United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

United States v. American Bell Telephone Co., 159 U.S. 548 (1895)

United States v. American Bell Telephone Company

No. 745

Submitted October 28, 1895

Decided November 11, 1895

159 U.S. 548

Syllabus

This court has appellate jurisdiction over a judgment rendered by a circuit court of appeals of the United States in a suit brought by the United States in the Circuit Court of the Circuit, to cancel a patent for an invention.

Where the appellate jurisdiction of this Court is described in a statute in general terms so as to comprehend the particular case, no presumption can be indulged of an intention to oust or to restrict such jurisdiction, and any subsequent statute claimed to have that effect must be examined in the light of the objects of the enactment, the purposes it is to serve, and the mischiefs it is to remedy, bearing in mind the role that the operation of such a statute must be restrained within narrower limits than its words import, if the court is satisfied that the literal meaning of its language would extend to cases which the legislature never intended to include in it.

Motion to dismiss for want of jurisdiction. The case is stated in the opinion.

Page 159 U. S. 549