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99 U.S. 607

Whitney v. Cook

Supreme Court of the United States

Decided October 1, 1878

Supreme Court of the United States · decided 1878-10

<p>1. Under amended Rule 6 the plaintiff in error, or the appellant, may, with a motion to dismiss the writ of error or the appeal, unite a motion to affirm the judgment or the decree; hut where there is no color of right to a dis missal, the case being clearly within the jurisdiction of this court, a motion to affirm merely will not he sustained.</p> <p>2. The court declares that it will by the assessment of damages suppress the evil of resorting to its jurisdiction upon frivolous grounds.</p>

2 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“Our experience teaches that the only way to discourage frivolous appeals and writs of error is by the use of our power to award damages...”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Seyler v. Seyler

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

No disposition · 8–0 · Decided 1878-10

How this case has been cited

Cited by 59 later decisions (15 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 1994 · most notably Merchants' Cotton-Press Storage Co v. Insurance Co of North America National Fire Ins Co (1894), Vicksburg v. Vicksburg Waterworks Co. (1906)

28 federal appellate · 3 state decisions

3301878188018901900191019201930194019501960197019801990decided

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 →

¶11. Under amended Rule 6 the plaintiff in error, or the appellant, may, with a motion to dismiss the writ of error or the appeal, unite a motion to affirm the judgment or the decree; hut where there is no color of right to a dis missal, the case being clearly within the jurisdiction of this court, a motion to affirm merely will not he sustained.

¶22. The court declares that it will by the assessment of damages suppress the evil of resorting to its jurisdiction upon frivolous grounds.

¶3Error to the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of Mississippi.

¶4Motion to affirm the judgment of the court below.

¶5Mr. Philip Phillips in support of the motion.

¶6Mr. Thomas J. Durant, contra.

¶7Mr. Chief Justice Waite

¶8delivered the opinion of the court.

¶9This is a motion to affirm only. Our amended Rule 6 allows a motion to affirm to be united with a motion to dismiss. This implies that there shall appear on the record at least some color of right to a dismissal. That is not pretended in this case. We are therefore compelled to deny the motion. Our experience teaches that the only way to discourage frivolous appeals and writs of error is by the use of our power to award damages, and we think this a proper case in which to say that hereafter more attention will be given to that subject, and the rule enforced both according to its letter and spirit. Parties should not be subjected to the delay of proceedings for review in this court without reasonable cause, and our power to make compensation to some extent for the loss occasioned by an unwarranted delay ought not to be overlooked.

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