An order of the district court sustaining a demurrer to a
petition because it was multifarious and because the names of the
persons claiming or in possession of the land which the petitioners
alleged to belong to them were not set forth was not a final
judgment or decree from which an appeal lies to this Court.
This was a petition in the district court relating to land, the
circumstances of which it is unnecessary to state any further than
they are referred to in the opinion of the Court, as the case went
off upon a point of jurisdiction.
Page 47 U. S. 104
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE TANEY delivered the opinion of the Court.
It appears that a petition was filed by the appellants claiming
an inchoate title to certain lands under Spanish grants which they
alleged the United States were bound to perfect, but that these
lands had been sold by the United States to divers persons unknown
to the petitioners. They therefore prayed that the validity of
their claim might be inquired into and that they be allowed to
locate the same number of arpents upon the public domain, according
to the provisions of the Act of Congress of May 26, 1824, ยง 11,
which was extended to Louisiana by the Act of June 17, 1844.
The proceedings upon this petition, as stated in the record,
appear to have been irregular and confused, and it is unnecessary
to state them at large. It is sufficient to say that the district
attorney demurred to the petition, setting forth various causes of
demurrer, that the petitioners afterwards amended their petition,
and that the district attorney again demurred,
Page 47 U. S. 105
and after various other proceedings, the record states that
"The following judgment was entered on the minutes:"
"The demurrers to the original and to the amended petition of
petitioners, submitted to the court yesterday, having been
considered by the court, it is now ordered, adjudged, and decreed
that the 4th ground of demurrer set forth in the demurrer to the
original petition be sustained, and that the 1st, 2d, 3d, 5th, 6th,
7th, and 8th grounds set forth in said demurrer be overruled, it
appearing that said last-mentioned grounds of demurrer have been
removed by petitioners' amended petition."
"It is further ordered that the 1st and 2d grounds of demurrer,
set forth in the demurrer of respondents to the amended petition of
petitioners, be sustained, and that the 3d ground of demurrer, set
forth in said demurrer to said amended petition, be overruled."
The grounds of demurrer sustained by the district court were
that the petition was multifarious and that the names of the
persons claiming or in possession of the land which the petitioners
alleged belonged to them were not set forth.
The appeal was taken from the judgment above recited. But
evidently that judgment is not a final judgment or decree. For the
petition is not dismissed, nor is the title of the petitioners to
the land claimed by them finally adjudicated, nor their right to
locate the same number of arpens upon the public domain. Nothing is
decided but a question of pleading and a question as to proper
parties. The petition appears to be still pending in the district
court, and the objections upon which the court decided against the
petitioners might be removed, if the appellants desired it, by an
application to the court for leave to amend. But if the petitioners
did not move for leave to amend, and preferred taking the opinion
of this Court upon the questions decided against them in the
district court, then, under the opinion given by that court upon
the demurrer, it should have proceeded to pass a final decree
dismissing the bill. An appeal from that decree would have brought
the case legally before this Court, and authorized it to examine
the grounds upon which the decree had been made.
But as there is no final judgment or decree, we have no
jurisdiction, and consequently the appeal must be
Dismissed.
Order
This cause came on to be heard on the transcript of the record
from the District Court of the United States for the District of
Louisiana and was argued by counsel, and it appearing to the Court
here that there has been no final judgment or decree
Page 47 U. S. 106
of the said district court in this cause, it is thereupon now
here ordered and decreed by this Court that this appeal be and the
same is hereby dismissed for the want of jurisdiction.