John Sheppard and Others, Plaintiffs In Error v. John Wilson

• Decision Date: 01 January 1847
• Citation: 46 U.S. 210,5 How. 210,12 L.Ed. 120
• Parties: JOHN C. SHEPPARD AND OTHERS, PLAINTIFFS IN ERROR, v. JOHN WILSON
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

46 U.S. 210

5 How. 210

12 L.Ed. 120

JOHN C. SHEPPARD AND OTHERS, PLAINTIFFS IN ERROR, v. JOHN WILSON.

January Term, 1847

Mr. Grant moved to dismiss the writ of error in this case, upon two grounds.

1st. Irregularity in the allowance of the writ of error, and the citation.

2d. That since the rendition of the judgment Iowa had become a State, and cited 3 How., 534; 4 Id., 590.

Mr. C. Coxe opposed the motion. He stated that the writ of error had been allowed, the citation signed, and bond approved, all by a judge of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Iowa. He then referred to the acts of 1792 and 1838, and contended that there was no irregularity.

Mr. Hastings controverted these views, and sustained the motion to dismiss.

Mr. Chief Justice TANEY delivered the opinion of the court.

This case is brought up by a writ of error to the Supreme Court of the Territory of Iowa.

A motion has been made to dismiss it, upon the ground that the writ of error was allowed, the citation signed, and the bond approved, by the chief justice of the Territorial court, and not by one of the justices of a Circuit Court of the United States, or a justice of the Supreme Court, as required by the act of 1789, ch. 20, § 22.

The act of 1838, ch. 96, § 9, under which this writ of error is brought, provides that writs of error and appeals from the final decision of the Supreme Court of the Territory shall be allowed and taken to this court in the same manner and under the same regulations as from the Circuit Court of the United States, where the value in controversy shall exceed one thousand dollars. And the act of 1789, which regulates writs of error from the Circuit Court, requires the citation to be signed by a judge of the Circuit Court in which the judgment was rendered, or by a justice of the Supreme Court; and that the judge or justice signing the citation shall take good and sufficient security for the prosecution of the writ of error, and the payment of the damages and costs if the plaintiff in error shall fail to make his plea good. And the act of May 8, 1792, ch. 36, § 9 (1 Stat. at L., 278), authorizes the clerks of the Circuit Court to issue writs of error in the same manner as the clerk of the Supreme Court might have issued them under the act of 1789.

Under these two last-mentioned acts of Congress, the judgment of a Circuit Court may be brought up for re examination to the

Supreme Court, by a writ of error, issued by the clerk of the court in...