Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/179/641/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 00:11:11+00:00

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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 179 › Southern Ry. Co. v. Postal Telegraph-Cable Co.
Luxton v. North River Bridge Company, 147 U. S. 337, is decisive of the question raised in this case whether a final judgment or order has been entered by the circuit court which could be taken by writ of error to the circuit court of appeals.
This Court has jurisdiction to examine the proceedings in the circuit court of appeals and to reverse its order if its ruling is found erroneous, or the reverse if its ruling was correct.
company entered a special appearance and filed a petition and bond for the removal of the case to the United States Circuit Court for the Western District of North Carolina. Sundry proceedings were had in that court, such as a motion to remand, which it is unnecessary to notice. On August 31, 1898, the telegraph company by leave filed an amended petition. On September 15, 1898, the court made an order by which it directed its clerk to appoint three commissioners to assess damages and prescribed their powers and duties. On September 19, 1898, the clerk appointed the commissioners as directed and fixed the time and place for their meeting, and on the same day issued a notice to the railway company of his action. These orders were made on the application of the telegraph company and without notice to the railway company. Thereupon the railway company moved the court to set aside its order of September 15 and for leave to answer. On September 23 the court temporarily suspended the order of September 15. On October 24 an answer was filed, a demurrer of the telegraph company was sustained, and when the railway company asked leave to introduce testimony sustaining the averments of its answer, the court overruled the application and refused to permit the railway company to introduce testimony, and, so far as was needed, reinstated its order of September 15, 1898. Before any further proceedings and without waiting for the assessment of damages by the commissioners and the confirmation of their award by the court, a writ of error and supersedeas was obtained by the railway company, and the case was transferred under such writ of error to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. That court, on March 31, 1899, dismissed the writ of error for want of jurisdiction on the ground that no final order had been entered in the circuit court. 93 F. 393. To review this ruling, this writ of error was sued out.
The single question we deem it necessary to consider is whether a final judgment or order had been entered by the circuit court which could be taken by writ of error to the circuit court of appeals.
"only by writ of error, which does not lie until after final judgment disposing of the whole case and adjudicating all the rights, whether of title or of damages, involved in the litigation. The case is not to be sent up in fragments by successive writs of error. Act of September 24, 1789, c. 20, § 22; 1 Stat. 84, c. 20; Rev.Stat. § 691; Rutherford v. Fisher, 4 Dall. 22; Holcomb v. McKusick, 20 How. 552, 61 U. S. 554; Louisiana Bank v. Whitney, 121 U. S. 284; Keystone Co. v. Martin, 132 U. S. 91; McGourkey v. Toledo & Ohio Railway, 146 U. S. 536."
"Upon a careful examination of the statute and the portions of the act of February 8th, 1872, by reference incorporated with it, and regarding the policy indicated in both to favor the construction and early completion of such works of internal improvement, telegraphic being upon the same footing as railroad corporations, we are of opinion it was not intended in these enactments to arrest the proceeding authorized by them at any intermediate stage, and the appeal lies only from a final judgment. Then, and not before, may any error committed during the progress of the cause, and made the subject of exception at the time, be reviewed and corrected in the appellate court, and an appeal from an interlocutory order is premature and unauthorized."
proceeding, because the order appealed from was nevertheless interlocutory, and an appeal from the final judgment would bring up all questions arising in the course of the proceeding without denying or impairing any substantial rights of the defendant."
"The order appealed from is very different from that in the similar case of Click v. Railroad Co., 98 N.C. 390; in the latter, the court denied the motion for an order appointing commissioners and dismissed the proceeding, thus putting an end to the right of the plaintiff therein, and therefore an appeal lay in that case."
The changes in the statute referred to by counsel for plaintiff in error, made subsequently to these decisions, may affect the mode of procedure and the basis for estimating damages, but in no manner affect the question as to the finality of the order appointing commissioners.

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