Grays Harbor Logging Co. v. Coats-Fordney Logging Co.

Citations

• 243 U.S. 251
• 37 S. Ct. 295
• 61 L. Ed. 702
• 1917 U.S. LEXIS 2109

Syllabus

<p>In a proceeding to condemn land for a private railway, based on Washington Constitution, Art. I, § 16, and Laws 1913, c. 133, p. 412; Rem. & Ball. Aim. Code, §§ 5857-1, et seq., and governed as to procedure by Rem. & Ball. Ann. Code, §§ 921-931, the Superior Court of Washington, after a hearing' on the question of necessity, entered an order of condemnation and set down the cause for a jury trial to determine damages, etc.; thereupon condemnees took the ease to the Supreme Court of -the State by certiorari, alleging, inter alia, that the Law of 1913 violates the Federal Constitutión; the Supreme Court entered judgment affirming the action of the Superior Court and remitting the cause thereto for further proceedings. Held, that the judgment of the Supreme Court of Washington was interlocutory and therefore not reviewable in this court under § 237 of the Judicial Code. Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Co. v. Wheeling Bridge Co., 138 U. S. 287, questioned, if not overruled.</p> <p>Although a federal question involved in state court proceedings be settled by interlocutory judgment, so that the decision becomes binding on the state tribunals as the law of the case before a final judgment occurs, this court is none the less free to determine the . question when the final judgment is brought here by writ of error.</p>