Edward Douglass White

“ Coming, then, to test whether we have jurisdiction to review the action of the supreme court of the territory reversing the order granting a new trial, it is apparent that our power must rest either upon the proposition that the order overruling the granting of a new trial was a final judgment in an independent proceeding, or was but an interlocutory step in the cause, which would be subject to our review because of jurisdiction to revise the action of the territorial court in ruling on the exceptions, under the assumption that such ruling was a final judgment. ”

“ On exceptions, various specific rulings, whether interlocutory or final, whether brought up immediately or only after final judgment, are made direct and independent subjects for review; only so much of the record is brought up as is necessary for passing upon the specific exceptions; the decision usually is that the exceptions be sustained or overruled and that such further proceedings be had as the rulings on the exceptions call for. ”

“ As our power to review depends upon the acts of Congress, which it is beyond the authority of a territory, by forms of legal procedure, to modify or change, it results that, whatever may be the forms of procedure prevailing in the territory for the review of judgments or decrees, nothing in the territorial laws or procedure can have the effect of conferring upon this court the power to consider causes coming from the territory by piecemeal ”