Railroad Company v. Harris

Decision Date01 December 1868
Citation7 Wall. 574,19 L.Ed. 100,74 U.S. 574
PartiesRAILROAD COMPANY v. HARRIS
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

THIS was a motion for writs of supersedeas to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia to stay execution upon two judgments recovered in that court, one by Harris, against the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, and the other by his administratrix, against the same defendant.

The first judgment was for injuries sustained by Harris, when a passenger on the defendant's railroad. The second was a judgment upon scire facias, to revive the former judgment, abated by the death of Harris, and to make his administratrix party to that judgment, and to have execution.

To bring the first judgment into this court for review, a writ of error had been sued out by the railroad company, and a sufficient bond for prosecution was filed, within ten days after rendition; but no copy of the writ of error appeared to have been lodged in the clerk's office for the use of the defendant in error.

The twenty-third section of the Judiciary Act thus declares:*

'A writ of error shall be a supersedeas, and a stay of execution, in cases only where the writ of error is served by a copy thereof being lodged, for the adverse party, in the clerk's office, where the record remains, within ten days, Sundays exclusive, after rendering the judgment and passing the decree complained of.'

Messrs. Bradley and Buchanan, in support of the motion.

Messrs. Davidge and Fuller, contra.

The CHIEF JUSTICE delivered the opinion of the court.

The right of the plaintiff in error to the writs for which the motion now before us is made, depends on the question whether, by the proceedings taken in the case, the writ of error upon the first judgment became a supersedeas?

And this question is answered by the express words of the twenty-third section of the Judiciary Act.

The legislature has seen fit to make the lodging of a copy of the writ, within ten days, a prerequisite to the operation of the writ as a supersedeas. The cause was removed from the inferior court to this court, by the issuing of the writ, and the due service of it upon the court to which it is addressed; but its additional effect, as a supersedeas, depends upon compliance with the conditions imposed by the act. We cannot dispense with that compliance in respect to lodging a copy for the adverse party.

The motion for writs of supersedeas in both cases must, therefore, be DENIED; and as the second writ of error brings nothing before us,...

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5 cases
  • Odbert v. Marquet
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit
    • 4 Noviembre 1909
    ... ... shares of the stock of the Marquet Coal Company, a West ... Virginia corporation, at the price of $54 per share, or ... $108,000; that said stock ... tools, and appliances of all kinds used by the company in ... mining coal, and a railroad extending from the tipple and ... mines about two miles to the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago ... 387, 13 L.Ed. 1034; Hudgins v ... Kemp, 18 How. 530, 15 L.Ed. 511; Railroad v. Harris, ... 7 Wall. 574, 19 L.Ed. 100; Com'rs v ... Gorman, 19 Wall. 661, 22 L.Ed. 226; Kitchen v ... ...
  • New England R. Co. v. Hyde
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit
    • 6 Abril 1900
    ...ten days after the judgment, and in conformity with the provisions of the twenty-third section of the act of 1789.' In Railroad Co. v. Harris, 7 Wall. 574, 19 L.Ed. 100, as the present case, there was pending in the appellate court a writ of error, which did not itself operate as a supersed......
  • Morrison v. Fidelity & Deposit Co. of Maryland
    • United States
    • Washington Supreme Court
    • 14 Agosto 1917
    ... ... by Peter Morrison and wife against the Fidelity & Deposit ... Company of Maryland. From a judgment for plaintiffs, ... defendant appeals. Affirmed ... 86, 23 L.Ed ... 810; Saltmarsh v. Tuthill, 12 How. 387, 13 L.Ed ... 1034; Railroad Co. v. Harris, 7 Wall. 574, 19 L.Ed ... 100; New Eng. Ry. Co. v. Hyde, 101 F. 397, 41 C. C ... ...
  • The C., R. I. & P. R. Co. v. Grinnell
    • United States
    • Iowa Supreme Court
    • 17 Diciembre 1879
    ... ... City of ... Washington v. Dennison, 73 U.S. 495, 6 Wall. 495, 18 ... L.Ed. 863; Railroad Co. v. Harris, 74 U.S. 574, 7 ... Wall. 574, 19 L.Ed. 100 ...          The ... ...
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