Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/49/251.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 07:01:58+00:00

Document:
In July, 1847, an act was passed additional to the charter of the first-named company, by virtue of which a reorganization took place. The City Bank claimed to be the sole proprietors [49 U.S. 251, 252] or beneficiaries under this new charter, and John W. Veazie, who held a large number of shares in the original company, claimed that the management and control were granted to the stockholders.
On the 28th of December, 1849, Mr. Wyman B. S. Moor filed, with the motion to dismiss, as above mentioned, an affidavit, stating the pendency of a suit by him against Veazie in the courts of Maine, which involved the same right of navigating the river which was one of the points of the present case. He further stated his belief, that this case was a feigned issue, got up collusively between the said Lord and Veazie, for the purpose of prejudicing his (Moor's) rights, and [49 U.S. 251, 253] obtaining the judgment of this court upon principles of law affecting a large amount of property, in which he and others were interested.
1. That a fictitious suit, or a feigned issue, or a suit instituted by persons to try the rights of third persons, not parties to the record, is a contempt of court, and will be dismissed on motion. Hoskins v. Lord Berkeley, 4 T. R., 402; 3 Bl. Com., 452; R. J. Elsam, an attorney, 3 Barn . & C., 597; 2 Inst., 215; Brewster v. Kitchin, Comb., 425; Coxe v. Phillips, Cas. Temp. Hardw., 237; Fletcher v. Peck, 6 Cranch, 147, 148.
That said suit was in contemplation before the institution of this suit. [49 U.S. 251, 254] That the defendant in error has heretofore set up the same claim to the property of said railroad company against the City Bank as is involved in this suit.
There has been no such judgment in this suit that this court will revise by writ of error. Judiciary Act of 1789, 22 (1 Stat. at L., 84); Act of April 29, 1802, ch. 31, 6 (2 Id., 159); Lanusse v. Barker, 3 Wheat., 137, 147; McDonald v. Smalley et al., 1 Pet., 621; Shankland v. The Corporation of Washington, 5 Id., 390; Stimpson v. Westchester Railroad Co., 3 How., 553; Dewolf v. Usher, 3 Pet., 269; Zeller's Lessee v. Eckert, 4 How., 298.
The court is satisfied, upon examining the record in this case, and the affidavits filed in the motion to dismiss, that the contract set out in the pleadings was made for the purpose of instituting this suit, and that there is no real dispute between the plaintiff and defendant. On the contrary, it is evident that their interest in the question brought here for decision is one and the same, and not adverse; and that in these proceedings the plaintiff and defendant are attempting to procure the opinion of this court upon a question of law, in the decision of which they have a common interest opposed to that of other persons, who are not parties to this suit, who had no knowledge of it while it was pending in the Circuit Court, and no opportunity of being heard there in defence of their rights. And their conduct is the more objectionable, because they have brought up the question upon a statement of facts agreed on between themselves, without the knowledge of the parties with whom they were in truth in dispute, and upon a judgment pro forma entered by their mutual consent, without any actual judicial decision by the court. It is a question, too, in which is appears that property to a very large amount is involved, the right to which depends on its decision.
It is proper to say that the counsel who argued here the motion to dismiss, in behalf of the parties to the suit, stand entirely acquitted of any participation in the purposes for which these proceedings were instituted; and indeed could have had none, as they were not counsel in the Circuit Court, and had no concern with the case until after it came before this court. And [49 U.S. 251, 255] we are bound to presume that the counsel who conducted the case in the court below were equally uninformed of the design and object of these parties; and that they would not knowingly have represented to the court that a feigned controversy was a real one.
It is the office of courts of justice to decide the rights of persons and of property, when the persons interested cannot adjust them by agreement between themselves,-and to do this upon the full hearing of both parties. And any attempt, by a mere colorable dispute, to obtain the opinion of the court upon a question of law which a party desires to know for his own interest or his own purposes, when there is no real and substantial controversy between those who appear as adverse parties to the suit, is an abuse which courts of justice have always reprehened, and treated as a punishable contempt of court.
A judgment entered under such circumstances, and for such purposes, is a mere form. The whole proceeding was in contempt of the court, and highly reprehensible, and the learned district judge, who was then holding the Circuit Court, undoubtedly [49 U.S. 251, 256] suffered the judgment pro forma to be entered under the impression that there was in fact a controversy between the plaintiff and defendant, and that they were proceeding to obtain a decision upon a disputed question of law, in which they had adverse interests. A judgment in form, thus procured, in the eye of the law is no judgment of the court. It is a nullity, and no writ of error will lie upon it. This writ is, therefore, dismissed.
This cause came on to be heard on the transcript of the record from the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Maine, and was argued by counsel, and it appearing to the court here, from the affidavit and other evidence filed in the case by Mr. Moor, in behalf of third persons not parties to this suit, that there is no real dispute between the plaintiff and defendant in this suit, but, on the contrary, that their interest is one and the same, and is adverse to the interests of the persons aforesaid, it is the opinion of this court, that the judgment of the Circuit Court entered pro forma in this case is a nullity and void, and that no writ of error will lie upon it. On consideration whereof, it is now here ordered and adjudged by this court, that the writ of error be, and the same is hereby, dismissed, each party paying his own costs, and that this cause be, and the same is hereby, remanded to the said court, to be dealt with as law and justice may require.
[ Footnote 2 ] APPLIED. Wood-paper Co. v. Heft, 3 Wall., 336.

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