Case ID: tex_1/html/(173)-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Wheeler, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Hodges, Deputy Collector, etc. v. Ward and Ingram
    Appeal from Matagorda County.
    Wo judgment or decree of a district court can "be pronounced, except at such time, as by law, the district court is directed to be holden.
    This was an application to the judge of the second judicial district for a mandamus, to compel the deputy collector of the port of Mata-gorda to deliver to the appellees certain goods imported by them, upon the payment of the duties in the exchequer bills of the country, at par.
    The application was made'to the judge in chambers, and the cause heard the following day “ in chambers,” at a time when, by law, no district court was appointed to be holden in and for the county of Matagorda.
    The decree which was rendered on the same day directed the goods to be delivered to the appellees upon their “entering into bond, with security, to be approved by the deputy collector, to pay the duties in gold and silver, upon the final decision of this question by the supreme court if the said court shall so decide.” From this decree the deputy collector appealed.
    
      Webb and Denison, for appellees, moved to dismiss the appeal.
    
      Karris, Attorney General, for appellant.
   Wheeler, J.

The record before us purports to contain the proceedings of “ a district court for the county of Matagorda held in chambers,” on the 10th day of November, 1842, and to have been brought here by appeal from the judgment of that court.

By the laws then in force, appeal lay to the supreme court, only from the judgment or decree of a district court. 1 Stat. 203, sec. 15; 5 id. 168, sec. 19.

But no district court could, by law, be holden in the county of Mat-agorda where this proceeding purports to have been had. Const. Hep. Tex. art. 4, sec. 2; 6 Stat. 115.

At that time and place, therefore, there could have been no judgment or decree of a district court pronounced; and consequently no appeal taken to the supreme court.

We are therefore of opinion that the appeal be dismissed.