375 F.2d 714 | 3rd Cir. | 1967
OPINION OF THE COURT
This appeal raises the important question of the power of the Legislature of the Virgin Islands to authorize the private sale to a designated grantee of a specific plot of land owned by the Government of the Virgin Islands.
In 1961 a plot of land, consisting of 1,010 square feet, at Domini Gade No. 8T, St. Thomas, was escheated to the Government of the Virgin Islands pursuant to a judgment entered by the district court. A few months later the Legislature passed and the Governor approved Act No. 876, which authorized the Governor to transfer the plot to the Department of Property and Procurement “for sale at a reasonable price to Mr. Steadman Hodge, to be used solely for construction of a home thereon.” The Governor transferred the property to the Department for sale to Mr. Hodge and the Commissioner of Property and Procurement by deed granted and conveyed it to Mr. Hodge on June 8, 1962 for the sum of $200. The deed recited that the Commissioner had determined that $200 was the reasonable price for the property.
Shortly thereafter plaintiff brought suit on his own behalf as a taxpayer and on behalf of all other taxpayers of the Virgin Islands against the Government of the. Virgin Islands, the Commissioner of Property and Procurement and Hodge, to have the sale set aside on the grounds that Act No. 876 was invalid, that the purchase price paid was not a “reasonable price” as required by the Act and
The case then proceeded to trial and the court below entered judgment declaring the conveyance to be void. Smith v. Government of the Virgin Islands, 5 V.I. 124, 240 F. Supp. 809 (D.V.I. 1965). From this judgment the defendants have taken this appeal.
Act No. 876 is a special as well as a private law, for it arbitrarily authorizes the transfer of a plot of land to a designated individual, and excludes all others who might wish to buy it.
The Act of 1886' from which § 1471 is derived was taken from the Constitution of Illinois
Act No. 876 singled out Hodge from all other citizens and discriminated against them by granting to him
Act No. 876 also violates the prohibition in § 1471 against the enactment of a special law “where a general law can be made applicable.” Such a general law already existed when Act No. 876 was enacted. This was the es-cheat law (15 V.I. Code § 126) which prescribes in detail the procedure for the sale of property which has been es-cheated to the Government of the Virgin Islands. It requires public sale by the marshal after, notice prescribed by the court, ultimate judicial confirmation of the sale and conveyance of the property to the purchaser by the marshal. It provides for the vacation of a sale if the bids received are disproportionate to the value of the property and if it appears to the court that on a resale a higher price can be obtained which would exceed the successful bid by at least ten percent, exclusive of the expenses of a new sale.
While legislative action presumptively is proper,
Appellants contend, however, that § 1471 is inapplicable to the Virgin Islands because it deals with the legislatures of territories “now or hereafter to be organized.” While the Virgin Islands constitute an “unincorporated” territory, it does not follow from this that they are also
The continuing significance of the incorporation of a territory was summarized by Chief Justice Taft in Balzac v. People of Puerto Rico, 258 U.S. 298, 311 (1922): “Incorporation has always been a step, and an important one, leading to statehood.” Congress therefore has been careful to bestow incorporation only when it has already determined that the territory is destined for statehood. In adopting the Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands in 1954 Congress made it clear that although it was providing a detailed frame of government for the Islands this was not to be taken as an indication that it had destined the territory for statehood. It therefore expressly declared in § 2(b) of the Act that the Virgin Islands are an “unincorporated territory of the United States of America.”
The status of the Virgin Islands as an “unincorporated” territory has no relevance, however, to the prohibition in § 1471 against special legislation in territories “now or hereafter to be organized.” The legislative history of § 1471 shows that Congress recognized that the evils of
When the United States acquired the Virgin Islands from Denmark, Congress adopted the Act of March 3, 1917 (ch. 171, 39 Stat. 1132, 1 V.I. Code Annot. LVII [39]), which, as its title declares, merely provided a “temporary
A later congressional report describes how after the Act of 1917 “the Virgin Islands were under the administration of the Navy, and were governed by a naval governor with the advice and help of local colonial councils which had been established by the Danes. In 1931 President Herbert Hoover transferred the administrative responsibility for the Virgin Islands from the Navy to the Department of the Interior, and a civilian governor ... was appointed.”
In 1936 the status of the Government of the Virgin Islands was drastically altered when Congress adopted the Organic Act for the Virgin Islands.
There can be no doubt that at least since the detailed provision for the organization of a government of the Virgin Islands by the.Organic Act in 1936 and the Revised Organic Act in 1954, the Virgin Islands constitute an organized territory. They therefore are subject to all the provisions of § 1471, which apply not only to territories already organized, but equally to territories which are organized at any time after § 1471 was enacted.
Soto v. United States, 1 V.I. 536, 273 Fed. 628 (3 Cir. 1921), cited by appellants, indicates nothing to the contrary. We there held that a murder trial conducted in 1920 was required to observe due process of law even though the Islands were not incorporated territories, because the Act of 1917 authorized the continuance of the existing local law only to the extent that it was “compatible with the changed sovereignty.” We therefore reversed two judgments.of conviction because the Danish procedure which had been followed did not provide to the defendants the right to confront and cross-examine the witnesses against them. The question whether the Virgin Islands were at that time an organized or unorganized, territory was not relevant to the issue, and was not discussed, although the facts indicate the extent to which criminal proceedings were governed in 1920 by the local Danish law and graphically depict the
Since the Virgin Islands are now an organized territory, all the provisions of § 1471 are fully applicable to them. The difference between the reference to organized territories in the enumeration of cases of local or special laws and the broader language of the final provision that where a general law can be made applicable no special law shall be enacted “in any of the territories of the United States,” has no significance in the Virgin Islands, whatever effect the final provision may have in territories which are not organized.
Appellants attack paragraph 4 of the amended judgment on the ground that although the Attorney General was not joined as a party it nevertheless directs him to move for an order for the sale of the property under 15 V.I. Code § 126 in the event that the Government of the Virgin Islands desires to sell it.
Concluding as we do that Act No. 876 is invalid, we need not decide whether there was such a lack of evidence as to make clearly erroneous under Rule 52(a) the finding of the district judge that the purchase price of $200 was not “a reasonable price” as required by Act No. 876, or the
The judgment of the district court will be affirmed.
Until that stage of the suit there were two plaintiffs, Smith and one Gross. Later, after Gross’ death, the action, which was carried on by Gross’ executor, was dismissed as to him.
5 V.I. Code § 80 provides: “A taxpayer may maintain an action to restrain illegal or unauthorized acts by a territorial officer or employee, or the wrongful disbursement of territorial funds.”
City of Bayonne v. Palmer, 90 N.J. Super. 245, 283-84, 217 A.2d 141, 162, aff’d, 47 N.J. 520, 221 A.2d 741 (1966); Wheeler v. Philadelphia, 77 Pa. 338, 348 (1875); see 2 Sutherland, Statutory Construction (3d ed. 1943), §§ 3202-3.
“The legislatures of the Territories of the United States now or hereafter to be organized shall not pass local or special laws in any of the following enumerated cases, that is to say: [here follow 23 enumerated cases]
“Granting to any corporation, association, or individual any special or exclusive privilege, immunity or franchise whatever.
“In all other cases where a general law can be made applicable, no special law shall be enacted in any of the Territories of the United States by the Territorial legislatures thereof.”
Const. of 1870, Art. IV, § 22.
See 17 Cong. Rec. 4062, 49th Cong., 1st Sess. (1886), remarks of Mr. Springer, who introduced the bill.
See generally, 2 Sutherland, Statutory Construction (3d ed. 1943), §§ 2101-25.
See, e.g., Harvey v. Clyde Park District, 32 Ill.2d 60, 65, 203 N.E.2d 573, 576 (1965); People ex rel. Heydenreich v. Lyons, 374 Ill. 557, 30 N.E.2d 46 (1940); Joseph Triner Corp. v. McNeil, 363 Ill. 559, 2 N.E.2d 929 (1936), aff’d, 299 U.S. 183 (1936).
Jones v. Chicago, R.I. § P. Ry. Co., 231 Ill. 302, 306, 83 N.E. 215, 216 (1907).
See also Schultz v. Philadelphia, 385 Pa. 79, 86, 122 A.2d 279, 283 (1956).
See generally, 2 Sutherland, Statutory Construction (3d ed. 1943), § 2103. The dictum of Guthrie National Bank v. Guthrie, 173 U.S. 528, 533 (1899), does not specifically make the judgment of the legislature conclusive.
Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 244, 287 (1901), concurring opinion.
The Senate Report accompanying the bill made it clear that by this provision • Congress expressed its view that the Virgin Islands were not as yet destined for statehood. See 2 U.S. Code Cong, and Admin. News (S. Rep. 1271, 83d Cong., 2d Sess. 1954), pp. 2592-93.
Thus, Mr. Springer who introduced the bill, which became § 1471, explained:
“The bill simply prohibits the passage, in the cases enumerated of local or special laws in the Territories. I think one of the greatest abuses in the Territories has been the passage of laws of this character. This bill, if passed, will require general laws on these subjects instead of special ones. The subject has been discussed in most of our States in the formation of our State constitutions, and whérever provisions of this kind have been adopted .the most salutary results have followed. I think the same benefits should be extended to the Territories.” 17 Cong. Rec. 4062, 49th Cong., 1st Sess. (1886).
The House Report is to the same effect: “The bill simply enacts one of the provisions of the constitution of many of the States of the’ Union prohibiting _ the passage of local or special laws, and makes this provision applicable to the Territories of the United States.
. “The evils of special and local legislation have nowhere been more apparent and destructive of good government than in our Territories. The greater portion of all their legislative enactments have been local or special, and but few general laws have been passed. The States which have prohibited special or local legislation have reaped great - benefit therefrom. The corrupting and demoralizing influences of local and class legislation are now universally admitted. The necessity of prohibiting such legislation in our Territories is apparent to all who have given the subject serious consideration.” H.R. Rep. 1477, 49th Cong., 1st Sess. (1886), p. 1.
Similarly S.Rep. 1827, 49th Cong., 1st Sess. (1886), p. 1 states:
“This bill was intended to throw about the legislation of the general assemblies of the Territories one of the safeguards against improper legislation which is found in the constitutions of most of the States.
“There is now general concurrence in the opinion that special legislation, in all cases where general laws can be made applicable, should be prohibited. Some of our Territories have now become so populous and worthy, so full of commercial and business enterprise, that the necessity of imposing such limitations upon the power of the Territorial assemblies as are found in the best constitutions of the States seem to be imperative in order to protect- the people against unwise and hasty legislation.”
This was recognized when the bill was under consideration, in the statements by the floor manager of the bill, Congressman Flood. 54 Cong. Rec. 3649, — Cong., — Sess. (1917): “[T]hese islands do not constitute organized Territories.”
2 U.S. Code Cong, and Admin. News (S.Rep. 1271, 83d Cong., 2d Sess. 1954), p. 2587.
Act of June 22, 1936, ch. 699, 49 Stat. 1807, 1 V.I. Code Annot. LXIII [45].
Act of July 22, 1954, ch. 558, 68 Stat. 497, 1 V.I. Code Annot. XCIX [85].
Although the general escheat law names the United States Attorney as the party who is to make such motion, the function of-the United States Attorney has been transferred to the Attorney General by 3 V.I. Code § 114(6).