Page:United States Reports, Volume 2.djvu/366

 366* Casas ruled and adjudged in the t7g6. trvsl Otilader Term, 1 796. Prefent, Wrtsou and Paraus, j'g/lice:. Scnaunarroara verjirr L'Esrmussa et nl. ILL in Equity. ’I‘his bill liated that on the grit of Decem- ber, typo, the defendants, merchants of Amlterdam, had executed to the complainant (who relided at the fame place) a_ Power of Attorney to receive to his own ufe, the interelt due on t8o,ooo dollars of certificates of the United State: interelt at 6 per cent, from the ill: _‘]an. 1788, to the gal} Qe:. xygo, amountin to _;2,4oo dollars; but that, notwithltandrns this allignment, tire defendants on the 16th game 1792, receive certificates for the 32,400 dollars of intere, and agreeably to the at} of Congrefs, funded the amount at 3 per cent in Q m In lWI.ron, plaintifin error v.D¤niel, in the Supreme Court of the United States-, at August term :398 (in the abfenoe ofW1Lsou, justice) was Couar adjudged, that the verdiél, or judgment, was not to be regarded as the rule for fixing the value of the matter in difpute, on a quellion of jurifdiction : and that the demand ol the laintilli that is, the value of the thing put in demand, is to be conlidiered ; unlefs the law itfelf makes the rule, as in an action ot debt on abond (iu which only the penalty and interel! can be recovered) when that rule is to bepurfued, whatever may be the damages laid in the declaration. Iaaurmt., jutire, agreed in the opinion ol the Court, as it applied to the original fuit in the inferior Court : but he dillented from its application to the cafe of a Writ of Error, when the fum rendered by the judgment was, in his opinion, to be deemed the value of the mat- ter in difpute, in the Supreme Court. Curse, }’u.s·tiee, agreed in the decilion of the Court, becaufe the legal judgment (of which alone the Court could talte notice) was for the penalty of the bond, on which the aftion had been broughqthough, in an irregular manner, the record fays, that judgment was to be re- leafcd, upon payment of a fmaller fum, than would authorife the party to bring a writ of error. He though; that to afcertain the · value of the matter in difpute, the Court mull: alwayi refer to the- ` oréginal fuit; but he would not admit, that the demand of the plaing ti furuilhed the rule, as the plaintilf might, on that ground, entitle himfelf in every cafe to a writ of error, by laying his damages propor- tionally high.

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