court or courts are hereby authorized and required to receive, CHAP. 12. hear and determine such appeal: And that from all final judgments or decrees rendered in any circuit court, or in any district court acting as a circuit court, in cases of equity, of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, and of prize or no prize, an appeal where the matter in dispute, exclusive of costs, shall exceed the sum or value of two thousand dollars, shall be allowed to the Supreme Court of the United States; and upon such appeal, a transcript of the libel, bill, answer, depositions, and all other proceedings of what kind soever in the cause, shall be transmitted to the said Supreme Court; and that no new evidence shall be received in the said court, on the hearing of such appeal, except in admiralty and prize causes; and that such appeals shall be subject to the same rules, regulations and restrictions as are prescribed in law in case of writs of error; and the said Supreme Court shall be, and hereby is authorized and required to receive, hear and determine such appeals. And that so much of the nineteenth and twenty-second sections of the act of Congress, entitled An act to establish the judicial courts of the United States,' passed on the twenty-fourth day of September, 1789, as comes within the purview of this act, shall be, and the same is hereby repealed(a).” By this act, appeals from the district to the circuit courts in admiralty causes are placed upon the same footing, with respect to the amount in controversy, as writs of error in suits at common law; and the remedy by writ of error from the circuit courts to the Supreme Court, in admiralty and equity causes, is abolished, an appeal being given in its stead; the nineteenth section of the Judiciary Act, requiring the circuit courts to cause the facts on which their sentence or decree was founded to appear on the record, is repealed, and instead of the statement (a) Act of March 3, 1803, ch. 40; 1 Stat. at Large, 244, § 2. VOL. 2. of facts, the evidence itself is required to be re In what cases, and within what peal lies. turned (a). According to the construction which these acts times an ap- have received, they authorize an appeal, in the technical sense of the term, as contradistinguished from a writ of error, from all final decrees of the district courts, in causes of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, and cases of prize, where the matter in dispute exceeds the sum or value of $50, exclusive of costs, to the next circuit court to be holden in the district where the decree is pronounced; and from all final decrees of any circuit court, in cases of equity, of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, and of prize, where the matter in dispute, exclusive of costs, exceeds the sum or value of $2000, at any time within five years after the decree is rendered, or, in case of coverture, infancy, insanity or imprisonment, after such disability shall have ceased, to the Supreme Court(b). Decree appealed from must be final. It is, then, only from final decrees that an appeal can be taken. It rarely happens that there is any serious difficulty in determining whether a decree is in its nature final or not. It is not necessary that the decree, unless appealed from, should be conclusive upon the rights asserted by the parties in the suit; it is sufficient if it determines the (a) The San Pedro, 2 Wheaton's R., 132 (4 Curtis's Decis, S. C., 57). (b) The right of appeal from the decisions of the territorial courts is regulated by the several acts organizing the territorial governments. An exposition of the laws upon the subject would lead to undue details, and is therefore omitted. See Conkling's Treatise on the National Courts, 3d edition, 294–297. Appeal will error in not lie for matters resting in discretion. dispute. particular cause(a); and a decree is final, as contra- CHAP. 12. distinguished from an interlocutory decree, when it has this effect. But no appeal lies from a decision upon any matter addressed to the sound discretion of the court, as, for example, upon a petition to open a decree(); or upon a motion for leave to amend(e); or to reinstate a cause that has been dismissed(d); or to dissolve an injunction where the bill is not finally disposed of(e). Controversies Amount in have arisen relative to those provisions of the acts above cited, by which the right of appeal is made to depend on the amount in dispute between the parties; and the course of decision with respect to this test of jurisdiction has not been altogether consistent. A principle has been established, however, sufficiently comprehensive and exact to embrace most cases likely to arise, and it is this: that when a specific amount is claimed by the plaintiff, if the decision is adverse to his claim, whether wholly or in part, and an appeal is interposed by him, such amount will be deemed to be the sum or value in dispute, because he may ultimately recover that and consequently the appeal will lie: but sum; (a) Weston v. The City Council of Charleston, 2 Peters's R., 449 (8 Curtis's Decis. S. C., 171). (b) Brockett et al. v. Brockett, 2 Howard's R., 238 (15 Curtis's Decis. S. C., 107). (c) Marine Insurance Co. of Alexandria v. Hodgson, 6 Cranch's R., 206 (2 Curtis's Decis. S. C., 373); Watson v. Craig, 9 Wheaton's R., 576 (6 Curtis's Decis. S. C., 192); Chirac v. Reinicker, 11 Wheaton's R., 280 (6 Curtis's Decis. S. C., 595). (d) Welsh v. Mandeville, 7 Cranch's R., 152 (2 Curtis's Decis S. C., 493). (e) Verden v. Coleman, 18 Howard's R., 86. VOL. 2. whatever may have been the amount claimed, the defendant's right of appeal depends upon the amount decreed (a). Distinct interests. In a suit prosecuted by or against several persons jointly, each having a separate interest; as in the case of seamen suing jointly for wages, or of several claimants in a suit in rem, claiming different portions of the property proceeded against, by distinct and independent titles; no appeal can be maintained on either side, except with respect to those interests, any, which are of the required value; and if no one of them are of this value, no appeal will lie, although, in the aggregate, they may exceed such value(b). if Decree pro forma. An appeal will be entertained by the Supreme Court from a decree in admiralty rendered on appeal pro forma by a circuit court, because the presiding judge had been counsel for one of the parties(c). MODE OF INSTITUTING AN APPEAL FROM A CIRCUIT COURT TO THE The act of 1803, it will be recollected, contains the following important provision. After giving an (a) Cooke v. Woodrow, 5 Cranch's R., 13 (3 Curtis's Decis. S. C., 177); Wise & Lyn v. The Columbian Turnpike Company, 7 Cranch's R., 276 (2 Curtis's Decis. S. C., 526); Gordon et al. v. Ogden, 3 Peters's R., 33 (8 Curtis's Decis. S. C., 272); Smith v. Honey, id., 469; 8 id., 491). (b) Oliver et al. v. Alexander et al., 6 Peters's R., 143 (10 Curtis's Decis. S. C., 69); Spear v. Place, 11 Howard's R., 522 (18 Curtis's Decis. S. C. 699); Rich et al. v. Lambert et al., 12 id., 347 (10 id., 171). (c) The Steamer Oregon v. Rocca, 18 Howard's R., 570. appeal from the district courts to the circuit courts, CHAP. 12. and from the circuit courts to the Supreme Court, as already stated, it enacts "that such appeals shall be subject to the same rules, regulations and restrictions as are prescribed in law in cases of writs of error." In giving a construction to this clause of the act, the question presented itself, what "law" it was that the courts were required to look to, for the "rules, regulations and restrictions" by which appeals were to be governed; or, in other words, whether this enactment was to be considered as referring to the laws and usages of other courts, or to the rules, regulations and restrictions prescribed by the Judiciary Act, respecting writs of error. The decision of the Supreme Court was, that it referred to the latter. "These rules, regulations and restrictions," say the court, "are contained in the 22d and 23d sections of the act of 1789, and respect the time within which a writ of error may be brought, and in what instances it shall operate as a supersedeas; the citation to the adverse party; the security to be given by the plaintiff in error for prosecuting his suit; the restrictions upon the appellate court as to reversals in certain enumerated cases. All these are, in the opinion of a majority of the court, applicable to appeals under the act of 1803, and are to be substantially observed (a)." The sections thus referred to by the court are as follows: "SEC. 22. And be it further enacted, That final decrees and judgments in civil actions in a district court, where the matter in (a) The San Pedro, 2 Wheaton's R., 132 (4 Curtis's Decis. S. C., 57). |