Melville Fuller

“ Chief Justice WAITE, in passing upon a decree of foreclosure and sale, observed that an appeal may be taken from such a decree 'when the rights of the parties have all been settled and nothing remains to be done by the court but to make the sale and pay out the proceeds. This has long been settled. The sale in such a case is the execution of the decree. By means of it the rights of the parties, as settled, are enforced. But to justify such a sale, without consent, the amount due upon the debt must be determined, and the property to be sold ascertained and defined. ”

“ But, as we have seen, the decree referred to the value of the property as of the date of the alleged sale and assignment, and did not in terms require Lodge and Beaumont to account at that value, so that until the entry of another decree it would remain problematical whether the money which might thereby be decreed to be paid and the value of the property recovered in specie, together, would be equal to the amount necessary to give us jurisdiction. Taking this decree as a whole, we are satisfied that the appeal from the judgment affirming it will not lie, and it is accordingly dismissed. ”