Stewart v. Salamon

• Decision Date: 01 October 1878
• Parties: STEWART v. SALAMON
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

97 U.S. 361

24 L.Ed. 1044

STEWART v. SALAMON.

October Term, 1878

MOTION to dismiss an appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of Georgia.

At its October Term, 1876, this court, in Stewart v. Salamon (94 U. S. 434), reversed the decree of the court below, and remanded the cause for further proceedings, in accordance with the opinion then delivered. After the mandate was filed in the Circuit Court, Stewart and Cutts petitioned for leave to file a plea of lis pendens, and an amended answer to the original bill. The petition having been overruled, and a final decree entered in accordance with the mandate, they appealed here. The appellees now move to dismiss the appeal.

Mr. Philip Phillips in support of the motion.

Mr. Alexander H. Stephens and Mr. Charles P. Culver, contra.

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE WAITE delivered the opinion of the court.

An appeal will not be entertained by this court from a decree entered in the circuit or other inferior court, in exact accordance with our mandate upon a previous appeal. Such a decree, when entered, is in effect our decree, and the appeal would be from ourselves to ourselves. If such an appeal is taken, however, we will, upon the application of the appellee, examine the decree entered, and if it conforms to the mandate, dismiss the case with costs. If it does not, the case will be remanded with appropriate directions for the correction of the error. The same rule applies to writs of error. This is not intended to interfere with any remedy the parties may have by mandamus.

This is an appeal from a decree entered upon our mandate. No complaint is made as to its form, and it seems to be in all respects according to our directions. The effort of the appellant was to open the case below, and to obtain leave to file new pleadings, introducing new defences. This he could not do. The rights of the parties in the subject-matter of the suit were finally determined upon the original appeal, and all that remained for the Circuit Court to do was to enter a decree in accordance with our instructions, and carry it into effect. If in the progress of the execution of the decree, after its entry, either party is aggrieved, he may appeal from the final decree in that behalf; but such an appeal will bring up for re-examination only the proceedings subsequent to the mandate.

The appeal will be dismissed with costs; and it is

So ordered.

MR. JUSTICE CLIFFORD dissenting.

Second appeals or writs of error, as the case may be, will lie in certain cases where it is alleged that the mandate of the appellate court has not been properly executed; but the appeal or writ of error in such a case will bring up nothing for re-examination except the proceedings subsequent to the mandate. Needful explanations may be derived from the original record, but the re-examination cannot extend to any thing that was decided in the antecedent appeal or writ of error. The Lady Pike, 96 U. S. 461; Supervisors v. Kennicott, 94 id. 498; Himley v. Rose, 5 Cranch, 313; The Santa Maria, 10 Wheat 431; Ex parte Sibbald, 12 Pet. 492; Roberts v. Cooper, 20 How. 481; Tyler v. Magwire, 17 Wall. 253.

Authorities to that effect are very numerous, unanimous, and decisive; but cases coming into this court from the Circuit Court, under the twenty-second section of the Judiciary Act, where no question for re-examination is presented, whether brought here by writ of error or appeal, are not to be treated like a case with a similar record which comes up from a State court, under the twenty-fifth section of the same act, for the reason that it is the writ of error or the appeal which gives the jurisdiction under the twenty-second section of the act in all cases where the proceedings in bringing up the record are correct.

Instead of that, it is the question that gives the jurisdiction in cases brought here from a State court, under the twenty-fifth section of the same act. Consequently, in a case which comes here from a State court, it must appear by the record that some one of the questions stated in that section arose in the court below, and that it was determined as there required, otherwise this court is wholly without jurisdiction, and can only dismiss the writ of error.

Unlike that, if the case is brought up from a Circuit Court by writ of error or appeal, it is the writ of error or appeal which gives this court jurisdiction; and if the proceedings in bringing up the case are correct, the jurisdiction of the court is beyond question, and by the express words of the section the Supreme Court must reverse or affirm. 1 Stat. 84; Taylor v. Morton, 2 Black, 484.

Nor is there any alteration of that provision in that regard, except that the appellate court may affirm, modify, or reverse the judgment; the rule still being, that it is the writ of error or appeal in such cases that gives the jurisdiction, and that the appellate court can only affirm, modify, or...