Edward Douglass White

“ To hold, then, that the appellate court could nevertheless, without affording the libelants an opportunity to be heard, enter a decree the plain effect of which was to deny one of the two claims for which the libel was brought and which, in view of the settled effect of the appeal, the libelants could not be presumed to have abandoned, would be to subject them to a wrong without a remedy, even if it did not amount to a denial of due process of law. ”

“ In view, therefore, of the settled law as to the effect of appeals in admiralty, we are of opinion that the libelants were justified in regarding the appeal taken by the claimants as securing to libelants the right to be heard in the appellate court without the necessity of perfecting a cross-appeal in order to preserve that right. ”

“ And this renders it unnecessary to consider the supposed advantages which would arise from the adopting of a new rule, since, if the wisdom of so doing be arguendo conceded, that concession would not justify the misapplication of the existing rule and the destruction of rights vested in reliance, not only upon its existence, but upon the discharge of the duty to enforce and apply it. ”