Henry Billings Brown

“ It is clear that, so far as concerns appeals from final decrees, they must be taken under laws then in existence, and to the court provided by such laws. To say that a decree rendered in 1900 may be appealed to a court whose jurisdiction to review it was taken away in 1864 is beyond belief. Even if the court of appeals act do not apply to this case, the jurisdiction of this court was clearly taken away by the act of 1864, and transferred to the circuit court of the United States for California, except as to appeals which had already been taken. ”

“ It destroys no vested rights. It does not set aside any judgment already rendered by this court under the jurisdiction conferred by the Revised Statutes when in force. But a party to a suit has no vested right to an appeal or a writ of error from one court to another. ”

“ The law remained in this condition until 1864, when on July 1 an act was passed (13 Stat. at L. 332, chap. 194) 'to expedite the settlement of titles to lands in the state of California,' the 2d section of which provided 'that where proceedings for the correction or confirmation of a survey are pending . . . ”