1. Distinct decrees in favor of or against distinct parties
cannot be joined to render the aggregate sum sufficient to give
this Court jurisdiction.
2. Except in special cases, this Court has no jurisdiction to
reexamine the judgment or the decree of the circuit or the district
court unless the matter in dispute, exclusive of costs, although it
arises upon the Constitution or a statute of the United States,
exceed the sum or value of $5,000.
The case is sufficiently stated in the opinion of the Court.
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE WAITE delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case was submitted under Rule 20, but on looking into
Page 106 U. S. 577
the record, we find that we have no jurisdiction. The suit was
begun in equity by an assignee in bankruptcy and a purchaser of
certain lands sold under an order of the bankrupt court to restrain
the defendant Crittenden from enforcing a decree in his favor
against the property for $1,828.93, and the defendant Weaver from
enforcing another decree in her favor for $2,348.10. The decrees to
be enjoined were entirely separate and distinct from each other,
one having been rendered in a suit instituted by the defendant
Crittenden alone and the other in a suit by the defendant Weaver.
The two suits presented substantially the same questions for
adjudication, but they were in all other respects distinct. The two
decrees were rendered on the same day, and draw interest from March
6, 1879. The circuit court in the present suit, on the 24th of
October, 1881, dismissed the bill, and from a decree to that effect
this appeal was taken.
The case comes clearly within the rule stated at the present
term in
Ex Parte Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company,
ante, p.
106 U. S. 5, to the
effect that distinct decrees in favor of or against distinct
parties cannot be joined to give this Court jurisdiction; but if
they could, these appellants would be in no better condition,
because the aggregate of the two decrees, with interest, added to
the date of the dismissal of the bill, is less than $5,000.
The mere fact that the matter in dispute arises under the
Constitution or laws of the United States or treaties made does not
give us jurisdiction for the review of the judgments or decrees of
the circuit or district courts. If the value of the matter in
dispute in such cases does not exceed $5,000, we cannot consider
them any more than others in which the amount in value is less than
our jurisdictional limit.
Appeal dismissed.