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102 F.2d 253

Docket No. 7098.

Serkowich v. Wardell

District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 1938-12-30

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently September 1957

7 federal appellate · 4 state decisions

2 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“disposes of the whole case on its merits.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including John Thompson Beacon Windows, Ltd. v. Ferro, Inc.

Relies on Bostwick v. Brinkerhoff · Tubman v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad · 20 App. D.C. 541 - Tubman v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Opinion by (per_curiam) · Decided 1938-12-30

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1Rossa F. Downing, Thomas F. Gowen, and Hilda Marie Jackson, all of Washington, D. C., for plaintiff in error.

¶2*254Charles E. Wainwright, Kahi K. Spriggs, and Brice Clagett, all of Washington, D. C., for defendant in error.

¶3Before GRONER, Chief Justice, and STEPHENS and EDGERTON, Associate Justices.

¶4PER CURIAM.

¶5Wardell sued Serkowich, in the Municipal Court, on a promissory note. On May 26, 1937, defendant's motion to dismiss for want of prosecution was granted. At a later term of court, on December 8, 1937, the Municipal Court granted plaintiff's motion to vacate the order of dismissal and reinstate the case on the docket.

¶6This court may review by writ of error a "final judgment" of the Municipal Court.1

¶7"A judgment or decree to be final, within the meaning of that term as used in the acts of congress giving this court jurisdiction on appeals and writs of error, must terminate the litigation betweefi the parties on the merits of the case, so that if there should be an affirmance here, the court below would have nothing to do but to execute the judgment or decree it had already rendered. … If the judgment is not one which disposes of the whole case on its merits, it is not final." Bostwick v. Brinkerhoff, 106 U.S. 3, 4, 1 S.Ct. 15, 16, 27 L.Ed. 73. Cf. Chappell v. O'Brien, 22 App.D.C. 190, 193.

¶8We may allow appeals from interlocutory orders of the District Court,2 but not from interlocutory orders of the Municipal Court. An order setting aside a nonsuit, or vacating a judgment of dismissal and reinstating a case, since it does not dispose of the whole proceeding, is not final but interlocutory. Whitaker v. Wright, 98 Fla. 500, 123 So. 857; Bain v. Bain, 106 N.C. 239, 11 S.E. 327; City of Goldsboro v. Holmes, 183 N.C. 203, 111 S.E. 1; Haygood v. Pinkey, 112 Okl. 30, 239 P. 456; cf. Hanson v. Custer, 203 Wis. 55, 233 N.W. 642. It follows that we have no jurisdiction.

¶9If defendant hereafter sues out a writ of error from a final judgment, we may then consider whether the Municipal Court had authority to set aside, at a later term of court, its order dismissing the cause for want of prosecution. Cf. Tubman v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, 20 App.D.C. 541, affirmed, 190 U.S. 38, 23 S.Ct. 777, 47 L.Ed. 946; R.L. Polk & Company v. Smolik, 44 App.D.C. 55.

¶10Writ of error dismissed.

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