Opinion
FEBRUARY TERM, 1800.
ERROR from the Circuit Court of New-Jersey, sitting in Equity. It appeared, that the defendants in the Circuit Court had pleaded the statute of limitations to the bill of the complainants; and that the plea was over-ruled, and the defendants ordered to answer the bill. On this decree the present writ of error was sued out, and Stockton (of New-Jersey) moved to quash the writ, because it was not a final decree, upon which alone a writ of error would lie, 1 vol. 61, 62. s. 22. E. Tilghman, for the plaintiff in error, acknowledged the force of the words "final judgment," in the act of congress; and submitted the case without argument.
In England a writ of error may be brought upon an interlocutory decree or order; and until a decision is obtained upon the writ, the proceedings in the Court below are stayed. But here the words of the act, which allow a writ of error, allow it only in the case of a final judgment.
The writ must be quashed with costs.