Conneau v. Geis

Hayke, C. The defendant demanded a trial by jury, but failed to deposit the sum of twenty-four dollars, which according to its rules the court required to be deposited with the clerk as jury fees before the commencement of the trial. The ease was thereupon tried without a jury, and judgment rendered for the plaintiff. The first question is, whether the court could rightfully require the advance of this sum. We think that the advance of the fees was a reasonable regulation of the mode of enjoyment of the right of a jury trial; and that the making of such a regulation cannot be said to be a denial or impairment of the right.

.The expense of a jury demanded by a party is expense incurred on his behalf, and at his instance. It is reasonable and just that he should bear this expense; and it always has been the law and the practice to collect it from one or the other of the litigants. The point is not and could not be that the court had no right to make the parties pay it, but that it could not be collected in advance. But if the court has the right to make the parties pay, it does not seem that the time of its collection is of such importance as to change the character of the requirement. A rule requiring the fee to be paid in advance is a reasonable precaution to prevent the jurors from being defrauded by unscrupulous parties, and to prevent the demand of a jury being used as a pretext to obtain continuances, and thus trifle with justice. The [178]right to bring suit, and the right to appeal to a higher court, are as fully secured by the constitution as the right to a trial by jury; yet it has always been the practice to collect the fees therefor before the suit is commenced or the record on appeal is filed. And we do not see how such a proceeding impairs the right in the one case any more than in the other. If the court has a right to require the payment of a jury fee in advance, the refusal to pay it is the refusal to have a jury trial; and since this is the party’s own act, he cannot be said to be deprived of anything. Upon analogous principles it was held, even in a criminal case, that where after a demurrer a defendant refused to plead, such refusal was a refusal of a jury trial or any trial, and that judgment should be entered against him without further ceremony, the court, per Sanderson, C. J., saying: “The intent of the constitution is to secure every person charged with crime a fair and impartial trial by jury, but not to place it in his power to evade a trial altogether.” (People v. King, 28 Cal. 266.)

The authorities in other states bear out the proposition that the making of a reasonable regulation of the mode of enjoyment of the right of trial by jury is not, a denial or impairment of the right. Thus in Biddle v. Commonwealth, 13 Serg. & R. 410, the provision was for a trial in the first instance before a magistrate, without a jury, but upon complying with the requisite conditions the party could appeal to a higher court, where the case was to be tried by a jury. The condition of the appeal was, that the party should make affidavit that “ he verily believed injustice had been done him, and that the appeal was not made for the purpose of delay.” The court held that there was no impairment of the right of trial by jury, and Tilghman, C. J., delivering the opinion, said- “Laws such as these promote justice, and leave the substance of the trial by jury unimpaired, and that is all that Is required by these expressions in the constitu