Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/254/245/
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 14:55:54+00:00

Document:
1. The rule that errors in rulings of law committed in a trial court cannot be considered on writ of error unless raised by bill of exceptions has no application to rulings by an intermediate appellate court, like the Supreme Court of Porto Rico, although it has power to review the evidence, make new findings of fact, and enter such judgment as it may deem proper. Such rulings are part of the record, and need not be excepted to. P. 254 U. S. 247.
2. The jurisdiction of the Circuit Court of Appeals for the First Circuit under the Act of January 28, 1915, to review judgments of the Supreme Court of Porto Rico, does not include power to review findings of fact made by that court in an action at law. P. 254 U. S. 248.
3. A mistake in bringing up such a case by an appeal instead of a writ of error is cured by the Act of September 6, 1916, but that act does not abolish the distinction between the two modes of review, and the case will be reviewed as on writ of error. Id.
not assigned as error or otherwise objected to in the Circuit Court of Appeal and were not there considered, held that they could not be insisted upon as grounds for reversal by this Court. P. 254 U. S. 249.
forth a cause of action and that the facts found were insufficient to support the judgment. The circuit court of appeals held that it could consider the last two errors assigned, since they appeared on the face of the record. It gave as the reason for declining to consider the others that the company had failed to submit to the supreme court any request for rulings and had taken no exceptions to rulings made. Concluding that the complaint set forth a good cause of action, that the supreme court had power to enter the judgment for Quinones and that the facts found supported its judgment, the circuit court of appeals affirmed it. 251 F. 499. The case comes here on writ of certiorari. 248 U.S. 555.
instance, which had decided in its favor. The errors assigned in the circuit court of appeals related wholly to action taken by the supreme court. The reason given by the circuit court of appeals for refusing to consider the errors assigned was therefore unsound. But, for other reasons, which will be stated, its decision was right.
shall have it in the appropriate way, notwithstanding a mistake in choosing the mode of review. Gauzon v. Compania General, etc., 245 U. S. 86.
It was not contended in the insular supreme court that there was no legal evidence to support the finding of the district court. Its judgment was reversed solely because the insular supreme court reached a different conclusion on the issue of fact raised by conflicting testimony. Nor was it contended in the circuit court of appeals that there was no legal evidence on which the insular supreme court could properly rest its finding. Ten of the assignments of error were directed to findings of fact by the supreme court. As these assignments of error raised no question of law, and as the circuit court of appeals had no power to review findings of fact in an action at law, it properly denied consideration to these ten assignments of error.
Third. It is contended that the judgment of the circuit court of appeals should be reversed because the supreme court adopted an erroneous measure of damages. The contract was made August 4, 1914, and the contract price was $3.22 1/2 per hundred weight. All the sugar was to have been delivered before the close of the following week, which ended on August 15. The supreme court allowed as damages the sum of $6,173.24, with interest. It is insisted here that the sugar was deliverable in installments, that there was a gradual rise in sugar between August 6 and August 15, and that the supreme court should have determined the amount recoverable by ascertaining the market price when each of the installments was deliverable.
it to have that question considered in the circuit court of appeals, although no exception had been taken in the supreme court. The circuit court of appeals did not consider whether the supreme court had adopted the proper measure of damages. It decided only that the supreme court was not obliged to send the case back to the court of first instance to fix the damages, that it had power to do so itself upon a review of the evidence introduced below, and that its discretion in doing this could not be said to have been exercised unreasonably, since the question of damages had been tried fully below, citing Burnet v. Desmornes, 226 U. S. 145, 226 U. S. 148.
* Compare Davis v. Hines, 6 Ohio St. 473, 478; Litchtenstadt v. Rose, 98 Ill. 643; Taylor v. Pierce, 174 Ill. 9, 12; Wilson v. Vance, 55 Ind. 584, 591.

References: v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.