Page:United States v. Samperyac.pdf/34

Rh  Rh   be said, is, that by omitting to appeal within the time limited by the act, the remedy thereby provided was gone, and the decree became final and conclusive with respect to such remedy.

But the act of 1830 provides a new remedy; and it may be added that the act of 1804 declares the decree to be final and conclusive between the parties. And as Samperyac was a fictitious person, he was no party to the decree, and the act, in strictness, does not apply to the case. But, considering the act of 1830 as providing a remedy only, it is entirely unexceptionable. It has been repeatedly decided in this court, that the retrospective operation of such a law forms no objection to it. Almost every law, providing a new remedy, affects and operates upon causes of action existing at the time the law is passed. The law of 1830 is in no respect the exercise of judicial powers. It only organizes a tribunal with powers to entertain judicial proceedings. When the original decree was entered, there was no person in existence whose claim could be ripened into a right against the United States by omitting to appeal; Stewart was not only no party to the decree, but his purchase from Bowie was nearly a year after the decree was entered.

Had Samperyac been a real person, having a decree in his favor, and Stewart had afterwards purchased of Bowie the right which that decree established, it might have given him some equitable claim; but it would have been subject to all prior equitable, as well as legal rights. Nor would it be available in any respect in the present case, for Stewart, in no manner whatever, connects himself with Samperyac. As it is admitted that the deed purporting to have been given by Samperyac to Bowie is a forgery, Stewart is therefore a mere stranger to this decree, and can derive no benefit from it. It is said, that if this bill of review was filed under the act of 1830, the court had no jurisdiction, the bill having been filed in April, and the law not passed until the May following. But the act, in terms, applies to bills filed or to be filed, and of course cures this defect, if any existed. Such retrospective is no unusual course in laws providing new remedies.

The act of 1803, amending the judicial system of the United States, 3 Laws U. S. 560, declares, that from all final