Case ID: f_66/html/0616-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PARDEE, Circuit Judge.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

NELSON v. HUIDEKOPER et al.
    (Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
    January 9, 1895.)
    No. 244.
    Review in Actions at Law — Appeal and Writ on Error — Circuit Courts of Appeals.
    A judgment in an action at law (as for damages for personal injuries) is not reviewable in the circuit courts of appeals upon an appeal. The proper method is by writ of error, with citation to adverse parties.-
    In Error to the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern Division of the Northern District of Alabama.
    This was an action at law commenced in the city court of Birmingham, Ala., by William F. Nelson against F. W. Huidekoper and Reuben Foster, as receivers of the Richmond & Danville Railroad Company, to recover damages for personal injuries. The ease was removed to the federal circuit court by the defendants, as nonresidents, on the ground of prejudice and local influence. Prior to the removal the defendants pleaded to the jurisdiction of the court, on the ground that the defendants were nonresidents of Alabama, and, as receivers, were operating the railroad of the Richmond & Danville Railroad Company, which was a foreign corporation, at the time of the injury complained of, and that the cause of action arose wholly without the territorial jurisdiction of the courts of Alabama. After the removal of the cause, the plaintiff demurred to the plea to the jurisdiction on various grounds, and, the plea and the demurrer thereto having been duly argued and submitted to the court below, the court overruled the demurrer, and, the plaintiff declining to take issue on the plea, or to proceed further, the court sustained the plea, and entered an order dismissing the ease for want of jurisdiction. To obtain a review of this judgment, plaintiff, instead of suing out a writ of error, took an appeal, as stated below in the opinion of the court.
    Griffith R. Harsh, for plaintiff in error.
    James Weatherly and A. G-. Smith, for defendants in error.
    Before PARDEE and' McCORMIOK, Circuit Judges, and BRUCE, District Judge.
   PARDEE, Circuit Judge.

This was an action in the circuit court for the Southern division of the Northern district of Alabama to recover damages for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by the plaintiff while a passenger on a train operated by defendants as receivers of the Richmond & Danville Railroad Company, and was originally commenced in the city court of Birmingham, state of Alabama, and afterwards removed to the circuit court by the defendants, as nonresidents, on the ground of prejudice and local influence. After final judgment rendered in the action, the plaintiff, by his attorneys, in open court, and in the presence of the attorney for the defendants, prayed an appeal from, the judgment of the court, which was granted upon the plaintiff giving a bond for costs in the sum of $300, with good and sufficient sureties, to be approved by the clerk of the court. On the same day the order of appeal was granted plaintiff lodged with the clerk an assignment of errors, and soon thereafter an appeal bond, which was approved by the clerk of the court. The bond in question shows other illegalities and informalities not necessary to notice. The record does not show' that any writ of error has ever been applied for or allowed or issued, or that any citation to adverse parties had been issued. The motion to dismiss the case for want of jurisdiction must be granted. Ward v. Gregory, 7 Pet. 633; Parish v. Ellis, 16 Pet. 451. So ordered.