104 Wis. 227 | Wis. | 1899
A final order in a. civil contempt proceeding is appealable as being one affecting a substantial right in a special proceeding. Shannon v. State, 18 Wis. 604; Witter v. Lyon, 34 Wis. 564; In re Day, 34 Wis. 638. The proceeding assailed was civil and not criminal. The two are distinguished, as are actions, by the character of the rights to be vindicated and the remedy sought. A civil proceeding is one the purpose of which is to redress private grievances and to enforce or protect private rights; while a criminal proceeding is to punish an affront to public rights, namely, the authority and dignity of the court. The order or judgment sought and pronounced is a most cogent consideration in identifying the one or the other. State ex rel. Chappell v. Giles, 10 Wis. 101; Shannon v. State, supra; In re Day, 34 Wis. 638; In re Murphey, 39 Wis. 286; In re Pierce, 44 Wis. 411; Rapalje, Contempt, § 21. Vhere the act charged as contempt is the nonpayment of money to another party, and the remedy prayed and granted is the compulsion of such payment by arrest and imprisonment until it is done, there can be no doubt that the proceeding is civil in its character. Vhether or not the same act might also support a criminal proceeding on behalf of the state, having for its only purpose punishment for the defiance of the court’s authority, we need not decide; the proceeding cannot serve both purposes (In re Pierce, supra); and in the record before us the private end and civil character is clearly dominant. This court has repeatedly declared its policy to refuse to review by certiorari appealable orders or judgments. State
By the Court.— Let the writ of certiorari be quashed.