Durham v. Seymour, 769

• Decision Date: 02 March 1896
• Docket Number: No. 769,769
• Citation: 16 S.Ct. 452,161 U.S. 235,40 L.Ed. 682
• Parties: DURHAM v. SEYMOUR
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

161 U.S. 235

16 S.Ct. 452

40 L.Ed. 682

DURHAM

v SEYMOUR.

No. 769.

March 2, 1896.

This was a bill brought by Caleb W. Durham, under the provisions of section 4915 of the Revised Statutes, in the supreme court of the District of Columbia, to obtain a decree authorizing the commissioner of patents to issue a patent to him for an improved drainage apparatus for buildings. The supreme court adjudged on the evidence that Durham was not entitled to a decree, and dismissed the bill, whereupon he carried the case by appeal to the court of appeals for the District of Columbia, and that court affirmed the decision of the court below. From this decree an appeal was taken to this court and a motion was made to dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction.

Section 4915 is as follows: 'Whenever a patent on application is refused, either by the commissioner of patents or by the supreme court of the District of Columbia upon appeal from the commissioner, the applicant may have remedy by bill in equity; and the court having cognizance thereof, on notice to adverse parties and other due proceedings had, may adjudge that such applicant is entitled, according to law, to receive a patent for his invention, as specified in his claim, or for any part thereof, as the facts in the case may appear. And such adjudication, if it be in favor of the right of the applicant, shall authorize the commissioner to issue such patent on the applicant filing in the patent office a copy of the adjudication, and otherwise complying with the require- ments of law. In all cases, where there is no opposing party, a copy of the bill shall be served on the commissioner; and all the expenses of the proceeding shall be paid by the applicant, whether the final decision is in his favor or not.'

Section 8 of the act establishing the court of appeals of the District of Columbia, and for other purposes, approved February 9, 1893 (27 Stat. 434, c. 74), provides:

'Sec. 8. That any final judgment or decree of the said court of appeals may be re-examined and affirmed, reversed, or modified by the supreme court of the United States, upon writ of error or appeal, in all causes in which the matter in dispute, exclusive of costs, shall exceed the sum of five thousand dollars, in the same manner and under the same regulations as heretofore provided for in cases of writs of error on judgments or appeals from decrees rendered in the supreme court of the District of Columbia; and also in cases, without regard to the sum or value of the matter in dispute, wherein is involved the validity of any patent or copyright, or in which is drawn in question the validity of a treaty or statute of or an authority exercised under the United States.'

The act of March 3, 1885 (23 Stat. 443, c. 355), reads thus:

'That no appeal or writ of error shall hereafter be allowed from any judgment or decree in any suit at law or in equity in the supreme court of the District of Columbia, or in the supreme court of any of the territories of the United States, unless the matter in dispute, exclusive of costs, shall exceed the sum of five thousand dollars.

'Sec. 2. That the preceding section shall not apply to any case wherein is involved the validity of any patent or copyright, or in which is drawn in question the validity of a treaty or statute of or an authority exercised under the United States; but in all such cases an appeal or writ of error may be brought without regard to the sum or value in dispute.'

J. Nota McGill and Don M. Dickinson, for appellant.

Levin H. Campbell, for appellee.

Mr. Chief Justice FULLER, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.

Appeals to this court from the court of appeals of the District of Columbia are governed by section 8 of the act of February 9, 1893. It is essential to our jurisdiction that it should appear that the matter in dispute in the courts below was money to an amount exceeding $5,000, exclusive of costs; or some right, the value of which could be ascertained in money, and exceeded that sum; or that the validity of a patent or copyright was involved; or that the validity of a treaty or statute of or an authority exercised under the United States was drawn in question. South Carolina v. Seymour, 153 U. S. 353, 14 Sup. Ct. 871, and cases cited.

The question here was whether Durham was 'entitled, according to law, to receive a patent for his invention, as specified in his claim, or for any part thereof, as the facts in the case may appear.' What Durham sought was to obtain an adjudication authorizing the commissioner of patents to issue a patent to him, and the matter in dispute was whether Durham was entitled to a patent as for a patentable invention.

Durham had presented his application for a patent, filed in due form, to the commissioner of patents in accordance with section 4888 of the Revised Statutes, which application was rejected by the commissioner, and thereupon he appealed to the supreme court of the District of Columbia in general term, which affirmed the decision of the commissioner. He then filed this bill in equity in accordance with section 4915 of the Revised Statutes, and although, as remarked by Mr. Justice Blatchford in Gandy v. Marble, 122 U. S. 432, 439, 7 Sup. Ct. 1290, it 'is a suit according to the ordinary course of equity practice and procedure, and is not a technical...