Samuel Freeman Miller

“ I am at a loss to see the value of the learned search into the practices and precedents of the English law in writs of error and appeals, and deem it only necessary to say that in our system the right to a writ of error and to an appeal depends wholly upon statutes granting that right, and not upon any principle of the common law, nor upon any power in any court to review the decisions of any other court which is not also the creation of positive statute, and which, in the courts of the United States, must necessarily depend upon an act of congress. ”

“ The acts of congress proceed upon a wholly different principle. They allow a party to take an appeal or writ of error, which does not remove the record of the case into the appellate court, but which may be heard there upon the transcript of the record, the original remaining in the inferior court. Unless the plaintiff in error takes other steps which the law prescribes, the court which rendered the judgment complained of can proceed to execute its judgment and enforce its decree in favor of the successful party, though the case be pending in the appellate court. ”

“ An insolvent corporation, a railroad company, for instance, makes default in its mortgage bonds which amount to twice the value of the property mortgaged. A decree is obtained for its sale, and before a receiver can be appointed the directors take an appeal, give a small bond, little more than the probable costs, and then use the road for three years, making millions of dollars out of it with which to pay debts subsequent to the mortgage, or distribute among interested parties. ”