Wheeler v. Harris
Supreme Court of the United States
This was a motion by Mr. Donohue to dismiss an appeal from the Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York, on the ground that a prior appeal had been taken and was pending in the same suit.
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This was a motion by Mr. Donohue to dismiss an appeal from the Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York, on the ground that a prior appeal had been taken and was pending in the same suit. The case was thus: The Judiciary Act, by its 22d section,* gives a writ of error to' this court, from final decrees in the Circuit Courts, and enacts that: “Every judge signing a citation on any writ of error, shall take good and sufficient security that the plaintiff in error shall prosecute his writ to effect, and answer all damages and costs, if he fail to make his plea good.” The 23d section…
1Opinion of the Court
The CHIEF JUSTICE:
It is quite true that two appeals are not allowed in the same case on the same question. We must determine which one of the two should be dismissed. It may be that the first appeal was from a decree which might be taken as final, if the second decree had not been rendered.* But it is obvious that the circuit judge did not regard it as final, and it was certaiuly defective. The second decree was rendered, not by inadvertence, but in view of the rendition of the first decree; and, in order to settle the practice in the Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York, that…
2Cited by1 opinion
- Wheeler v. HarrisSupreme Court of the United States · 1872