Statement of Facts.

from said day at the rate of four per cent. per annum, payable semi-annually on the 1st day of June and December of each year, one half of said principal, to wit, the sum of five hundred thousand dollars, to be paid on the 1st day of June, 1881, and the remainder thereof, to wit, the sum of five hundred thousand dollars, to be paid on the 1st day of June, 1891.

"It is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed, that the defendant pay to the complainant the said sum so as aforesaid found due, with the interest thereon as the same accrues, and that the said sums of principal and interest thereon as aforesaid, and the payment thereof as hereby ordered, stand as a charge and lien upon the road and property of the defendant, herein before described, and upon the road, property, income and franchises as set forth in the mortgage which has been executed in compliance with the agreement of compromise; and that if at any time hereafter the said Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad Company make default for the period of ninety days in the payment of any of the instalments of interest or of principal of said debt, or of any part thereof, after the same shall have become due and payable according to the terms and effect of said bonds and coupons, then the United States, on filing with the clerk of this court any of said coupons or bonds past due and unpaid for ninety days, shall have the right to have issued an order for the execution of this decree to the extent of such default by the sale of the railroad and other property of the defendant as herein before described, subject to the continued lien of this decree and of the said bond and mortgage representing the same debt as to the amount thereof then remaining and not due at the time of said sale, the said sale to be made as other sales of real estate under judicial process as required by law and the practice of this court to be made,and for this purpose this cause is retained in court until otherwise ordered.

"It is further ordered that defendant pay all costs of this cause, including the cost of this decree, and in default thereof execution is hereby awarded."

Upon the foregoing facts the Court of Claims concluded as matter of law, and adjudged, that the petition be dismissed. 19 C. Cl. 476. The petitioner appealed to this court.

Opinion of the Court.

Mr. Charles F. Benjamin for appellant.

No appearance for appellee.

MR. JUSTICE GRAY delivered the opinion of the court. He recited the facts in the foregoing language, and continued:

The grounds on which the appellant contends that the claim now asserted is not barred by the decree rendered in 1871 in the former suit in the Circuit Court, resolve themselves into these two: First. That it is found as a fact that this claim was not litigated in that suit. Second. That it could not have been considered in that suit, because the facts show that the appellant aided in sustaining the rebellion, and therefore, as matter of law, payment to it of any claim against the United States was prohibited by the joint resolution of March 2, 1867, No. 46, and was not authorized until the passage of the act of March 3, 1877, ch. 105, more than five years after that decree. 14 Stat. 571; 19 Stat. 344, 362.

But the insurmountable difficulty is, that the former decree appears upon its face to have been rendered by consent of the parties, and could not therefore be reversed, even on appeal. Courts of chancery generally hold that from a decree by consent no appeal lies. 2 Dan. Ch. Pract. ch. 32, § 1; French v. Shotwell, 5 Johns. Ch. 555; Winchester v. Winchester, 121 Mass. 127. Although that rule has not prevailed in this court under the terms of the acts of Congress regulating its appellate jurisdiction, yet a decree, which appears by the record to have been rendered by consent, is always affirmed, without considering the merits of the cause. A fortiori, neither party can deny its effect as a bar of a subsequent suit on any claim included in the decree.

The decree of 1871 states that, "in and by virtue of an act of Congress in that behalf, a compromise of all the matters in litigation between the parties has been entered into and fully consummated upon the following terms, conditions and stipu lations:" that one of the considerations for the sum of $1,000,000, thereby agreed to be paid and secured by the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad Company to the United

Opinion of the Court.

States, was "the settlement, satisfaction and discharge of all mutual claims and accounts between the parties, as they existed on the first day of June, 1871 :" that by the terms of the compromise "there was due from the defendant to the United States on the first day of June, 1871, for and on account of the claim set forth in the bill of complaint, after allowing all credits thereon for services rendered by the defendant, to and for the use of the complainant, for mail service, or military transportation, or on any other account, prior to the day last aforesaid, a balance amounting to the sum of one million dollars:" and that by consent of the parties, and in accordance with the compromise, it is so decreed.

The act of Congress to which the decree refers authorized the Secretary of War, with the advice of the counsel for the United States in that suit, "to compromise, adjust and settle the same upon such terms, as to amount and time of payment, as may be just and equitable, and best calculated to protect the interests of the government." Act of March 3, 1871, ch. 109, 16 Stat. 473. The terms of the compromise, as set forth in and confirmed by the decree, expressly included all credits for services rendered by the railroad company to and for the use of the United States, for mail service or on any other account, prior to June 1, 1871. The claim now asserted was for such a service, and was not the less within the terms and effect of the compromise and decree, because the law at that time prohibited its payment to the railroad company.

Judgment affirmed.

Statement of Facts.

COON & Another v. WILSON.

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK.

Argued January 14, 15, 1885.-Decided January 26, 1885.

Reissued letters patent No. 8,169, granted to Washington Wilson, as inventor, April 9, 1878, on an application therefor filed March 11, 1878, for an “improvement in collars" (the original patent, No. 197,807, having been granted to him December 4, 1877), are invalid as to claims 1 and 4. The original patent described and claimed only a collar with short or sectional bands, that is, a band along the lower edge of the collar, made in parts or sections, and having a graduated curve. The reissued patent and claims 1 and 4 thereof were so framed as to cover a continuous band, with a graduated curve, but not in sections. The defendants' collars were brought into the market after the original patent was issued, and before the reissue was applied for, and the reissue was obtained to cover those collars; and, although it was applied for only a little over three months after the date of the original patent, there was no inadvertence or mistake, so far as the short or sectional bands were concerned, and it was sought merely to enlarge the claim. Claim 2 of the reissue was substantially the same as the single claim of the original patent, and claim 3 had, as an element, short bands. As the defendants' collars had a continuous band, with a graduated curve, and not short or sectional bands, and did not infringe the claim of the original patent or claims 2 and 3 of the reissue, and claims 1 and 4 thereof were invalid, the bill was dismissed.

This was a suit in equity, brought, in May, 1878, in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York, for the infringement of reissued letters patent No. 8,169, granted to the plaintiff, Washington Wilson, as inventor, April 9, 1878, on an application therefor filed March 11, 1878, for an "improvement in collars" (the original patent, No. 197,807, having been granted to him December 4, 1877). The specifications and claims of the original and reissued patents were as follows, the original being on the left hand, and the reissue on the right hand, and the parts of each which are not found in the other being in italic :

"Be it known that I, Wash- "Be it known that I, Wash

ington Wilson, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and improved collar, of which the following is a specification :

ington Wilson, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and improved collar, of which the following is a specification:

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents a side elevation of my improved col

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents a side elevation of my improved collar, and Fig. 2 a perspective lar, and Fig. 2 a perspective view of the same. Similar let- view of the same. ters of reference indicate cor

responding parts.

Similar let

ters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

This invention refers to an improved standing collar, that retains all the advantages of the old-style curved band,without the objection of springing the collar too far from the neck, so as to come in contact with the coat and soil the collar. The collar also hugs the neckband in such a manner that the

This invention refers to an improved standing collar, that retains all the advantages of the old-style curved band, without the objection of springing the collar too far from the neck, so as to come in contact with the coat and soil the collar. The collar also hugs the neckband in such a manner that the collar is prevented from over-collar is prevented from overriding it, resulting in a more riding it, resulting in a more comfortable fit. comfortable fit.

The invention consists of a The invention consists of a standing collar, having sectional standing or other collar, having bands, starting from centre of curved and graduated bands collar, or any other point be- that extend along the lower edge tween centre and ends, and con- of the collar, either from the tinuing with a graduated curve to and beyond the ends of the collar.

centre of the collar, or from any other point between centre and ends, to and beyond the ends of the collar. The rear buttonhole is thrown into the top or