Case Name: Strowell against Vrooman
Court: New York Supreme Court of Judicature
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1804-08
Citations: 2 Cai. 107
Docket Number: 
Parties: Strowell against Vrooman.
Judges: 
Reporter: Caines' Reports
Volume: 2
Pages: 107–107

Head Matter:
Strowell against Vrooman.
If there be a Us pendens in tho common pleas, in which there has been m decision, this court will not take up the point on a ease made and submitted by consent.
In this action, wbicb was still pending in tbe common pleas for Saratoga, a motion had been made in tbe court below in arrest of judgment, on wbicb no decision bad been pronounced. The counsel, however, on both sides, agreed to make a ease of it, and submit the matter to the determination of this court.

Opinion:
Per Curiam.
This practice is increasing, and becoming grievous. It is time it should be arrested. We ought not to decide cases, unless there be a lis pendens here. We cannot otherwise enforce our decision, and the Very point may come up again. We therefore must refuse taking up the case.
Though there be a Ms pendens, a judge at nisi prius is authorized in refusing to try it, if the issue be such as a court of law ought not to entertain. Therefore, Lord Loughborough would not permit a cause to be brought on, where the matter in dispute was the number of chances in playing an illegal game. Brown v. Leeson, 2 H. Bl. 43. And Lord Ellenborough followed hia example, where the cause of action was a wager on an abstract point of practice. Henkin v. Gerss, 2 Camp. 408; 12 East, 247, S. C, an action not Deing maintainable on a wager on a point of law in'which the parties have not any interest.