Dennison v. Alexander, 103 U.S. 522 (1880)

U.S. Supreme Court

Dennison v. Alexander, 103 U.S. 522 (1880) Dennison v. Alexander

103 U.S. 522

APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT

OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Syllabus

A judgment or a decree of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia cannot be reexamined here unless the matter in dispute, exclusive of costs, exceeds the value of $2,500.

Alexander, on the fifth day of January, 1875, filed his bill in the court below against Dennison and others, commissioners of the District of Columbia, and the First National Bank to restrain the sale of real estate in the City of Washington which the commissioners had advertised to satisfy the amount due for improvements made by the board of public works. The certificate of indebtedness issued by that board and transferred to the bank, was for less than $400 and more than $100. A perpetual injunction was awarded and an appeal allowed by a justice of this Court.

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE WAITE delivered the opinion of the Court.

We think this case is governed by Railroad Company v. Grant, 98 U. S. 398. In that case, we held that the Act of Feb. 25, 1879, c. 99, secs. 4, 5, 20 Stat. 320, took away our right to hear and determine cases from the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia where the matter in dispute did not exceed $2,500, and that it operated on pending cases which had been brought here under the provisions of sec. 847 of the Revised Statutes relating to the District. This case came here under sec. 848, which provided for the allowance of appeals and writs of error by the justices of this Court under certain circumstances when the matter in dispute was less than $1,000, the then general jurisdictional amount, but exceeded $100. There is no reservation in the repealing act as to this class of pending cases any more than the other. Both sections have reference

Page 103 U. S. 523

to the same general subject matter -- that is to say, our review of the judgments and decrees of the Supreme Court of the District in cases where jurisdiction has been made to depend on the value of the matter in dispute. Under the act of 1879, we can no longer hear any of that class of cases unless the amount exceeds $2,500.

Appeal dismissed, each party to pay his own costs.