Rectification

“ The twenty-third section provides that if the judgment or decree is affirmed upon the writ of error, the court shall adjudge and decree to the respondent in error just damages for his delay, and single or double costs, at its discretion. ”

“ The urns, receiving no other heat than that which the vapors coming out of the still can transmit to them, raise the spirit; the water, at least the greatest part of it, remains at the bottom: hence, what runs from the worm is alcohol; that is, spirit at 35°. It is easily understood how the vapors coming out of the still are rectified in the urns, and that three successive rectifications bring the spirit to a high degree of concentration: it gets lower only when the vinous liquor draws towards the end of the distillation. ”

“ The depreciation may have been more or less, or there may have been none. We cannot, as is suggested, take judicial notice of the facts, whatever they may have been. We must take the record as it is, and we cannot look beyond it. ”

“ In either aspect of the case the judgment must have been for the plaintiff below, and to warrant the reversal of a judgment there must be not only error found in the record, but the error must be such as may have worked injury to the party complaining. ”

“ Can there be such a difference, that he, who has expelled a man who has once entered, can be compelled to make restitution, but that he who has driven a person back when seeking to enter, cannot be compelled? 40See, I entreat you in the name of the immortal gods, what a law you are proceeding to establish for us,—what a condition for yourselves, and what a code for the whole state. ”

“ The only questions open for examination on a bill of review for error of law appearing on the face of the record are such as arise on the pleadings, proceedings, and decree, without reference to the evidence in the cause. ”

“ Decrees in admiralty, bankruptcy and equity, in the federal courts, are the subjects of an appeal; judgments in actions at law, of a writ of error. On an equity appeal the evidence taken at the original hearing is reported at length to the appellate court, and it has the right to review the conclusions of fact reached by the court below and come to different ones. ”

“ We will first examine the correctness of the general position, that an action at law cannot be maintained upon a decree in equity; and will, in the next place, inquire how far the jurisdiction of the court pronouncing this decree, and the efficiency of its proceedings with reference to the parties before it, may be inferred or rightfully taken notice of, from its style or character, or from proper judicial knowledge of the subject-matter of its cognizance, independently of a particular special averment. ”

“ Plaintiff in error asserts the correctness of the finding of the trial court, and insists that it is the only finding that could have been made, and bases the argument against the taxes assessed on that insistence. ”

“ If the report that has been made of this seems to you correct, you shall immediately attend to the remedy for this damage; and I order my fiscal of that my royal Audiencia, by another decree, to prosecute that case and to plead whatever he judges suitable for the advantage and increase of my royal treasury, and the observance of the orders and decrees issued, since that pertains to him by reason of his office. Of all that you shall enact and that you shall continue to do in this matter, you shall advise me. ”

“ Where interest, instead of accompanying the judgment or decree as damages for the detention of a specific amount adjudged or decreed, is part of the claim litigated, and the judgment or decree is so framed as to provide for it to run from a period antecedent to the rendition of such judgment or decree, or, in actions ex contractu, according to the terms of the contract upon which the action is based, jurisdiction may attach. ”

“ A writ of error is, indeed, but a process, which removes the record of one court to the possession of another court, and enables the latter to inspect the proceedings, and give such judgment, as its own opinion of the law and justice of the case may warrant. ”

“ If, on the final disposition of a writ of error or appeal, the judgment or decree brought under review is not substantially reversed, it is affirmed and the writ of error or appeal has not been prosecuted with effect. ”

“ So build and purchase, that the King may have money to pay his workmen. It seemeth ill-favouredly that you should have enough to build superfluously, and the King lack to pay his poor labourers. I have now preached two Lents. The first time I preached restitution. Restitution! quoth some; what should he preach of restitution? Let him preach of contrition, quoth they, and let restitution alone; we can never make restitution. Then I say, if thou wilt not make restitution, thou shalt go to the devil for it. ”

“ A decree, to be final for the purposes of appeal, must leave the case in such a condition that, if there be an affirmance in this court, the court below will have nothing to do but execute the decree it has already entered. ”

“ Parties should present their objections at the stage of the litigation when the errors, if any, may be corrected without inconvenience and unnecessary expense; and if they fail to do so without just excuse, they must be understood as having acquiesced in the decision of the court. ”

“ The parties must abide by it, as the decree of a competent tribunal of exclusive jurisdiction. A rejected claim cannot be brought again under review, in any judicial tribunal; an amount once fixed, is a final ascertainment of the damages or injury. ”

“ Looking at the case as exhibited to us by the record, it appears to be an appeal by respondents from a decree dismissing the complainant's bill with costs. It often happens that a court may decree in favor of a complainant, but not to the extent prayed for in his bill, and he may have just cause of appeal on that account. ”

“ The plaintiffs in error were entitled to restitution both of the premises and costs on the reversal of the judgment, and the modern practice is to apply to the court on the coming down of the mandate from the appellate tribunal and the entry of the judgment of reversal for a writ of restitution, setting forth the facts entitling the party to the remedy and giving notice of the motion to the adverse party. ”

“ They are not matters positively limited by law, but are allowed in the exercise of a sound discretion of the court. And, besides, it may be added, that no appeal lies from a mere decree respecting costs and expenses.' Id., 3 Pet. ”

“ The party in whose favour the decree has been rendered, appears here pursuant to the citation, with an equal right to defend his interests, to demand an affirmance of the decree, with a mandate for its execution. ”

“ No principle is better settled, or of more universal application, than that no court can reverse or annul its own final decrees or judgments, for errors of fact or law, after the term in which they have been rendered, unless for clerical mistakes ”

“ Courts of equity, beyond all doubt, possess the power to grant such relief, and the proofs, in the judgment of the court, are such as to entitled the complainant to such a decree, unless the remaining defence set up by the respondent must prevail. ”

“ The section then goes on to provide that no other error shall be assigned or regarded as a ground of reversal in any such case as aforesaid, than such as appears upon the face of the record; and immediately respects the beforementioned questions of validity or construction of the said constitution, treaties, statutes, commissions or authorities in dispute. ”

“ A full conviction that the commission of even gross error, after a deliberate exercise of the judgment, is more excusable than the rash and hasty decision of an important question, without due consideration, will, I trust, constitute some apology for the time I consume in stating the reasons and the imposing authorities which guided the Circuit Court in the judgment that has been reversed. ”

“ In the case of courts of common law,-and we are not here concerned with the special grounds upon which courts of equity afford relief,-the court at a subsequent term has power to correct inaccuracies in mere matters of form, or clerical errors, and, in civil cases, to rectify such mistakes of fact as were reviewable on writs of error coram nobis, or coram vobis, for which the proceeding by motion is the modern substitute. ”

“ When instructions are asked, they should be precise and certain, to a particular intent; that the point intended to be raised may be distinctly seen by the court, and that error, if one be made, may be distinctly assigned. ”

“ This court had held in several cases that an appeal does not lie from a decree for costs, and, if an appeal be taken from a decree upon the merits, and such decree be affirmed with respect to the merits, it will not be reversed upon the question of costs. ”

“ This mode of drawing up a bill of exceptions is defective, as the material facts or proofs on which the instructions rest should be inserted before the instructions, in order that we may see if the points arise on which they are given, and to which exception is taken. ”

“ Compurgation still existed for debt and detinue.
Writs of error at variance from the original record or otherwise defective may be amended to correct the defect by the court where such writ is returnable. No judgment is to be reversed for any defect in any bill or writ, excepting an appeal of felony or murder, or misdemeanor. This is to prevent delays of justice. Justices of the Peace may correct defects of form on appeals to them. ”

“ The proofs are the same as in that case, and the same conclusions are reached. The decree in each case is reversed, and each case is remanded to the circuit court, with a direction to dismiss the bill of complaint, with costs. ”

“ Nowhere can any practical result from the operation of the decree be pointed out, nor any trace even of its existence.1 The assertions and conjectures, by which those who maintain the authenticity of the narrative in the Acts seek to explain the extraordinary absence of all external evidence of the decree, labour under the disadvantage of all attempts to account for the total failure of effects from a supposed cause, the existence of which is in reality only assumed. ”

“ It is quite true that in a petition for review upon the ground of error in law in the original order, the examination of the grounds of the petition for rehearing is equivalent to a reexamination of the basis of the original decree. ”

“ To maintain the assignments of error, we should be obliged to go into the record, and ascertain what was the proof on the subject upon which the court based its findings, and deduce from this analysis that the premise upon on which the assignments just mentioned are based was a correct one. ”

“ Upon a writ of error we are confined to the bill of exceptions, or questions of law otherwise presented by the record; and upon an appeal, to the statement of facts and rulings certified by the court below. The facts set forth in the statement which must come up with the appeal are conclusive on us. ”

“ Whenever such a plea is presented, we can, if it comes to us, pass intelligently on its validity. If issue is taken, the facts can be embodied in a bill of exceptions or some other form, and we can say whether those facts render the contract void. ”

“ In the civil cases in which judgments are pronounced after examination and review by our said president and auditors, they are to be executed without any further appeal or petition, or other recourse, except when the case involves so large an amount that there may be ground for a further appeal to our royal person, in conformity with the provision and decree of our laws and ordinances. ”

“ Ct. 298, 65 L. Ed. --, that is, the repugnancy of the provisions relied upon to the Constitution, and therefore, as a result of the ruling in that case, the decree below must be reversed and the case remanded for further proceedings in conformity with this opinion; and
It is so ordered. ”

“ The mistrial, the assignment for a retrial, the application for a continuance, and its refusal and the reserving of an exception, the verdict and judgment and the allowance of the writ of error and the tendering of a bill of exceptions on the subject for settlement, as shown by the record, have already been stated in detail and we need not repeat those statements. ”

“ The questions presented for consideration here upon the aforegoing bills of exceptions and the proofs to which they refer are these: 1. Whether the sums of money placed in the hands of the late marshal by the secretary of the Treasury, and forming a part of the aggregate found by the verdict of the jury, were so advanced in conformity with the law, as to create a liability on the part of the sureties of the marshal for their proper application by that officer? ”

“ The contention that more was expended upon improvements than ought, in fairness, to have been expended, is not sustained by such proof as would justify a reversal of the decree, in whatever light the case is viewed. ”

“ The claims were to be determined according to the law of nations, the stipulations of the treaty, the several acts of Congress in relation thereto, the laws and ordinances of the government from which the titles were derived. The proceedings were regarded as in the nature of a proceeding in equity, though the analogy was not very close, the decision on the claim being in the form of a decree. ”

“ In the case before us we see no reason to impeach the transaction by which the new bonds were substituted for the old, and for the judgment we are asked to reverse; and the writ of error is accordingly dismissed. ”

“ In view of the whole case, we are of the opinion that the rulings and instructions of the Circuit Court we erroneous. The judgment is accordingly reversed, with costs, and the cause remanded, with direction to issue a new venire. ”

“ Notwithstanding our adherence to trial court responsibility in the molding of a decree as the wisest practice and the most productive of good results, we have never treated that power as one of dsicretion, subject only to reversal for gross abuse. ”