Case Name: Walker et al. versus Graham
Court: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Jurisdiction: Pennsylvania
Decision Date: 1873-05-30
Citations: 74 Pa. 35
Docket Number: 
Parties: Walker et al. versus Graham.
Judges: Before Read, C. J., Asnew, Sharswood, Williams and Mercur, JJ.
Reporter: Pennsylvania State Reports
Volume: 74
Pages: 35–35

Head Matter:
Walker et al. versus Graham.
1. Defendants appealed from an award of arbitrators and paid the costs to prothonotary “ by draft.” Held, not to be a payment within the act, and the appeal was stricken off.
2. There can be no valid appeal without the payment of the costs in money.
3. Carr v. McGovern, 16 P. P. Smith 457 ; Ellison v. Buckley, 6 Wright 281, followed.
May 6th 1873.
Before Read, C. J., Asnew, Sharswood, Williams and Mercur, JJ.
Error to the Court of Common Pleas of Lancaster county: Of May Term 1873, No. 66.
On the 12th of October 1871, Harrison Graham brought an action of assumpsit against Asahel C. Walker and Samuel Walker, partners, &c. Arbitrators, under a rule of reference taken out by the plaintiff, found an award for $354.20 in his favor. The defendants entered an appeal, and according to the record, the costs were “ Paid prothonotary by defendants by draft.”
On a rule to show cause on the application of the plaintiff, the court (Livingston, P. J.) struck off the appeal upon the ground that 'the costs had not been paid in money.
The defendants took out a writ of error and assigned for error, the striking off of the appeal.
S. B. Reynolds, for plaintiff ir^ error. —
The record importing verity asserts that the costs were paid; the addition of the words “ by draft” are to be treated as surplusage.
J. W. B. Swift, for defendant in error,
cited Ellison v. Buckley, 6 Wright 281; Carr v. McGovern, 16 P. F. Smith 457.

Opinion:
The opinion of the court was delivered, May 30th 1873, by
Williams, J. —
The Arbitration Act of 1836 makes the payment of all costs, that may have accrued in the action, a condition precedent to an appeal from an award of arbitrators. The payment of the taxed costs is therefore indispensable to the perfection and validity of the appeal. But the prothonotary has no right to accept anything but money or cash in payment of costs ; and, therefore, no valid appeal can be taken from an award of arbitrators if the costs are paid by note, check or draft, or in anything but actual cash: Ellisen v. Buckley, 6 Wright 281; Carr v. McGovern, 16 P. F. Smith 457; Richter v. Cummings, not yet reported. And the reason given for this in Ellison v. Buckley, supra, is that each suit should terminate all its own, and not be the cause of other litigation, by the substitution of notes and credits for actual cash. It is time that it was understood that there can be no valid appeal unless the costs are actually paid in money.
Order striking off the appeal affirmed.