Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/383

TOWN OF LIONS V. LYOKS NAT. BANK. S69 ���TowN op LiONS V. Lyons Nat. Bank. �(Circuit Court, N. D. New York. May 28, 1881.) �1. DisTBrcT Court Judges — Issues op Fact. �Judges of the district courts of the United States are not acting In a Judicial capacity when engaged in finding issues pf fact. �2. Samb — Questions of Law — Appbals. �Questions of law, arising in such court upon facts so found, are aot open to revision upon appeal. �3. Laws op New Touk, (1869,) c. 907, p. 2305, § 4, Construed. �Ttie provisions of ctiapter 907, } 4, of the Laws of New York of 1869, as to interest on certain bonds and the time of its payment, is directory oaly. �4. PbAotice in Federal Courts. �The attorneys for the respective parties to a suit at law, brought in the district court of the United States, by a written stipulation waived a jury trial, and agreed that the court should hear the action " without a jury." The action was tried; a written decision was flled, flnding certain facts and certain con- clusions Of law thereon, and a judgment entered. The cause was afterwards taken to the circuit court ou a writ of error. Hdd, that the rulings on flndings of fact, and the conclusions of law connected therewith, were not open to revis- ion, as facts so found were found in a waj unknoivn to the common law, nor yet provided by statute. �C. H. Roys, for plaintiff in error. �W. F. Cogswell, for defendant in error. �Blatchfoed, c. J. This is a writ of error to the district court. The record discloses a suit at law, hrought in the district court by the Lyons National Bank, a banking institution, incorporated under the authority of the United States, against the town of Lyons, to recover $3,675, with interest, as the amount of certain coupons which became due in April, 1874, October, 1874, and April, 1875, on 35 bonds of $1,000 each, bearing interest at the rate of 7 per cent, per annum, payable semi-annually, purporting to have been issued by the town of Lyons in aid of the Sodus Bay, Corning & New York Eail- road Company. The defendant put in an answer to the complaint, setting up various defences. The attorneys for the parties then signed a written stipulation that a trial by jury in the action be waived, and that the action be "heard" by the district judge at his chambers, at a day and place speoified in the stipulation, "without a jury." The action was brought to trial before the district judge with- out a jury, and on the sixteenth of July, 1879, he filed in the court a written decision, finding certain facts and certain conclusions of law thereupon, concluding with one that the plaintiff is entitled to judg- ment for $4.814.03, with costs. On the same day a judgment in Y.S.no.e -24 ��� �