United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Chicago, Great Western R. Co. v. Basham, 249 U.S. 164 (1919)

Chicago, Great Western Railroad Company v. Basham

No. 111

Submitted December 19, 1918

Decided March 3, 1919

249 U.S. 164

Syllabus

Under § 237 of the Judicial Code, as amended by the Act of September 6, 1916, § 2, c. 448, 39 Stat. 726, denial by a state court of rights and immunities claimed under the Federal Employers' Liability Act affords no ground for review of its judgment by writ of error, but only by certiorari. P. 249 U. S. 165.

The words "or otherwise" in the Act of September 6, 1916 (ubi supra), where it grants the discretionary power to review "by writ of certiorari or otherwise," add nothing of substance to the power granted.

Under § 237 of the Judicial Code before and since the amendment of September 6, 1916, a judgment of a state court, to be susceptible of review, must be final. P. 249 U. S. 166.

The Act of September 6, 1916, in providing (§ 7) that the right of review under existing laws in respect of judgments entered before it took effect (October 6, 1916) should remain unaffected for six months thereafter, contemplated final judgments ending the litigation in the state supreme court, and a judgment as to which a petition for rehearing has been presented to and entertained and considered by that court does not become final in that sense until the petition is disposed of. Id.

Writ of error to review 178 Ia. 99, dismissed.

The case is stated in the opinion.

Page 249 U. S. 165