Stewart v. Masterson (124 U.S. 493)/Opinion of the Court

The facts on which this motion rests are these: The decree from which the appeal was taken was rendered November 7, 1884, and contained on its face the allowance of an appeal to this court. That appeal was returnable to October term, 1885, which began October 12th of that year. It does not appear that any bond was approved during the term at which the decree was rendered, but one was approved October 10, 1885, which was before the beginning of the return-term. A citation was signed November 2, 1885, after that term began, requiring the appellee to appear in this court on the second Monday in October, 1886. This citation was served February 17, 1886, but the case was not docketed in this court until June 11, 1886, which was after our term of 1885 ended, but before that of 1886 began.

The bond approved October 10, 1885, must be deemed to have been taken under the appeal allowed in open court, and, as that appeal became inoperative by reason of the failure to d cket it here during the term of 1885, the only question we have now to determine is whether the signing of the citation November 2, 1885, was in effect the allowance of a new appeal, returnable at the term of 1886. We have just decided in Brown v. McConnell ante, 559, that it was; but as the bond which was executed October 10, 1885, became inoperative by the failure to docket the first appeal in time, we now order that this appeal be dismissed, unless the appellant shall, on or before the nineteenth day of March next, file with the clerk of this court a bond in the penal sum of $500, conditioned according to law for the purposes of the appeal, with sureties to the satisfaction of the justice of this court allotted to the Fifth circuit.