United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

The Lucille, 86 U.S. 19 Wall. 73 73 (1873)

The Lucille

86 U.S. (19 Wall.) 73

Syllabus

1. An appeal in admiralty from the District to the circuit court in effect vacates the decree of the district court, and a new trial in all respects, and a new decree, are to be had in the circuit court. The latter must execute its own decree, and the district court has nothing more to do with the case.

2. An order of the circuit court merely affirming the decree of the district court, and nothing more, is not such a decree as the circuit court should render and is not a final decree from which an appeal lies to this Court.

The Act of March 3, 1803, * amendatory of the Judiciary Act, enacts that "from all final decrees" rendered in any circuit court in any cases of admiralty, "where the matter in dispute, exclusive of costs, shall exceed the sum or value of $2,000," an appeal shall be allowed to this Court.

This statute being in force, Nancy Repass libeled the schooner Lucille, in the district court for Maryland, for damages, alleging a collision by the Lucille whereby she had been "damaged to the extent of $2,000, for which she claims reparation in this suit."

The libel concluded with a prayer, that

"the court will pronounce for the libellant's aforesaid demand, and for such other and further relief and redress as to right and justice appertain, and as the court is competent to give in the premises."

The court decreed in favor of the libellant for $2,100. The libellant, objecting to a decree for a sum larger than that claimed, remitted, of record, $100, parcel of the said sum, and the other side appealed to the circuit court, where an order was entered affirming the decree below. The order thus made, and from which the present appeal was taken, was in the following words:

Page 86 U. S. 74

"It is, this 27th day of May, A.D. 1872, adjudged and ordered that the decree of the district court be, and the same is hereby, affirmed, with costs."