Court Opinion

ID: 9442769
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 18:58:48.560329+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:13.411012
License: Public Domain

BRATTON, Circuit Judge
(dissenting in part).
On the former appeal, the judgment was reversed and the cause remanded with directions to enter judgment for plaintiffs for the overriding royalty oil; and it was implicit in the opinion and the mandate that plaintiffs were entitled to personal judgment in money for the value of the overriding royalty oil previously produced and sold. But nothing was said in the opinion or the mandate respecting interest on the judgment for the royalty oil which had been sold. It is the general rule that the trial court may consider and decide any .matter left open by the mandate of the appellate court. But it is well settled that where a judgment which fails to provide for interest is affirmed with nothing being said about interest, or where a judgment is reversed and the cause remanded with directions to enter judgment for a specific amount with nothing being said about interest, it is the duty of the trial court to 'enter judgment strictly in accordance with the mandate and not to add the allowance of. interest. In such instances, the trial court is without power to deviate from the mandate by including interest. In re Washington & Georgetown Railroad Co., 140 U.S. 91, 11 S.Ct. 673, 35 L.Ed. 339; Briggs v. Pennsylvania Railroad Co., 334 U.S. 304, 68 S.Ct. 1039, 92 L.Ed. 1403.
Plaintiffs could have applied to this court for a modification of the opinion or an enlargement of the mandate to provide for interest. But they failed to do that. Instead, they sought and obtained from the trial court a provision in the judgment entered on the mandate allowing interest. The trial court was without power to depart from the mandate in that manner. In re Washington & Georgetown Railroad Co., supra; Briggs v. Pennsylvania Railroad Co., supra.