Thompson v. Butler
| Decision Date | 01 October 1877 |
| Citation | 24 L.Ed. 540,95 U.S. 694 |
| Parties | THOMPSON v. BUTLER |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
MOTION to dismiss a writ of error to the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Massachusetts.
The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.
Mr. G. A. Somerby and Mr. L. S. Dabney, for the defendant in error, in support of the motion.
Mr. J. Hubley Ashton and Mr. James Thomson, contra.
This was an action by Butler against Thompson, to recover damages for not accepting a quantity of iron under an alleged contract of purchase. Upon the trial, the jury rendered a verdict against Thompson of $5,066.17 'in gold;' but, before judgment, Butler remitted $66.17, and judgment was entered Nov. 13, 1876, for $5,000 'in coin.' Thompson having brought the case here by writ of error, Butler moves to dismiss, because the 'matter in dispute' does 'not exceed the sum or value of $5,000.'
As the writ of error was sued out by the defendant below, the amount in controversy was fixed by the judgment. Gordon v. Ogden, 3 Pet. 33; Knapp v. Banks, 2 How. 73; Walker v. United States, 4 Wall. 163; Merrill v. Petty, 16 id. 338. No question is presented growing out of a set-off or counter-claim, as was the case in Ryan v. Bindley, 1 id. 66.
Our jurisdiction cannot be invoked until the final judgment below has been rendered; and we cannot open the record to look for errors until jurisdiction has been established. The court below retains full control of a cause until final judgment has been entered; and it follows that, if for any reason a judgment is given against a defendant in a case involving the plaintiff's cause of action alone, unaffected by counter-claim or set-off, for a sum less than our jurisdictional amount, we have no power, at the instance of the defendant, to correct errors that may have been committed in settling the amount. We can only look at a verdict through the record; and, if the record is closed to us, so necessarily must be the verdict. In this case, therefore, we are precluded from inquiry into the propriety of allowing the verdict to be reduced before judgment was entered upon it. Necessarily, verdicts are, to some extent, subject to the control of the court. It is not unusual for a court to announce that a new trial will be granted unless a part of a verdict shall be remitted, and to enter judgment upon the reduced amount if the suggestion is followed. All such matters may properly be left to the sound judicial discretion of the court in which the trial is had; and errors committed under this power can only be corrected by an appellate court in the same manner that other errors are. Undoubtedly, the trial court may refuse to permit a verdict to be reduced by a plaintiff upon his own motion; and, if the object of the reduction is to deprive an appellate court of jurisdiction in a meritorious case, it is to be presumed the trial court will not allow it to be done. If, however, the reduction is permitted, the errors in the record will be shut out from our re-examination in cases where our jurisdiction depends upon the amount...
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...7 Wall. 258, 19 L.Ed. 149; Dewing v. Sears, 11 Wall. 379, 20 L.Ed. 189; Trebilcock v. Wilson, 12 Wall. 687, 20 L.Ed. 460; Thompson v. Butler, 95 U.S. 694, 24 L.Ed. 540; Gregory v. Morris, 96 U.S. 619, 24 L.Ed. 740. See, also, The Vaughan and Telegraph, 14 Wall. 258, 20 L.Ed. 807; The Emily ......
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