United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Heike v. United States, 217 U.S. 423 (1910)

Heike v. United States

No. 849

Submitted April 11, 1910

Decided May 2, 1910

217 U.S. 423

Syllabus

Appellate jurisdiction in the federal system of procedure is purely statutory. American Construction Co. v. Jacksonville, Tampa & Key West Railway Co., 148 U. S. 372.

A case cannot be brought to this Court by piecemeal; it can only be reviewed here after final judgment.

A decree is final for the purposes of review by this Court when it terminates the litigation on the merits and leaves nothing to be done except to enforce by execution what has been determined. St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern R. Co. v. Express Co., 108 U. S. 24.

A judgment overruling a special plea of immunity under statutory provisions, with leave to plead over, does not, in a criminal case, terminate the whole matter in litigation, and is not a final judgment to which a writ of error will lie from this Court.

The immunity of one testifying before a grand jury, under the Act of February 25, 1903, 32 Stat. 904, as amended June 30, 1906, 34 Stat. 798, does not render him immune from any prosecution whatever, but furnishes a defense which, if improperly overruled, is a basis for reversal of a final judgment of conviction.

The facts are stated in the opinion.

Page 217 U. S. 426