United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Bruce v. Tobin, 245 U.S. 18 (1917)

Bruce v. Tobin

No. 645

Petition for a writ of certiorari submitted October 1, 1917

Denied October 22, 1917

245 U.S. 18

Syllabus

The remedy by certiorari which, in certain classes of cases, is substituted by the Act of September 6, 1916, c. 948, 39 Stat. 726, for the remedy by writ of error previously allowed by Rev.Stats., § 709, Jud.Code, § 237, is confined to final judgments, and finality, in the one case as in the other, is determined by the face of the record and the formal character of the judgment rendered by the state court.

In an action by a father to recover a share of a fund collected by his deceased son's administrator as damages under the Employers' Liability Act, the state trial court rejected the father's claim entirely. The state supreme court, upholding his right but not specifically fixing the amount to which he was entitled, directed a new trial to accomplish that result. Assuming the judgment final in the sense that it determined the ultimate right and the general principles by which it was to be measured, held, nevertheless, that it was not final in the sense of the Act of September 6, 1916, supra, and that an application for certiorari under that statute was premature.

Petition for a writ of certiorari to review 39 S.D. 64 denied.

The case is stated in the opinion.