WILSON V. DANIEL
Decision Date | 01 January 1798 |
Citation | 3 U. S. 401 |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
COURT OF VIRGINIA
The verdict or judgment does not ascertain the value of the matter in dispute between the parties. To determine this, recurrence must be had to the original controversy -- to the matter in dispute when the action was instituted. The descriptive words of the statute regulating the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in cases of writs of error and appeals point emphatically to this criterion, and in common understanding the thing demanded, as in the case before the Court, the penalty of a bond, and not the thing found, constitutes the matter in dispute between the parties. The nature of the case must guide the judgment of the Court, and whenever the law makes a rule, the rule must be obeyed.
On the return of the record, it appeared that the district judge had endorsed the following fiat on the petition and assignment of errors, presented by the plaintiff in error:
A writ of error accordingly issued, but it would seem that only a copy of the writ was transmitted with the record (to which the seal of the circuit court was affixed, though the writ itself was not said to be under the seal of the court), and the copy was signed by "William Marshall, Clerk," who added in the margin the following memorandum in his own handwriting, not subscribed by the judge: "Allowed by Cyrus Griffin, Esq., Judge of the Middle Circuit in the Virginia District." The original citation to the defendant in error was likewise, omitted, and only a copy accompanied the record, with an affidavit subjoined that the deponent, "did on 24 Sept., 1796, deliver to Thomas Daniel, within named, a citation whereof the above is a true copy." There was no certificate of the judge or clerk of the court that the record was returned in obedience to the writ, though at the end of the paper, purporting to be the record, the clerk subjoined the following minute:
In February term, 1797, E. Tilghman, for the defendant in error, objected to the return of the writ that it was not said to be issued under the seal of the court; that the seal affixed to the record was not stated to have been affixed by order of the court; that the original writ was not transmitted; that the paper purporting to be a citation, being a mere copy, did not appear from the signature or any other proof to have been signed by the judge, which the act of Congress expressly requires; 1 Vol., s. 22, p. 62, and that there was not even any certificate of the clerk of the court that the entire record had been annexed and transmitted with the copy of the writ of error.
Lee (the Attorney General) and Ingersoll answered that the district judge had in effect allowed the writ of error by directing it to issue when security was given; that the seal being actually affixed, it was unnecessary to state that the writ was under the seal of the court; that the seal implies and authenticates the fact, that the citation had been signed, as well as the writ of error allowed, by the judge, and that the clerk having asserted that the proceedings transmitted were a copy, it must be presumed to be an entire copy of the record unless diminution is alleged.
But the court was clearly of opinion that the verification of the record was defective and that they could not, consistently with the Judicial Act, dispense with a return of the original citation subscribed by the judge himself.
The circumstances, which now became material on the record were as follow:
It appeared by the declaration that an action of debt was brought in the circuit court by Thomas Daniel, a British subject, against William Wilson and others upon a bond dated 11 October, 1791, for the penal sum of ,000; that the bond had been taken as an indemnity from the defendants below in an attachment brought by them against the plaintiff in a state court, and that the attachment was dismissed by the court and the plaintiffs adjudged to pay the costs. The present plaintiff laid his damages in consequence of the attachment at ,000.
The sole defendant below, William Wilson (the other defendants being dead or not being arrested on the process) pleaded 1. performance of the condition of the Bond; 2. that no costs had been awarded to the plaintiff below in the attachment suit, nor had any damages been recovered by him against the parties, for suing out the attachment.
The plaintiff below replied 1. that the defendant had not performed the condition of the Bond; 2. that the court did award costs in the attachment suit to the plaintiff below, which he was ready to verify by a transcript of the record; and 3. the plaintiff demurred to so much of the defendant's plea as respects Damages.
The defendant below rejoined, 1. as to the judgment for costs in the attachment suit nul tiel record, and 2. as to the replication upon the question of damages, joinder in demurrer.
The Record then proceeds:
At the present term as well as in February Term, 1797, two questions were made and argued, independent of the objection to the form of issuing and returning the writ of error:
1. Whether the judgment below was so defective that a writ of error would not lie on it inasmuch as no judgment was given upon the plea of nul tiel record.
2. Whether the Supreme Court had jurisdiction of the cause, inasmuch as the real and operative judgment of the circuit court was only for ,800, and the Judicial Act provides that there shall be no removal of a civil action from the circuit court into the Supreme Court unless the matter in dispute exceeds the sum of value of ,000 Dollars. On the first point no opinion was given by the court at the former argument, but on the second point, CHASE, PATERSON, and CUSHING, JUSTICES, concurred in considering the judgment as a judgment at common law, for the penalty of the bond, and therefore that the Court had jurisdiction. WILSON, JUSTICE, dissented, and IREDELL, JUSTICE (who had presided in the circuit court) declined taking a part in the decision. The second point was, however, reargued at the instance of E. Tilghman, who was...
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