Guion Jennings v. Philadelphia, Baltimore Washington Railway Company

• Decision Date: 31 October 1910
• Docket Number: No. 10,10
• Citation: 54 L.Ed. 1031,218 U.S. 255,31 S.Ct. 1
• Parties: A. GUION JENNINGS, Piff. in Err., v. PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE, & WASHINGTON RAILWAY COMPANY
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

218 U.S. 255

31 S.Ct. 1

54 L.Ed. 1031

A. GUION JENNINGS, Piff. in Err.,

v PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE, & WASHINGTON RAILWAY COMPANY.

No. 10.

Submitted April 26, 1910.

Decided October 31, 1910.

Messrs. E. Hilton Jackson and Henry E. Davis for plaintiff in error.

Messrs. Frederic D. McKenney, John Spalding Flannery, and William Hitz for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice Lurton delivered the opinion of the court:

This case turns primarily upon the question of whether the supreme court of the District exceeded its jurisdic- tion in allowing a bill of exceptions after the close of the term at which the judgment sought to be reversed had become final. The judgment was rendered on December 20, 1907. The term closed December 31st, and a new term began on January 1, 1908. On January 10, 1908 an appeal bond was approved and filed. On January 14th the appellant, having given eight days' notice, under rule 55 of the court, presented a bill of exceptions to the court for allowance. The stipulation in respect of this recites: 'In pursuance of common-law rule No. 55, counsel for the appellee was present, having received the eight-day notice, together with a copy of appellant's proposed bill of exceptions, required by said rule. The proposed bill of exceptions was submitted to the court by counsel for the appellant in the presence of, and without objection from, counsel for the appellee.'

Common-law rule 55, under which the appellant claimed the right to have his bill of exceptions filed within thirty-eight days after the rendition of the judgment, was applicable only so long as the judgment term was running, and did not operate to extend the power of the trial judge over the record beyond the term. No order had been made in term time for the filing of such a delayed bill. Not only had the term closed, but an appeal had been allowed and perfected. The trial court had thereby lost control of the cause, and had no authority to add to or take from the record.

In Michigan Ins. Co. v. Eldred, 143 U. S. 293, 298, 36 L. ed. 162, 163, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep. 450, 452, this court said:

'By the uniform course of decision, no exceptions to rulings at a trial can be considered by this court unless they were taken at the trial, and were also embodied in a formal bill of exceptions presented to the judge at the same term, or within a further time allowed by order entered at that term, or by standing rule of court, or by consent of parties; and, save under very extraordinary circum- stances, they must be allowed by the judge and filed with the clerk during the same term. After the term has expired, without the court's control over the case being reserved by standing rule or special order, and especially after a writ of error has been entered in this court, all authority of the court below to allow a bill of exceptions then first presented, or to alter or amend a bill of exceptions already allowed and filed, is at an end.'

See also Morse v. Anderson, 150 U. S. 156, 37...