Court appeal

“ The power of the appellate court over the cause, of which it has acquired jurisdiction by the appeal from the interlocutory decree, is not affected by the authority of the court appealed from, recognized in the last clause of the section, and often exercised by other courts of chancery, to take further proceedings in the cause, unless in its discretion it orders them to be stayed pending the appeal. ”

“ When it is without jurisdiction to decide an appeal which should have been prosecuted to another court, it may vacate the judgment and remand the cause in order to enable the court below to enter a new judgment from which a proper appeal may be taken. ”

“ We therefore request that the supreme court will examine into the question, and will determine whether, in admiralty appeals, the parties have the right to offer upon the trial of the appeal such evidence (whether new evidence or evidence taken in the district court) as they shall see fit, or whether the taking of new evidence is a mere privilege, to be granted or not by the judge of the circuit court of appeals, in his discretion. ”

“ The statutes of the territory further enact that, on an appeal from the judgment of a district court, execution shall be stayed upon the appellant's giving bond, with sureties, such as was given in this case, 'conditioned that the appellant shall prosecute his appeal with due diligence to a decision in the supreme court, and that if the judgment or decision appealed from be affirmed, or the appeal be dismissed, he will perform the judgment of the district court, and that he will also pay the costs and damages that may be adjudged against him upon his appeal.' Prince, Laws, c. ”

“ Where the appeal statutes establish the conditions of appellate review an appellate court cannot rightly exercise its discretion to issue a writ whose only effect would be to avoid those conditions and thwart the Congressional policy against piecemeal appeals in criminal cases. ”

“ An appellant is given the right to be present on the hearing of his appeal, if he desires it, except where the appeal is on some ground involving a question of law alone, but rules of court may provide for his presence in such a case, or the court may give him leave. The act requires shorthand notes to be taken of the proceedings at the trial of any person, who, if convicted, would have a right to appeal under the act. Nothing in the act affects the prerogative of mercy, and the home secretary may, if he thinks fit, at any time refer a case to the court of criminal appeal. ”

“ The more administrable and workable rule, rather, is the one compelled by our precedent: When counsel’s deficient performance forfeits an appeal that a defendant otherwise would have taken, the defendant gets a new opportunity to appeal. ”

“ Under the act of 1895, as under the previous acts of congress, where the matter in controversy exceeds $5 in value, an appeal lies to a court of record from any judgment of a justice of the peace, whether rendered upon a verdict or not, and either party may have a trial by a common-law jury in the appellate court; and the trial by jury in that court is, and the trial before a justice of the peace is not, a trial by jury, within the meaning of the seventh amendment to the constitution. ”

“ Considerations of importance to our answer here are that the trial court, in striking the pleas in abatement, acted within its jurisdiction as a district court; that no action or omission on its part has thwarted or tends to thwart appellate review of the ruling; and that while a function of mandamus in aid of appellate jurisdiction is to remove obstacles to appeal, it may not appropriately be used merely as a substitute for the appeal procedure prescribed by the statute. ”

“ What is meant by prosecuting his appeal to effect? It is an expression substantially equivalent to prosecuting his appeal with success; to make substantial and prevailing his attempt to reverse the decree or judgment awarded against him. ”

“ The objection in that case was not, that one or more of the defendants might not pursue an appeal, for their own interest, if the others refused to join in it, upon due notice, and process for that purpose from the circuit court ”

“ But the appellate power of this court is broader than its original, and generally-that is, in most cases-it may be said that the issue of a writ of habeas corpus by us, when it is directed to one of our inferior courts, is an exercise of our appellate jurisdiction. Without going at large into a discussion of its extent, it is sufficient for the present to notice the fact that the exercise of the appellate power is not limited by the Constitution to any particular form or mode. It is not alone by appeal or by writ of error that it may be invoked. ”

“ It is clear from Rule IV of the Criminal Appeals Rules [2] that the Circuit Court of Appeals has the right to exercise sound judicial discretion in supervising and controlling the proceedings on appeal. ”

“ One of the qualifications of the general rule as to the suspensive effect of an appeal is that the inferior court may perfect its judgment or decree, usually, at any time during the term at which it is rendered. If, when an appeal is taken or a writ of error is sued out, the record has not been made up, it may be made up in due form. ”

“ Whether 'appeal' includes proceedings before the Supreme Court was not addressed by the Advisory Committee's Note and was until now an academic question since the rule became effective after the implementation of the Criminal Justice Act under which courts of appeals have uniformly adopted procedures routinely to extend appointed counsel's duty to preparation of certiorari petitions desired by their clients. ”

“ Appeal does not lie from a judgment which rests on the mere deficiencies of the indictment as a pleading, as distinguished from a construction of the statute which underlies the indictment. (2) Nor will an appeal lie in a case where the District Court has considered the construction of the statute but has also rested its decision upon the independent ground of a defect in pleading which is not subject to our examination. In that case we cannot disturb the judgment and the question of construction becomes abstract. ”

“ In admiralty appeals the conclusions of fact reached by the trial court are specially set forth, and are final.
“Appeal” in many of the states is the general term for reviewing any judgment of an inferior court on assignments of error. It is also often used to signify a mode of reviewing proceedings of municipal bodies, affecting the interests of particular persons, e.g. in matters of licences or assessments.
In criminal prosecutions an appeal, or writ of error on points of law, is almost everywhere allowed by statute to the defendant, and often to the state. ”

“ The general rule governing the subject of prosecuting error or taking appeals from final judgments or decrees is, we think, applicable to judgments or decrees of the court of claims, and that rule treats a judgment or decree properly entered in the cause as not final for the purposes of appeal until a motion for a new trial or a petition for rehearing, as the case may be, when entertained by the court, has been disposed of ”

“ If the existence of a remedy by appeal at some stage of the criminal proceedings is to be taken for the criterion, then in very few instances, far less than the number comprehended by our decisions, will the writ be available. Taken literally, the formula so often repeated, that the writ is not a substitute for appeal, is thus in conflict with every case where the ground upon which the writ has been allowed either was or might have been asserted on appeal. ”

“ Part of the Court's concern has been to protect the rights of the party whose jury verdict has been set aside on appeal and who may have valid grounds for a new trial, some or all of which should be passed upon by the district court, rather than the court of appeals, because of the trial judge's firsthand knowledge of witnesses, testimony, and issues because of his 'feel' for the overall case. These are very valid concerns to which the court of appeals should be constantly alert. Where a defendant moves for n.o.v. ”

“ In civil actions, where the presence of a defendant within the jurisdiction of a court is essential to enforcement of its decree and he absents himself from that jurisdiction, dismissal of his appeal has been upheld. ”

“ They committed an error of law in excluding the defense which was tendered. That error did not go to the jurisdiction of the trial court. Congress, moreover, has provided a regular, orderly method for correction of all such errors by granting an appeal to the Circuit Courts of Appeals and by vesting us with certiorari jurisdiction. It is not uncommon after a trial is ended and the time for appeal has passed to discover that a shift in the law or the impact of a new decision has given increased relevance to a point made at the trial but not pursued on appeal. ”

“ In general, a 'judgment' or 'decision' is final for the purpose of appeal only 'when it terminates the litigation between the parties on the merits of the case, and leaves nothing to be done but to enforce by execution what has been determined.' St. ”

“ We have repeatedly decided that an appeal to the jurisdiction of this court must not be a mere afterthought, and that if any right, privilege, or immunity is asserted under the Constitution or laws of the United States it must be specially set up and claimed before the final adjudication of the case in the court from which the appeal is sought to be maintained. ”

“ Although, in a doubtful case, we shall not disturb the ruling of a circuit court granting or vacating an appeal, yet, when we are fully satisfied that the amount in controversy is not sufficient to give us jurisdiction, we ought not to attempt an inquiry into the merits of the case which is sought to be appealed. ”

“ Under that decision petitioners could not appeal to the Court of Appeals from an adverse decision in the District Court. Whether they could appeal from an adverse ruling of the Court of Appeals is a question we have not adjudicated. ”

“ If, in any case of appeal, writ of error or supersedeas, which is now or may hereafter be pending, there be at any time in an appellate court suggested or relied on, in abatement, the death of the party, or any other fact which, if it had occurred after the verdict in an action, would not have prevented judgment being entered as if it had not occurred, the appellate court may, in its discretion, enter judgment or decree in such case as if the said fact had not occurred. ”

“ And, while we recognize that no single word or group of words can provide a precise formula that will dispose of every case, we think it appropriate to indicate in somewhat greater detail than in the past, the approach a Court of Appeals must take toward an indigent's application for leave to take a direct appeal from his criminal conviction in forma pauperis. ”

“ That it ought to hear and decide the motion for new trial is obvious; for, when that motion was called up on the 22d of November, 1872, the order revoking the allowance of appeal stood itself unrevoked. ”

“ We therefore conclude that circuit courts of appeals do have the power under § 262 of the Judicial Code to issue an order in the nature of a writ of habeas corpus commanding that a prisoner be brought to the courtroom to argue his own appeal. ”

“ 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. ”

“ On an appeal, after a mandate, counsel applied for a rehearing of the original case. The court refused to allow it, being of opinion that it was too late to grant a rehearing after the cause had been remitted to the court below, &c.; and that a subsequent appeal from the Circuit Court for supposed error in carrying into effect such mandate, brought up only the proceedings subsequent to the mandate, and did not authorize an inquiry into the merits of the original decree. ”

“ Justice Story, delivering the opinion of the court, said:
'The difference between a new appeal and a reinstatement of the old appeal after a dismissal, from a misprision of the clerk, is not admitted by this court justly to involve any difference of right as to the stipulators. Every court must be presumed to exercise those powers belonging to it which are necessary for the promotion of public justice; and we do not doubt that this court possesses the power to reinstate any cause dismissed by mistake. ”

“ On an appeal, the parties are entitled to have all the facts proved in the case before the court below, in the judgment of the court, truly found, and stated in the record, that either deemed material to the decision ”

“ But the appeal which was allowed by that court on the 11th of May, operated as a stay of all proceedings upon or under the judgment of dismissal of the libels made on that same day, and but a few minutes before. The appeal was well allowed, the bonds are in compliance with the order of the court so far as it appears, were accepted by the clerk, and were not objected to by the parties. ”

“ Rep. 107:
'An appeal cannot be said to be 'taken' any more than a writ of error can be said to be 'brought' until it is, in some way, presented to the court which made the decree appealed from, thereby putting an end to its jurisdiction over the cause, and making it its duty to send it to the appellate court.' There the appeal was allowed by Mr. Justice Miller on the last day on which an appeal could be taken (Rev. Stat. § 1008) , but was not presented to the court below nor filed with the clerk until five days after the prescribed time had expired. ”