The United States instituted a suit on a bond for duties in the
District Court of the Southern District of New York, and after a
trial and verdict for the United States, judgment was given against
the defendant, who thereupon prosecuted a writ of error to the
Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York, where the
judgment of the district court was affirmed. The defendant then
appealed to the Court of Appeals.
Held that cases at law
can only be brought from the circuit court by writ of error, and
cannot be brought by appeal. In cases at law removed from the
district to the circuit court, the judgment of the circuit court is
final and conclusive. It is otherwise in cases of admiralty and
maritime jurisdiction.
The cases of
United States v. Hudson and
Goodwin, 7 Cranch 108, and the several cases,
11 U. S. 7 Cranch
287;
15 U. S. 2 Wheat.
248,
15 U. S. 395,
cited.
Mr. Butler, the Attorney General, moved to dismiss the appeal on
two grounds.
1. That this was originally a proceeding at law, on a bond for
duties, in the District Court of New York for the Southern
District, and was, after a judgment of that court for the United
States, taken by a writ of error to the Circuit Court for the
Southern Circuit by the defendant, where the judgment of the
district court was affirmed. The judgment of the circuit court is
final in such a case.
2. This is a proceeding at law, and the defendant has brought
the case from the circuit court by an appeal, and not by a writ of
error.
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE TANEY delivered the opinion of the Court.
In this case, an action was brought by the United States against
Edward Sarchet and others in the District Court for the Southern
District of New York upon a bond for duties charged by the
collector upon certain iron imported into the United States. The
duties
Page 37 U. S. 144
claimed were contested by the defendants upon the ground that
iron of the description imported was not by law chargeable with
that duty and that the bond was therefore improperly taken. The
judgment in the district court was against the defendants, and they
removed it by writ of error to the Circuit Court for the Southern
District of New York in the Second Circuit, where the judgment of
the district court was affirmed, and the case is now brought here
by appeal from the judgment of the circuit court.
The Attorney General has moved to dismiss the case for want of
jurisdiction in this Court, and we think the appeal cannot be
sustained.
It has been repeatedly determined that under the acts of
Congress regulating the appellate jurisdiction of this Court from
the circuit courts, cases must be brought here by writ of error,
and cannot be brought here by
appeal. And as this was a
suit at law on a bond, it could not under any circumstances legally
come before us on appeal, but must come up by
writ of
error in order to give us jurisdiction to try it.
There is also another objection equally fatal to this
proceeding. In cases at law removed from the district court to the
circuit court, the judgment of the circuit court is final between
the parties. It is otherwise in cases in equity and of admiralty
and maritime jurisdiction, and although the reason for this
distinction may not be entirely obvious, yet it is our duty to
conform to the provisions of the law, and this Court has repeatedly
decided that in civil cases at law, the judgment of the circuit
court is final where the case is removed by writ of error from the
district court to the circuit court. The point was fully considered
and decided in the case of
United States v.
Goodwin, 7 Cranch 108, and the opinion there given
has been since reaffirmed in several cases.
11 U. S. 7 Cranch
287;
15 U. S. 2 Wheat.
248,
15 U. S. 395. The
question must be regarded as too well settled to be now open for
argument, and as this Court would not have jurisdiction in any form
of proceeding to review the judgment given in this case by the
circuit court, it would be evidently improper to hear an argument
on the questions decided there or to express any opinion concerning
them. The appeal is therefore
Dismissed.
