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.