purpose. On the 29th. of December, 1881, after notice and hearing, the judges of that court granted the injunction as prayed for
pendente Ute.
On final hearing on the 8th of May, 1882, this injunction was made perpetual. On May 5, 1884, this decree of the Circuit Court was reversed • by this. court by a decision reported in
In granting the prehminary injunction referred to, the plaintiff in error was required to and gave an injunction bond in the sum of $8000, with Bertrand Saloy as surety, reciting the allowance of the injunction pendente Ute, and' conditioned to pay to the defendant in said injunction all such damages as it might suffer or had suffered in consequence thereof. The present action was begun in the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans on May 28, 1884, by the defendant in error against the plaintiff in error and Bertrand. Saloy; by a petition in which a recovery is sought upon the bond against the defendants in solido for the sum of $8000, with five per cent, interest from judicial demand for a breach of its condition, and against the company alone for the further sum of $70,000 damages, with five per cent, interest from the date of the verdict, on the alleged ground of a malicious prosecution by the complainant therein of the said bill in equity for an injunction. This cause came on for trial by a jury when there was a verdict against both defendants for $6588.80, with interest, and against the Crescent City • Live-Stock Landing and Slaughter-House *145 Company alone, upon the plea of malicious prosecution, for. the sum of $12,500 damages, .and the further sum .of $2500 attorneys’ fees. Upon the trial the défendant relied upon the decree of the Circuit Court of the United States, granting and perpetuating- the injunction, as conclusive proof of probable cause for the institution and prosecution of the suit complained of. The rulings of the Civil District Court upon this defence are set out in several bills of exception. In one of them it appears that the judge left it to the jury to determine whether the decree of the Circuit Court constituted probable' cause or not, adding that in his opinion it was both remarkable and extraordinary, and, as explanatory-of that, the bill of exceptions signed by him contains the following statement: “ I described the action of the Federal court as ‘remarkable and extraordinary,’ because it set at naught the decisions of the state courts of Louisiana, of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, set at defiance the positive mandate of the state constitution, and' because it was held by the unanimous Supreme Court of the United States to have involved a usurpation of jurisdiction ; such action was truly ‘ remarkable and extraordinary,’ though not without deplorable precedent.” • . ■
It also appears that the defendants requested the judge to charge the jury as follows
“ A plaintiff, whose asserted right was conferred by an act of legislature and has been in force for a number of years, has a right to test the legality of a subsequent repeal of. said right, when the validity of such repeal or modification has not been finally settled, and the plaintiff is advised by competent counsel that the repeal is invalid. In such a case the plaintiff has probable cause for asserting his rights and instituting an action for such purpose. If, in the action instituted, the lower court being the Circuit Court of the United States, presided over by two judges, render a judgment in favor of the plaintiff, the existence of probable cause for instituting such suit is demonstrated by the finding of the judges of the Circuit Court, although their judgment was reversed on appeal.”
This charge the judge refused to give, on the ground that it was unsound in law. Judgment was rendered on the verdict *146 February 21, 1885, and the cause was removed by a suspensive appeal to the Supreme .Court of Louisiana for the final decision of that court, by which, on December 11,1885, it was affirmed.
It is contended by counsel for the defendant in error, that in examining the record in this case, this court will only consider the opinion and judgment of the Supreme Court of Louisiana in order to ascertain if the authority relied upon by the plaintiff in error was wrongfully disregarded by that tribunal, and that -without'reference to the rulings of the inferior court, the opinion of the Supreme Court being made a part of the record by law for that purpose. Such appears to be the law of Louisiana as recognized by the decisions of this court'. Louisiana Code Pract. Art. 905;
Parks
v. Turner,
It must, therefore, be conceded that the sole question to be ' determined is, Did the Supreme Court of Louisiana, in deciding against the plaintiffs in error, give proper effect to the decree of the Circuit Court of the Hnited States, subsequently reversed by this court ?
It is argued by counsel for the defendant in error that this does not embrace any Federal question ; that the .effect to be given to a judgment or decree of the Circuit Court of the Hnited States sitting in Louisiana by the courts of that state is to be determined by the law of Louisiana; or by some principle of general law as to which the decision of the state court is final; and that the ruling in question did not deprive the plaintiffs in error -of “'any privilege or immunity specially set up or claimed under the Constitution or laws of the United States.” But this is an error. The question whether a state court has given due effect to the judgment of a court of the Hnited States is a question arising under the Constitution and laws of the Hnited States, and comes within the jurisdiction of the Federal courts by proper process, although, as was said by this court in
Dupasseur
v. Rochereau,
The decree of the Circuit Court was relied upon in the state court as a complete defence to the action for malicious prosecution, on the ground that it was conclusive proof of probable cause. The Supreme Court of -Louisiana, affirming the judgment of the inferior state court, denied to it, not only the effect claimed, but any effect whatever.
It is. conceded that, according to the law of Louisiana, the action for a malicious prosecution is founded on the same principles, and subject to the same defences, as have been established by the common law prevailing in the other states.
In the case of
Hubgh
v.
New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad,
In the case of Senecal v. Smith, 9 Rob. La. 418, 420, it had been previously decided that ‘On cases of this kind it is well settled that malice and the want of probable cause in the original action are essential ingredients. Malice may be expressly proved or it may be inferred from the total want of a probable cause of action; but malice alone, however great, if there be a probable cause upon which the suit or prosecution is based, is insufficient to maintain an action in damages for a malicious prosecution.”
In the case of
Gould,
v.
Gardner,
*149
And when there is no dispute of fact, the question of probable cause is a question of law for the determination of the court.
Stewart
v.
Sonneborn,
How much weight as proof of probable cause shall be attributed to the judgment of the court in the original action, when subsequently reversed for error, may admit of some question. It does not appear to have been judicially determined in Louisiana. In the case of
Griffis
v. Sellars, 3 & 4 Devereux
&
Battle Law, 177;
S. C.
In that case the judgment relied upon by the defendant was held not to be conclusive. The reason is stated to be -as follows : “ Though the plaintiff admits in his declaration that the suits instituted before the magistrate by the defendant were decided against him, he sufficiently countervails the effect of that admission by alleging that the defendant, well knowing that he had no cause of action, and that the plaintiff had a full defence, prevented the' plaintiff from procuring the necessary evidence to make out that defence by causing him to be detained a prisoner until the judgments were obtained, and by alleging that -the imprisonment was for the very purpose of preventing a defence to the actions.”
Commenting on this case, the Court of Appeals of Kentucky in
Spring
v. Besore,
The limitations upon the gejieral principle declared in Burt v. Place, ubi supra, were followed by the Supreme Court of Maine, in Witham v. Gowen, 14 Maine, 362, and both decisions were referred to in the subsequent case of Payson v. Caswell, 22 Maine, 212, 226, where the court, said: “ In these two cases, we have instances of exceptions to the general rule, indicative of the general nature of the characteristics which might be expected to attend them; but the rule itself remains unimpaired. If there he a conviction before a magistrate having jurisdiction of the subject-mattor, not obtained by undue means, it will be conclusive evidence of probable cause.”
The propriety of this limitation of the rule seems to have been admitted by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in
Bacon
v.
Towne,
This seems to reconcile the apparent contradiction in the authorities, and states the'rule, which; we think to be well grounded in reason, fair and just to both parties, and consistent with the principle on which the action for malicious prosecution is founded.
It is, perhaps, not material in this case to define the rule with ¡precision, and to attempt to state with accuracy the, precise effect to be given to a judgment or decree of the court as proof of probable cause under all circumstances, because in the present case the decree of the Circuit Court of the United States was adjudged to be entitled to no effect whatever as ' evidence in support of the defence of the plaintiff in error.
*152 • The ground on which the Supreme Court of Louisiana proceeded, as stated in its opinion, is explained to be as follows:
Shortly after the adoption of the Constitution of 1879, the plaintiff in error instituted a suit in the state court of Louisiana, which was finally decided by the Supreme Court of the, state in
Crescent City Slaughter-House Co.
v.
The City of New Orleans,
■ There was a judgment dismissing the plaintiff’s suit, and dis-saving the injunction provisionally granted, from which the plaintiff appealed to the Supreme Court of Louisiana.- That court affirmed the judgment, holding that the articles of the new constitution had destroyed the monopoly claimed by the plaintiff, and that this was a valid exercise of power on the part of the State of Louisiana, not in violation of any provision of the Constitution of the United States. Speaking of the action of the present plaintiff in error in bringing that suit, the Supreme Court of Louisiana, in its opinion in the present case,
.The following extracts from the same opinion are on the same point :
“"We are bound to hold that there was entire absence of probable cause. The suit involved absolutely nothing but. questions of law. Those identical questions had been submitted to this court by this, very prosecutor in a case precisely analogous,' and had been determined against it. It was thus au- ' thoritatively advised what the law was. ■ If it was dissatisfied with the opinion, its remedy was clear by appeal to the United States Supreme Court, and it had actually availed itself of that remedy on writ of error which was pending and undetermined when this suit was ’brought. It must' be carefully observed . that, though the Butchers’ Unión Company was not technically a party to the suit against the' city, the questions of. right between it and the Crescent City Company were as directly involved as if it had been a party. If the city had the right to *154 regulate slaughtering within her limits, and to designate places for its lawful conduct, obviously persons complying with such regulations had tiie right to transact the business. If she had not that right, no person could lawfully slaughter elsewhere than at the old company’s slaughter-house.”
“But it is claimed that the prosecutor acted under the advice of counsel learned in the law. ' That is certainly true, and would ordinarily protect. ' But here the client was in possession of the opinion of this court on the very point in its own case, involving the same subject-matter. It had no need for advice of counsel. That advice was simply that the opinion of this court was error. Counsel had the undoubted right to entertain such opinion, and so to advise its client; the only lawful remedy under such advice consisted in an appeal to the United States ■ Supreme Court. If it chose to act otherwise on such advice, it acted at its peril, and can take no protection therefrom. ■ The only lawful action it could take under such advice had been already taken in the writ of error from the United States Supreme Court.”
“ Nor does the decision of the judges of the Circuit Court of the United States afford a better shield. . They are not vested with authority to review or reverse the decisions of this court. The effect of their action was not only to overrule our opinion, but practically to reverse our decree. For of what avail was the right decreed by us in favor of the city, to regulate slaughtering, and to designate places therefor, if persons complying with those regulations could be enjoined by the United States Circuit Court- from conducting the business at such places ? It is obvious that the entire subject-matter of the injunction suit was embraced in and disposed of by our decree; and that though the Butchers’ Union Company was not nominally a party, its rights and those of all persons to transact the business of slaughtering in this city, being subsidiary to and springing directly from the right of the city, were necessarily involved in and protected by our decree.” ...
“ But the ground on which we retet our conclusion on the question of probable cause is, that our decree in the suit, to which the defendant corporation' was a party, was, until re *155 vérsed, tlie Law to it so far as the subject-matter thereof is concerned ; that the prosecution of a suit which had no foundation, except in the assumption that ou„r decree was not law, was without probable cause; and that neither the advice of counsel, nor the opinion of judges of a coordinate court that our decree Ayas error, could furnish any cause Avhatever for the prosecution of such suit.”
It is conceded by the Supreme Court of Louisiana, in this opinion, that its prior judgment in the case between the plaintiff in error and the city of New Orleans could not operate as an esfoppel upon the principle of res judicata,, in the suit A\rhich the plaintiff in error brought in- the Circuit Court of the United States, the prosecution of which is charged against it as being malicious, because it Avas betAAreen different parties. It is also admitted that the judgment Avas not a final one, but by reason of the Federal question involved Avas subject to review and possible reversal by a writ of error from tlie Supreme Court of the United States. "The prosecution of such a writ of error, Avliich A\Tas in fact actually sued out but subsequently dismissed, is declared by the Supreme Court of Louisiana to be the only lawful course Avliieli the plaintiff in error had a right to pursue. The failure to prosecute that Avrit of error is charged ' against the plaintiff in error, so as not only to deprive him of the benefit of the defence of probable cause, but as sufficient proof of malice in the subsequent institution of his suit in the .Circuit Court of the United States; and these consequences, in the opinion of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, are not alleAÚated by the admitted fact that the plaintiff in error acted under the advice of counsel. Notivithstanding such advice, the client itself, the Supreme Court of Louisiana declared, was bound at its peril to take notice of its legal rights as defined in that opinion of the Supreme Court of the state.
It is not shoAvn in the present record on what grounds counsel proceeded in their advice, or the plaintiff in error in failing to prosecute the writ of error from that judgment. It will bo observed that the only relief sought in that suit was a Avrit of injunction against the city of New Orleans from taking the preliminary steps under the ordinances of the city in reference *156 .to entertaining petitions, and designating places, for the prosecution of the business of which it claimed to have a monopoly under its charter.
, In a similar case of the
Crescent City Live-Stock Landing and Slaughter-House Company
v.
The Police Jury, Parish of Jefferson, Right Bank,
decided by the Supreme Court of Louisiana,
It might, therefore, on the authority of this decision of -the Supreme .Court of Louisiana, be argued that the expression of its opinion in the case of
The Crescent City Slaughter-House Company
v.
The City of New
Orleans,
However that may be, we are of the opinion, on other grounds, that the Supreme Court of Louisiana in this case erred in not giving due effect to the decree in question of the Circuit Court of the United States. The latter is a court coordinate to the Supreme Court of Louisiana in authority, and equal in dignity, being the highest Federal court sitting in that state, whose judgments and decrees are final and con-, elusive, subject only to review and reversal-in the Supreme ■ Court of the United States. In the case in which the decree complained of was pronounced the Circuit Court' did not act without jurisdiction, the. subject-matter of the suit .being a controversy arising under the Constitution of the United States. The argument of the counsel for the defendant in error to the contrary, which deduces what the judge of- the inferior court in his charge to the jury alleged to be a usurpation of • jurisdiction, merely from the fact that its decree was reversed by this court, could only be true if the general proposition were true that all'judgments reversible for error are void for want of jurisdiction. Having jurisdiction of the parties and of the subject-matter of the suit, the judges of the Circuit Court were bound to declare the law of the case between the parties in the light- of their own convictions, and under a sense of their official responsibilities, not being under any legal obligation to regard the decision of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, upon a question of Federal law as controlling by reason-of its authority, whatever . respect and deference they might see fit to accord to it - by way of persuasion and argument. And their judgment or decree when rendered is binding and perfect between the parties until.reversed, without regard to any adverse opinion or judgment of any other, court- of merely concurrent jurisdiction-. Its integrity, its validity, and its effect are complete in all respects between all parties in every suit and in every forum where it is legitimately produced as the foundation of kn action,' or of a *158 defence, either by plea or in proof, as it would be in any other circumstances. "While it 'remains in force it determines the rights of the parties between themselves, and may be car- . ried into execution, in due course of law to its full extent, fur- é nishing' a complete protection to all who act in compliance' with its mándate, and even after reversal it still remains, as in the case of e^ery other judgment or decree in like circumstances, sufficient evidence in favor of the plaintiff who instituted the suit or action in which it is rendered, when sued for a malicious prosecution, that he had probable cause for his . proceeding.
Neither was there anything in the situation or conduct -of the plaintiff in error that could deprive it of the protection of the decree of the Circuit Court of the United States in this action. ,The- fact .that it had exercised an election to bring ■ its suit against the city of New Ox-leans in the state court could, have no legal effect upon its right afterwards to bx-ing a similar suit against other parties in the Circuit Court of the United States. Its x-ight of choice was not exhausted by a single exercise, and justified it in subsequently invoking the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States, no matter with what motive or fox- what purpose. As we have already seen and declax-ed, the existence of express malice, however flagrant or unjustifiable, could not affect the exex-cise of this x-ight, or deprive the party- of the benefit of the judgment' of the court as proof of a probable, cause for the institutioxx of the suit. Neither was the plaintiff in ex-ror bound to reject the advice of its counsel on the ground of its own presumed lmowledgé of the law, as declax-ed in the opinioxi of the Supx-eme Court of Louisiana 'in the prior suit, It had a right to test the soundness of that judgxnent by seeking the jurisdiction of a coox-dinate court, whose decision would be' of equal authority and dignity with that of the Supreme' Court of the State, both being final. between the parties to the particular litigation until reversed by the Supreme Court of the United States. The plaintiff in erx-or owed no allegiaxxce to the courts of* the state greater than that- due to the coux-ts of the United"States; it.had an equal right in both to vindicate xvhat it claimed to *159 be its rights by remedies appropriate to that purpose, and against all parties .infringing them. The fact that the Supreme Court of Louisiana had spoken first gave no additional weight to its decision. Whatever deference may be due to the decisions of the state court'of final resort in every case in which it has spoken, and whatever may be1 the respect to ■'which- its decisions upon questions of purely local law' established as rules of property may 'be entitled, they are not authority binding upon the courts of the United States, sitting even in ' the same staté, where the questions involved and decided relate to rights arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States.
Uut the rule in question, which declares that the judgment or 'decree of a court having jurisdiction of the parties and of the subject-matter, in favor of the plaintiff, is sufficient evidence of probable cause for its institution, although subsequently reversed by an appellate tribunal, was not established out of any special regard to the- person of the party. As we have already seen, it will ¿vail him as a complete defence in an acti.on for a malicious prosecution, although it may appear that he bixuight his suit maliciously for the mere purpose of vexing, harassing, and injuring his adversary. The rule is • founded on deeper grounds of public policy in vindication of the dignity and authority of judicial tribunals constituted for the purpose of administering justice according to law, and in order that their judgments and decrees may be invested with that force and sanctity -which shall be a shield and protection to all parties and persons in privity .with them. The rule, therefore, has respect to the court and to its judgment, and not to the parties, and no misconduct or demerit on their part, except fraud in procuring the judgment itself, can be permitted to detract from its force. It is equally true and equally well settled in the foundations of fhe law that neither misconduct nor demerit can be imputed to the court itself. It is an invincible presumption of the law that the judicial tribunal, acting within its jurisdiction, has acted impartially and honestly. The record of its proceedings imports verity; its judgments cannot be impugned except by direct process from *160 superior authority. The integrity and value of the judicial system, as an institution for the administration of - public and private justice, rests largely upon this wholesome principle.
That principle has been disregarded in the present case by the Supreme. Court of Louisiana in failing to give due effect to the decree of the Circuit Court of the United States as sufficient-.evidence in support of the defence of the plaintiff in error in tins, action, so far as it' is an action for the recovery of damages for a malicious prosecution.
The judgment of the Supreme Gourt of Louisia/na on the bond itself \ for damages occasioned by its breach, against the ' principal and surety, is not attached in this proceeding. ■ It is so far affirmed. But that part which constitutes a judgment against the Crescent City ■Live-Stock Landing . and'Slaughter-House Company solely, for damages for the malicious prosecution, is reversed, 'and the cause is' re- ■ manded for further proceedings therein■ not inconsistent with this opinion ; and it is sa ordered.