Eureka Consol. Min. Co. v. Richmond Min. Co.

8 F. Cas. 829, 5 Sawy. 121, 1878 U.S. App. LEXIS 2006
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Nevada
DecidedMarch 22, 1878
DocketCase No. 4,549
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 8 F. Cas. 829 (Eureka Consol. Min. Co. v. Richmond Min. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Nevada primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Eureka Consol. Min. Co. v. Richmond Min. Co., 8 F. Cas. 829, 5 Sawy. 121, 1878 U.S. App. LEXIS 2006 (circtdnv 1878).

Opinion

SAWYER, Circuit Judge.

We will consider the equity case first In this suit, upon the final hearing, the preliminary injunction was dissolved, and the cross-bill of the Richmond Company dismissed absolutely without limitation or qualification, the decree enrolled, and the term adjourned. An appeal to the supreme court was taken in proper time and form, to operate as a super-sedeas; but there was nothing to supersede except the decree for costs. The court granted no affirmative relief on' the cross-bill. It simply denied the relief asked by the Richmond Company, and dismissed the bill out of court The Eureka Company was not doing anything under or by virtue of the decree. It was not proceeding to collect the costs, either by execution or otherwise. The case was ended in this court, the jurisdiction exhausted, and the term adjourned. There was no longer any case pending in the court in which any order could be made. The court, therefore, has no further jurisdiction in the case except to execute the decree for costs when the supersedeas is removed, if it should be removed, or till the decree is reversed on appeal to the supreme court, and the cause thereby re-opened upon the receipt of the mandate from the appellate court. To issue a restraining order, would be to exercise a new original jurisdiction without any suit pending in which it could be issued. The cases of Galloway v. Mayor, etc., of London. S De Gex, J. & S. 60, and Coleman v. Hudson River Bridge Co. (No. 2,983], are in point. The former case was a bill to restrain the corporation of London from taking certain property under statutory powers. The master of the rolls dismissed the bill, and the order of dismissal was affirmed on appeal, the lords justices differing in opinion. An appeal having been taken to the house of lords, it being probable that the corporation would take the property, and pull down the building pending the appeal, the appellant applied to the lords justices for an injunction to restrain the corporation from proceeding till the appeal could be heard. Although the lords justices expressed themselves as being as willing as they ought to be to grant the injunction, it was denied on the ground that their jurisdiction was gone on the dismissal of the bill. Lord Justice Turner said; “I cannot but think that by reason of the dismissal of the bill, the power of the court is gone. I think that the plaintiff, if he intended to appeal to the house of lords, ought, at the hearing, to have asked the court so to frame its order as to keep alive its jurisdiction pending the appeal.”

In Coleman v. Hudson River Bridge Co. [supra] the judges of the circuit court not agreeing, certified a division of opinion to the supreme court. The justices of the supreme court were also equally divided in opinion on the questions certified. The consequence was a dismissal of the certificate of division by the supreme court In the opinion dismissing the certificate, the court suggest that the bill must be dismissed, and that the complainant could then appeal from the decree dismissing the bill. The defendant filed the mandate and moved to dismiss the bill; whereupon, the complainant’s counsel asked the court to so modify the decree of dismissal as to retain the provisional injunction until the decision of the supreme court on appeal from the decree of dismissal. It was argued that the injunction did not necessarily fall with a dismissal of the bill; or, if it did, prima facie, that it was in the power of the court to continue the injunction till the decision of the appeal. Mr. Justice Nelson, in delivering the opinion of the court, says: “The court cannot agree with either of these positions. The legal result of the division of opinion of the judges is a dismissal of the bill, without any qualification. Indeed, the condition of the court renders any qualification or modification of the dismissal impracticable. The case is out of court, so far as it respects any proceedings, except an appeal to review the decree. The judges are disabled, from a contrariety of opinion, to annex any condition, and it certainly requires no argument to show that in case of an unqualified dismissal of a bill, all incidents fall with it We agree that the chancellor may, in his discretion, direct a modified dismissal, and thereby annex to it such conditions as may seem to him just and equitable. Having the possession and entire control of the cause, this qualified exercise of power is practicable. But such a case is very different from this one, where the dismissal is the result of law, and absolute; and where from the condition of the court no modification can be annexed. It was insisted that an appeal, when taken within the time and in the mode prescribed by the acts of congress of September 24, 1789 (1 Stat. 85, § 23), and March 3, 1803 (2 Stat. 244, § 2), will operate under and by virtue of those acts to continue the injunction. But it is quite clear that these provisions deal only with the writ of execution founded upon the decree rendered, and which is awarded by it, and have no application to the provisional writ of injunction, or other incidental proceedings in the progress of the cause.”

This ease is clearly an authority directly [831]*831upon the point, that when a hill is dismissed' without qualification, it is out of court; that all incidents go with it, and the jurisdiction is gone. The very object of the motion was to obtain a modification of the dismissal so as to avoid this result Mr. Justice Nelson also observes that the point was a subject of consideration in the supreme court, and that no doubt was entertained of it by any of the judges. It may, therefore, be regarded as the decision of the supreme court, and as settling the question. The conclusion is so obvious that the counsel in the last case, in their motion proceeded upon the theory, that unless they could procure a modified decree to preserve the jurisdiction, the jurisdiction would be gone. The two cases cited are the only ones brought to our notice, or that wev have been able to find, directly deciding the point Occasions for continuing injunctions pending an appeal must have been frequent and pressing; and the fact that no instance can be found in practice of their continuance where.the bill has been dismissed absolutely, is the best evidence that court and bar have regarded the jurisdiction as gone.

Counsel for the Richmond Company relied upon two cases,—Goddard v. Ordway, 94 U. S. 672, and Hart v. Mayor, etc., of Albany, 3 Paige, 381,—neither of which touches the point in this case. In the former case, there was a receiver; and at the time the super-sedeas was perfected, the receiver had twenty-five thousand dollars of the fund in his hands, which required an order of the court to enable him to pay it over to the defendant in pursuance of the decree; which order the court was asked to make. The supreme court say: “Such an order would be in aid of the execution of the decree, which has been stayed, and consequently beyond the power of the court to make until the- appeal is disposed of. While the court below may make the necessary orders to preserve the fund, and direct its receiver to that extent, it cannot place the money beyond the control of any decree that may be made here, for that would defeat its jurisdiction.” There the fund was in court, in its custody and control. But in this case, there is nothing to stay, except the collection of the costs. The court has no custody of the subject-matter. There is no fund in court, or under its control.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
8 F. Cas. 829, 5 Sawy. 121, 1878 U.S. App. LEXIS 2006, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eureka-consol-min-co-v-richmond-min-co-circtdnv-1878.