UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE

RAILROAD COMPANY V. HARRIS, 74 U. S. 574 (1868)

74 U. S. 574

U.S. Supreme Court

Railroad Company v. Harris, 74 U.S. 7 Wall. 574 574 (1868)

Railroad Company v. Harris

74 U.S. (7 Wall.) 574

Syllabus

To make a writ of error operate as a supersedeas, it is indispensable that the requirements of the act of Congress be strictly fulfilled. It is not enough that the writ be issued and served, but a copy of the writ must be lodged, for the adverse party, within ten days, Sundays exclusive, after judgment or decree.

This was a motion for writs of supersedeas to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia to stay execution upon two judgments recovered in that court, one by Harris, against the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, and the other by his administratrix, against the same defendant.

The first judgment was for injuries sustained by Harris, when a passenger on the defendant's railroad. The second was a judgment upon scire facias to revive the former judgment, abated by the death of Harris, and to make his administratrix party to that judgment, and to have execution.

To bring the first judgment into this Court for review, a writ of error had been sued out by the railroad company, and a sufficient bond for prosecution was filed within ten days after rendition, but no copy of the writ of error appeared to have been lodged in the clerk's office for the use of the defendant in error.

The twenty-third section of the Judiciary Act thus declares: *

"A writ of error shall be a supersedeas and a stay of execution in cases only where the writ of error is served by a copy thereof being lodged for the adverse party in the clerk's office, where the record remains, within ten days, Sundays exclusive, after rendering the judgment and passing the decree complained of."


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