Alzua v. Johnson

Citations

• 231 U.S. 106
• 34 S. Ct. 27
• 58 L. Ed. 142
• 1913 U.S. LEXIS 2597

Syllabus

<p>This court is slow to revise the judgment of the highest court of a Territory on matters of local administration.</p> <p>Judges of United States courts are not liable to civil actions for their judicial acts. Bradley v. Fisher, 13 Wall. 335.</p> <p>The principle of immunity of judges from civil action for their official acts is so deep seated in the system of American jurisprudence that this court will regard it having been carried into the Philippine Islands as soon as the American courts were established therein.</p> <p>The immunity of judges of the Supreme' Court of the Philippine Islands from civil actions for official acts is the same as that of judges of the United States.</p> <p>Act No. 190 of the Philippine Commission did not impose any liability to civil actions for official acts on any judge of the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands; that act related only to inferior judges.</p> <p>A statute, such as that involved in this case,' providing that no judge shall be liable to civil action for official acts done in good faith, will not be construed as rendering such judges liable to civil action for acts done in bad faith by implication.</p> <p>Qucere whether the Philippine Commission has power to enact legislation making any judge liable to civil action for official acts.</p>