Linkous v. Virginian Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 02 June 1917
• Docket Number: 1522.
• Parties: LINKOUS v. VIRGINIAN RY. CO.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

242 F. 916

LINKOUS v. VIRGINIAN RY. CO.

No. 1522.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

June 2, 1917

W. L Welborn, of Roanoke, Va. (S. H. Hoge and Welborn & Jamison all of Roanoke, Va., on the brief), for plaintiff in error.

H. T Hall, of Roanoke, Va., and G. A. Wingfield, of Norfolk, Va (Hall & Apperson, of Roanoke, Va., on the brief), for defendant in error.

Before PRITCHARD, KNAPP, and WOODS, Circuit Judges.

PRITCHARD Circuit Judge.

This case was brought here by writ of error at the November term, 1915; the lower court having rendered judgment based on a verdict of the jury in favor of the plaintiff below. This court reversed the judgment, holding that the lower court, upon the whole evidence, should have directed the jury to return a verdict in favor of the defendant. A new trial was granted, and the case was remanded to the court below for further proceedings. The case was heard upon the same evidence as that of the former trial. The learned judge directed a verdict in favor of the defendant in pursuance of the rule announced by this court.

Counsel for plaintiff below insist:

'That the former judgment of this court should be reviewed, reversed, and annulled, and that the judgment in favor of this plaintiff in error in the District Court on first trial for the sum of $8,541 should be affirmed, with interest and costs.'

This question has been decided adversely to the contention of plaintiff in error in numerous cases. In the case of Roberts v. Cooper, 20 How. 467, 15 L.Ed. 969, the Supreme Court, in referring to this point, said:

' * * * We cannot be compelled on a second writ of error in the same case to review our own decision on the first. It has been settled by the decisions of this court that after a case has been brought here and decided, and a mandate issued to the court below, if a second writ of error is sued out, it brings up for revision nothing but the proceedings subsequent to the mandate. None of the questions which were before the court on the first writ of error can be reheard or examined upon the second. To allow a second writ of error or appeal to a court of last resort on the same questions which were open to dispute on the first would lead to endless litigation. In chancery, a bill of review is sometimes allowed on petition to the court; but there would be no end to a suit if every obstinate litigant could, by repeated appeals, compel a court to listen to criticisms on their opinions, or speculate of chances from changes in its members. * * * We can now notice, therefore, only such errors as are alleged to have occurred in the decisions of questions which were peculiar to the second trial.'

Also, in the case of Woodruff v. Yazoo & M.V.R. Co., 222 F. 29, 137 C.C.A. 567, the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in referring to a ruling of that court when a case was there on a former hearing, said:

'The foregoing ruling of the court must stand as the law of the case upon the present hearing, since it is well settled 'that whatever has been decided here on one writ of error cannot be re-examined on a subsequent writ brought in

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