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100 U.S. 444

Pierce v. Wade

Supreme Court of the United States

Decided October 1, 1879

Supreme Court of the United States · decided 1879-10

Held: that the writ must be dismissed for want of jurisdiction. Error to the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Kansas. The facts are stated in the

2 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“the plaintiffs recovered everything else which they claimed, and the judgment against them is less than $5,000.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Hilton v. Dickinson

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Petition denied / appeal dismissed · 9–0 · Decided 1879-10

How this case has been cited

Cited by 21 later decisions (4 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 1949

5 federal appellate · 1 district · 11 state decisions

4018791880189019001910192019301940decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1Where in replevin judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff for a portion of the property delivered under- the writ, and in favor of the defendant for a return of the residue, or its value, the same not being §5,000, and the plaintiff sued out a writ of error to this court, held, that the writ must be dismissed for want of jurisdiction.

¶2Error to the Circuit United States · Case Law">Court of the United States for the District of Kansas.

¶3The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.

¶4Mr. Nelson Qobb for the plaintiffs in error.

¶5No counsel appeared for the defendant in error.

¶6Mr. Chief Justice Waite

¶7delivered the opinion of the court.

¶8This was a suit in replevin brought by Pierce and Heed, the plaintiffs in error, against Wade to recover a large number *445of cattle branded in a particular way. In executing tbe writ, tbe marshal, by mistake, took from the defendant sixty-two head of Texas steers, not having the proper brand, and delivered them with the other cattle to the plaintiffs, on receiving the requisite bond. On the trial, it was found that the plaintiffs were the owners, and entitled to the immediate possession of all thus delivered over to them, except the Texas steers, taken by mistake. It was thereupon adjudged that they “ have and recover from the said defendant the possession of all the cattle, . . . except sixty-two head of Texas steers; ” and, as to these, it was adjudged that they be returned by the plaintiffs to the defendant, or if that could not be done, “ that the defendant have and recover from the plaintiffs the said sum of $1,400, the value thereof.” From that judgment the plaintiffs below have taken this writ of error.

¶9Upon this state of facts it is clear we have no jurisdiction. The matter in dispute is the sixty-two head of Texas steers, the value of which is only $1,400. The plaintiffs recovered every thing else which they claimed, and the judgment against them is less than $5,000. We have always held that when a case is brought here by the defendant below, the amount of the recovery against him is the measure of our jurisdiction, except when he has asked affirmative relief, and that has been denied. The same rule is applicable to plaintiffs in replevin suits, where the defendant gets judgment for a return of property taken and delivered under the writ, or its value.

¶10Writ of error dismissed.

¶11Note. — In Pierce v. Tough, error to the Circuit Court of the United States for the Distriot of Kansas, submitted by the same counsel as was the preceding case, Me. Chiee Justice Waite remarked that, as the judgment was for $2,000 only, the case was in all material respects like that of Pierce v. Wade (supra, p. 444), and that, for the reasons there stated, the writ would he dismissed.

¶12So ordered.

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