WILLIAMS V. BRUFFY
Decision Date | 01 January 1880 |
Citation | 102 U. S. 248 |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
1. This Court, in Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 1 Wheat. 85, affirmed the constitutionality of sec. 25 of the Judiciary Act of 1789, 1 Stat. 85, reenacted in sec. 709, Rev.Stat., which, in certain cases therein mentioned confers on this Court jurisdiction to reexamine upon a writ of error the final judgment or decree in any suit in the highest court of a state in which a decision in the suit could be had. The doctrine then asserted, and ever since maintained, cannot be questioned here.
2. That jurisdiction attaches whenever the highest court of a state, by any decision which involves a federal question, affirms or denies the validity of the judgment of an inferior court, over which it can by law exercise appellate authority, whether the decision, after an examination of the record of that judgment, be expressed by refusing a writ of error or supersedeas or by dismissing a writ previously allowed.
3. This Court, when it has once acquired jurisdiction, may, in order to enforce its judgment, send its process to either the appellate or the inferior court.
The Court of Appeals of Virginia declines to enforce the mandate of this Court issued in this case, and the petition of the plaintiffs in error is that this Court will take such proceedings as will render its judgment effectual.
The plaintiffs in error are citizens of, the State of Pennsylvania, and in 1866 they instituted an action in the Circuit Court of Rockingham County, Virginia, against the administrator of the estate of one George Bruffy, deceased, who at the time of his death was a citizen of Virginia, for the value of certain goods sold by them to him in March, 1861.
The administrator appeared to the action and pleaded the general issue, and certain special pleas, the substance of which was that Pennsylvania was one of the United States, and
that Virginia was one of the states which had formed a confederation known as the Confederate States; that from sometime in 1861 until sometime in 1865, the government of the United States was at war with the government of the Confederate States; and that by a law of the Confederate States, debts to alien enemies were sequestered; that the intestate had paid aver the amount claimed in this action to a receiver in those states appointed under that law, and was thus discharged from the debt to the plaintiffs.
To these pleas the plaintiffs demurred, but the demurrers were overruled. The case was then submitted to the court upon certain depositions and an agreed statement of facts. They established the sale and delivery of the goods for which the action was brought; the residence of the plaintiffs in Pennsylvania and of the deceased in Virginia during the war; the payment by the latter of the debt claimed to the sequestrator of the Confederate government under a judgment of a Confederate court. The Circuit Court of Rockingham County therefore gave judgment for the defendant, and the plaintiffs applied to the Supreme Court of Appeals of the state for a writ of supersedeas to bring the case before it for review.
Vol. i. p. 660; White v. Jones, 1 Wash. (Va.) 118; Burwell v. Anderson, 2 id. 194; Wingfield v. Crenshaw, 3 Hen. & VI. (Va.) 245.
By the law of that state, when application is made to the Supreme Court of Appeals for a writ of supersedeas, the court looks into the record of the case, and only allows the writ
when of opinion that the decision complained of ought to be reviewed. Its action upon the record is in effect a determination whether or not it presents a sufficient question for the consideration of the court. If it deem the judgment of the court below "plainly right" and reject the application on that ground, and its order of rejection so state, no further application for the writ can be presented; the judgment of the court below is thenceforth irreversible. So, in effect, its refusal of the writ on that ground is equivalent to an affirmance of the judgment, for the reason that the record discloses no error.
In the present case, the Supreme Court of Appeals denied the writ, stating in its order that it was of opinion that the judgment of the court of Rockingham County was "plainly right." To review this action of the Court of Appeals, this determination as to the character of the judgment rendered in the circuit court, a writ of error was prosecuted from this Court. It was issued to the Court of Appeals, and was returned with a transcript of the record on file in the office of its clerk, properly certified, and the case was elaborately argued here by counsel. We came to the conclusion unanimously that the judgment of the Circuit Court of Rockingham County was erroneous, that the demurrers to the special pleas should have been sustained, and that the plaintiffs should have had judgment upon the agreed statement of facts for the amount of their claim, with interest from its maturity, deducting in the computation of time the period during which the war continued. We accordingly directed that the action of the Court of Appeals of Virginia, in refusing a supersedeas of the judgment of the Circuit Court, should be reversed and that the cause should be remanded to it for further proceedings in accordance with our opinion. The judgment of this Court was accordingly certified to that court and presented to it in April, 1879. In April of the present year, that court declined to take action upon our mandate for reasons embodied in its opinion at the time entered in its records. That opinion is as follows:
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