30 A.2d 450 | Vt. | 1943
This is a chancery suit in which the plaintiffs seek an injunction restraining the defendants from trespassing on lands alleged to belong to the plaintiffs. After a trial on the merits *158 the chancellor filed findings of fact and a decree was entered for the defendants. The case is here on the plaintiffs' exceptions.
That the plaintiffs' bill of exceptions was seasonably filed is not questioned. However, these exceptions have neither been briefed nor argued. The defendants have moved to dismiss the plaintiffs' exceptions and in this Court the plaintiffs have filed: 1, a bill in the nature of a bill of review; 2, a petition for a new trial; and, 3, a motion to remand the case for the reception of further evidence and for other purposes as stated in the motion.
We first take up the defendants' motion to dismiss the exceptions. The first question is whether the motion shall be entertained.
Questions of the nature presented by this motion will be heard only in connection with the main question for review, except in extraordinary circumstances. Int. Products Co. v. Marsters etal.,
The defendants contend that under chancery rule 39 the plaintiffs had fifteen days from the time the findings were filed to file their exceptions to those findings. They insist that after such fifteen day period had expired, the time for filing exceptions not having been extended within the time fixed by the rule, thereafter the chancellor was without authority to take the case out of the rule and allow the plaintiffs to then file their exceptions to the findings as the chancellor attempted to do in this case. For that reason the defendants contend that the exceptions are without force and should be dismissed.
However, chancery rule 54 gave to the chancellor authority to take the case out of the rule. Where the court treats the exceptions as seasonably taken, and certifies them to this court, as was done in this case, no statute being thereby violated, we will not *159
inquire into the action of that court. International Products Co.
v. Marsters et al.,
As to the plaintiffs' bill in the nature of a bill of review, petition for a new trial and motion to remand with direction that the case be reopened for the reception of further evidence, the first question is whether this Court has jurisdiction to entertain any or all of them.
Original jurisdiction in all chancery matters is conferred upon the court of chancery, the powers of which are vested in a single chancellor. P.L. 1245. The Supreme Court has only appellate jurisdiction in such matters. Slason v. Cannon,
The plaintiffs contend that the provisions of P.L. 1324, when read in connection with P.L. 1322 and P.L. 1323, clearly give to this Court jurisdiction to issue an interlocutory order remanding the case and directing that it be reopened for the reception of further evidence which is alleged to have come to the plaintiffs' knowledge after the entry of the decree below. These statutes were formerly G.L. 1562-1564 inc.
P.L. 1324 is as follows: "The supreme court shall hear and determine such appeal and affirm, reverse or modify such order or decree, as justice requires; and it shall have the jurisdiction of a chancellor in causes pending in a court of chancery for making *160 such interlocutory orders in such causes, on motion and notice thereof, as the circumstances of the case require."
The question as to the scope of the authority to make interlocutory orders, conferred upon this court by P.L. 1324 (G.L. 1564), was considered at length in the Westinghouse case,supra,
In chancery cases this Court sits in error only, and lacks the jurisdiction to act as a higher court of equity. White RiverChair Co. v. Conn. River Pr. Co. of N.H.,
From the foregoing it follows and therefore we hold that this Court is without jurisdiction to entertain the plaintiffs' bill in the nature of a bill of review, petition for a new trial or their motion to remand with instructions that the case be reopened for the taking of further evidence. However, it does not follow that the plaintiffs are without a remedy. It is true that this case having been tried and decided by the chancery court and passed to this Court on exceptions, that court has no power to hear the parties further upon any question that has been decided. As to the questions at issue its jurisdiction is closed. Westinghouse case, supra,
The defendants' motion to dismiss the plaintiffs' exceptions isdenied. The plaintiffs' bill in the nature of a bill of reviewand petition for a new trial are dismissed and the motion toremand with instruction that further evidence be received isdenied, each and all without prejudice to the rights of theplaintiffs. The case stands for hearing upon the plaintiffs'exceptions.