Davis v. Crouch/Opinion of the Court

Our jurisdiction upon writs of error to State courts is confined to the final judgment or decree in a suit in the highest court in which a decision in the suit can be had. Rev. Stat. 709. This, we think, is not such a judgment. It decides some of the questions involved in the controversy between the parties, but the suit itself has been sent back to the Circuit Court for further proceedings, in conformity to the opinion filed with the record. In short, the judgment is one of reversal only, which, as we have uniformly held, is not final judgment in the suit. McComb v. Commissioners, 91 U.S. 1; Parcels v. Johnson, 20 Wall. 654; Tracy v. Holcomb, 24 How. 427. After the further proceedings which have been ordered in the Circuit Court, the suit may be again taken to the Court of Appeals, and another judgment rendered there.

The object of the parties is to settle and distribute the estate of the testator under the direction of the court. The plaintiffs in error are only interested in securing the payment of their legacy. A statement of the accounts of the executor, upon the principles settled by the Court of Appeals, may produce a fund sufficient to satisfy them. The only question upon which our jurisdiction can be invoked arises out of the decision as to the liability of the executor to account for his investments in Confederate securities. As to this, the present plaintiffs in error, having been non-residents of the Confederate territory during the war, occupy a different position from the other parties; and, until the suit has been finally disposed of in the State courts, the fund ascertained, and the results of a decree ordering distribution known, we cannot tell whether they will be injuriously affected by the errors now complained of. They cannot bring the case here for the benefit of the other parties interested in the estate, except so far as the relief granted to them may indirectly operate to the advantage of the others. If in the end, upon the distribution of the estate under the principles of accounting as now established, they shall not be able to obtain payment of the amount due them, the case may be again taken to the Court of Appeals upon the future decree of the Circuit Court, and from there here, if necessary. Whether their interest in the convertible value of the Confederate currency invested in Confederate bonds for the purchase of State stock is sufficient to justify them in doing so, will be a matter for them to determine, after the final decree shall have been rendered.

In the present condition of the suit, however, we are compelled to dismiss the writ for want of jurisdiction.

Writ dismissed.