United States ex rel. Brightwood Railway Co. v. O'Neal

Citations

• 10 App. D.C. 205
• 1897 U.S. App. LEXIS 3170

Syllabus

<p>Justices of the Peace, Jurisdiction of ; Constitutional Law ; Trial by Jury ; Appeal, Right of.</p> <p>1. It was the legislative intention of Congress in the act of March 1, 1823 (3 Stat. 743), extending the jurisdiction of justices of the peace in this District, to provide for a common law jury in such courts; and the jury provided by that act is such a com. mon law jury.</p> <p>2. Under the act of Congress of March 1, 1823, and subsequent acts relating to the jurisdiction of justices of the peace in this District, such a justice of the peace has the power to instruct the jury upon questions of law arising in a case before him, may rule upon the admissibility of evidence, and may set aside the verdict and grant a new trial; but no appeal will lie from his judgment in any case tried before him by a jury, inasmuch as there is no provision of law in such a case for its removal to an appellate court upon bills of exception or otherwise. The right of appeal provided for by Sec. 1029, R. S. D. C., from judgments of justices of the peace to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia applies only to such cases as are tried by a justice without a jury.</p> <p>3. To overthrow a practice relating to appeals from justices of the peace which has obtained for seventy years, and the construction of the statute upon which such practice is based, the error of that construction must be made very plainly to appear.</p> <p>4. The right of appeal is not a right of common law origin, but is of statutory creation ; and it may be given, regulated or taken away by legislative enactment without violation of any inherent right.</p> <p>5. A writ of error to the Supreme Court of the United States in a suit in which an order of the Supreme Court of this District refusing a writ of mandamus to compel a justice of the peace to pass upon an appeal bond on an appeal from a judgment rendered by him, was affirmed by this court, refused on the ground of the ease not being within any principle up