Ex parte Union Steamboat Company, Petitioner . riginal

Decision Date28 May 1900
Docket NumberO,No. 12,12
Citation20 S.Ct. 904,44 L.Ed. 1084,178 U.S. 317
PartiesEx parte UNION STEAMBOAT COMPANY, Petitioner . riginal
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

This was a petition for a writ of mandamus to the district court for the eastern district of Michigan, commanding it to set aside a decree entered in the case of The New York, 175 U. S. 187, 44 L. ed. 126, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 67, and enter a decree dividing the damages equally, so that petitioner would not be decreed to pay more than one half the total damages arising out of the collision between the New York and the Conemaugh, with interest thereon not exceeding 5 per cent per annum.

Upon the opinion of this court in the case of the New York being filed, a mandate issued that the decre of the court of appeals be reversed, and the case remanded to the district court, with direction 'to enter a decree in conformity with the opinion of this court, with interest at the same rate per annum that decrees bear in the state of Michigan.' Upon the case coming on to be heard in the district court, the petitioner, the Union Steamboat Company, owner of the propeller New York, submitted a decree to the effect that both vessels were in fault for the collision, and that the damages resulting therefrom be equally divided between the Erie & Western Transportation Company, owner of the Conemaugh, and the Union Steamboat Company, owner of the New York; that such damages amounted in all to the sum of $74,319.49, of which certain intervening underwriters of the cargo were entitled to, and recovered from the steamboat company, $19,841.56; that the transportation company, as trustees for the underwriters and owners of the cargo of the Conemaugh, not intervening, suffered damages in the sum of $19,627.67; that, as owner of the propeller, it had suffered damages in the sum of $30,508.46, aggregating the sum of $50,136.13; that the transportation company recover of the petitioner one half of $50,136.13, less one half the sum of $19,841.56, decreed to be paid to the intervening petitioners, etc.

The court, however, declined to enter this decree; refused to permit the petitioner to recoup any sum that it might pay to the owners or underwriters of the cargo of the Conemaugh, from any sum that was due from the steamboat company for damages sustained by the Conemaugh, so that such company was compelled to pay of the total damages about 76 per cent instead of 50 per cent thereof.

Messrs. C. E. Kremer, F. C. Harvey, H. C. Wisner, and W. O. Johnson for petitioner.

Messrs. F. H. Canfield, Harvey D. Goulder, F. S. Masten, and S. H. Holding for respondent.

Mr. Justice Brown delivered the opinion of the court:

Petitioner applies for this writ of mandamus upon the ground that the district court refused to enter a decree in conformity with the opinion of this court dividing the damages, but in effect entered a decree imposing upon the Union Steamboat Company, the petitioner, about 76 per cent of the damages occasioned by the collision.

The duty of an inferior court upon receiving the mandate of this court is nowhere better described than by Mr. Justice Baldwin in an early case upon that subject (Sibbald v. United States, 12 Pet. 488, 492, 9 L. ed. 1167, 1169): 'Whatever,' said he, 'was before the court, and is disposed of, is considered as finally settled. The inferior court is bound by the decree as the law of the case, and must carry it into execution according to the mandate. They cannot vary it or examine it for any other purpose than execution; or give any other or further relief; or review it upon any matter decided on appeal for error apparent; nor intermeddle with it, further than to settle so much as has been remanded. . . . If the special mandate directetd by the 24th section [of the judiciary act] is not obeyed or executed, then the general power given to 'all the courts of the United States to issue any writs which are necessary for the exercise of their respective jurisdictions, and agreeable to the principles and usages of law,' by the 14th section of the judiciary act, fairly arises, and a mandamus or other appropriate writs will go,' although an appeal will also sometimes lie. Perkins v. Fourniquet, 14 How. 328, 330, 14 L. ed. 441, 442; Milwaukee & M. R. Co. v. Soutter, 2 Wall. 440, 443, 17 L. ed. 860, 861. See also Boyce v. Grundy, 9 Pet. 275, 9 L. ed. 127; Ex parte Dubuque & P. R. Co. 1 Wall. 69, sub nom. Dubuque & P. R. Co. v. Litchfield, 17 L. ed. 514; Durant v. Essex Co. 101 U. S. 555, 25 L. ed. 961; Re Washington & G. R. Co. 140 U. S. 91, 35 L. ed. 339, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 673; City Bank v. Hunter, 152 U. S. 512, 38 L. ed. 534, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 675; Re City Nat. Bank, 153 U. S. 246, 38 L. ed. 705, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 804; Re Sanford Fork & Tool Co. 160 U. S. 247, 40 L. ed. 414, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 291; Re Potts, 166 U....

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    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit
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    ...520, 41 L.Ed. 994; Illinois v. Illinois Central R. Co., 184 U.S. 77, 91, 92, 22 S.Ct. 300, 46 L.Ed. 440; Ex parte Union Steamboat Co., 178 U.S. 317, 319, 20 S.Ct. 904, 44 L. Ed. 1084; Kansas City Southern Ry. Co. v. Guardian Trust Co., 281 U.S. 1, 10, 11, 50 S.Ct. 194, 74 L.Ed. 659; Sprague......
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    ...by the mandate itself. Sprague v. Ticonic Nat'l Bank, 307 U.S. 161, 59 S.Ct. 777, 83 L.Ed. 1184 (1939); Ex parte Union Steamboat Co., 178 U.S. 317, 20 S.Ct. 904, 44 L.Ed. 1084 (1900); In re Sanford Ford & Tool Co., 160 U.S. 247, 16 S.Ct. 291, 40 L.Ed. 414 (1895). Nor does it apply when the ......
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