76 P. 584 | Wyo. | 1904
Upon a petition filed in the District Court of Uinta County by the defendants in error for the appointment of
The proceedings were thereafter brought before the District Judge, and submitted before him “upon the testimony, pleadings, affidavits, filings and findings of the Court Commissioner,” whereupon the proceedings and findings of the commissioner were approved; and the court, upon the evidence, found and adjudged that the plaintiff in error had wilfully, intentionally and contumaciously interfered with an officer of the court, viz: said Somsen, who had been duly appointed to divide and distribute the water in the irrigating ditch aforesaid, and said plaintiff in error was ordered to pay a fine of twenty-five dollars and the costs of the proceeding, and execution therefor was awarded. The plaintiff in error complains in this proceeding in error of that judgment.
It is also contended that the Court Commissioner was personally disqualified from acting by reason of his alleged professional relations to an action previously litigated between the parties. As to this point there is not sufficient proof, in our opinion, to sustain the charge, and it will not be further considered.
The chief contention that the judgment was rendered without any authority of law presents a serious question, and requires the most careful consideration. It may be conceded that the court would have had power to entertain and determine the proceedings, and, upon a trial of the accused before it, to have adjudged him guilty of a contempt and imposed a fine by way of punishment. But the important question is whether the commissioner possessed the power he assumed to exercise, and whether the subsequent action of the court or Judge cured the defect, if any, in the jurisdiction of the commissioner.
In the first place, we think it clear that the order of the court approving the acts and proceedings of the commissioner, and upon those proceedings, and the evidence taken before the commissioner, adjudging the plaintiff guilty of the contempt charged, and that he pay' a fine and the costs, was not made in the exercise of a general or independent jurisdiction which the court may have possessed to attach and punish the plaintiff in error as for a contempt by reason of his alleged interference with the water distributer aforesaid. The accused was not at any time ordered to appear before-the court to show cause why he should not be punished for contempt, nor was he tried by the court on the charge preferred against him. No testimony was taken at
It seems to be contended that the office of Court Commissioner is a creature of the constitution, and that its inherent powers as a court cannot be taken away by the Legislature. The constitution requires that the Legislature provide for the appointment of District Court Commissioners with authority to perform such chamber business as shall be prescribed by law, in the absence of the Judge, or in case of his disqualification from acting. (Const., Art. V. Sec. 14.) That office is not constituted a court separate and distinct from the District Court. The commissioner is rather an adjunct or an officer of the District Court. The judicial power of the State is vested in the Supreme Court, District Courts, Justices of the Peace, the Senate sitting as a Court of Impeachment, Courts of Arbitration, and such courts as the Legislature may, by general law, establish for incorporated cities or towns. (Const., Art. V, Sec. 1.) The inherent powers of the District Court are not here involved. (In re Barnhouse (Kan.), 58 Pac., 480.) The alleged contempt was not committed in the presence of the ■commissioner; hence the power that mzy be possessed by that officer to punish direct contempts is not in controversy. The contempt charged against plaintiff in error was not
The proceedings wherein the order was made that plaintiff in error is accused of having interfered with are purely statutory. They do not invoke the common law or equitable jurisdiction of the court. (R. S., Secs. 908-916.) That statute contains no provision authorizing the punishment as a contempt of any act of interference with the orders made in the proceedings provided for. If any authority exists to enforce the orders made in such statutory proceeding by contempt proceedings, it must be found outside that statute.
Conceding that the court inherently possesses ample authority to enforce obedience to its orders,- whether made by the Judge or commissioner, and to protect its officers from contumacious interference, by attaching and punishing the guilty parties as for a contempt, the question arises what authority in that respect was possessed by the Court Commissioner in case an order made by him appointing a dis-tributer of water in a joint ditch in the summary statutory proceedings aforesaid, is disobeyed or interfered with.
It is contended by counsel for plaintiff in error that the Legislature having expressly conferred upon the commissioner power to punish certain contempts, viz: those committed during hearings before him, that power in other cases is necessarily or by implication excluded. On the other hand, it is argued that the power granted to make any order authorized by law to be made by a Judge at chambers embraces the same power that the Judge would have to punish a contempt resulting from an interference with an order or officer of the court.
The argument that the express grant of power as to con-tempts in a certain class of cases excludes all other cases is not without force; yet we are not prepared to hold that the power as to constructive or indirect contempts is not possessed by the commissioner where the District Judge at chambers is invested by law with such power. It might perhaps be a reasonable assumption that the special grant of power to punish contempts committed in the commissioner’s presence was intended as additional to the power
It is to be observed that the commissioner not only caused the issuance of process in the contempt proceeding, but he had the party brought before him, and, upon a hearing, he rendered judgment. Whatever power, if any, a District Judge has to act at chambers upon preliminary matters arising in cases of purely equitable cognizance, in the absence of 'statutory provision, is not demanding consideration. We think the proposition is well settled, and generally conceded, that a Judge at chambers cannot render a judgment unless expressly authorized by law. (4 Ency. Pl. & Pr., 343; State ex rel. v. Stevens, 40 Kan., 113; 19 Pac.. 365; Bank v. Fennell, 55 S. C., 379; 33 S. E., 485.) And a Judge at chambers has no power, without express authority of law, to punish for a contempt not committed in his presence. (4 Ency. Pl. & Pr., 340: 9 Cyc., 31; State ex rel. v. Stevens, supra; Taylor v. Moffatt, 2 Blackf., 305; Gates v. McDaniel, 3 Port. (Ala.), 356; State ex rel. McKinnon, 8 Ore., 487; People ex rel. v. Brennan, 45 Barb., 344; Davis v. State ex rel., 50 O. St., 194.)
In order to .afford speedy relief to parties, and facilitate the transaction of the business of the courts, quite extensive powers have from time to time been conferred upon District Judges in vacation and at chambers by our statutes. And it is evident that it was deemed necessary for legislative authority to authorize the Judges to so act in these matters. The}' have been expressly authorized in a few cases to punish as a contempt the disobedience of orders made by them or the court. They are empowered to so punish the violation of an injunction. (R. S., Sec. 4048.) Also,
Now, as airead)'’ observed, the statute providing the summary remedy for appointment of a water distributer upon joint ditches does not expressly or even by any reasonable inference confer authority upon the Judge to punish for contempt of the orders made in such proceeding. There are, however, certain general statutory provisions authorizing the Judge to act in vacation. (R. S., Secs. 3610, 3611, 3612.) Section 3610 provides that all motions, demurrers, applications and other matters not involving a trial upon the issue of fact in any civil or criminal action or special proceeding, pending in any of the District Courts, may be heard and determined by the Judg'e of such court in vacation. Section 3611 authorizes the Judge, at his discretion, and by consent of the parties, to try issues of law and fact in vacation or recess of the court; and the judgment thereon rendered is declared to have the same effect as though the issues had been tried in term time. And Section 3612 declares the court open at all. times for the transaction of business in the entry of judgments, decrees, orders of course, and such other orders as have been made or granted by the court or Judge, and for the hearing and determination of all' matters brought before the court or Judge, except trial of issues of fact. And when any cause or matter
Although Section 3612 declares the court open at all times for certain purposes, the trial of issues of fact is expressly excepted therefrom; while in the preceding section issues of fact may be tried in vacation only upon consent of the parties, and Section 3610 again excepts from the matters therein permitted to be heard in vacation a trial upon the issue of fact in the pending case. There is no ground for doubting that a hearing and determination of this contempt proceeding involved the trial of an issue of fact. The allegations as to the contempt were denied by the answer of the plaintiff i.n error, and he also objected therein to the jurisdiction of the commissioner. Testimony was taken upon the issue as to the guilt of plaintiff in error. Guilt was adjudged upon the evidence, and likewise the findings of the commissioner were by the court approved upon the evidence. It is clear, therefore, that the general provisions of the statute above referred to would not have authorized a hearing and determination of the matter by the Judge in chambers.
There is recited in the judgment of the court that the matter came on to be heard before the Judge of the First District, at Cheyenne, by agreement of the parties. The cáse was pending in Uinta County, in the Third District. The Judge of the First District had been called in to preside over the court in Uinta County in the hearing of these matters. And it is evident that the agreement of the parties had reference to the hearing of the matter as to the approval or disapproval of the commissioner’s proceedings, before the Judge instead of the court, and out of the district. There was no consent as to the hearing before the commissioner; and, as stated in an earlier part of this
We are unable, therefore, to find any authority for the acts of the commissioner in hearing and determining the contempt proceeding. Whether he would have been authorized to make an order requiring the plaintiff in error to show cause before the court is unnecessary to consider, since he made no such order.
The judgment will be reversed and the cause remanded with directions to the court to discharge the plaintiff in error. . Reversed.