McMillan Contracting Co. v. Abernathy

Background

Citizens of Missouri sued other Missouri citizens in federal court to stop special assessments for a public improvement in Kansas City. They argued the city charter and laws used to levy the assessments violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution. The District Court agreed, overruled a state-court res judicata plea, and entered final decrees on July 7, 1921. Appeals to the Circuit Court of Appeals were allowed on January 4, 1922, and later transferred upward after Congress added a transfer rule in an act of September 14, 1922.

Reasoning

The core question was whether the Circuit Court of Appeals had authority to hear these appeals when the only federal question was a Fourteenth Amendment claim. The Court explained that when a case is in federal court solely because it raises a substantial federal constitutional question, appeals must be taken directly to the Supreme Court within the shorter time allowed for such direct appeals. The Court therefore concluded the Circuit Court had no power to order a transfer here because the appeals were filed after the three-month period for direct Supreme Court appeals had expired, and the 1922 transfer rule does not apply to appeals taken too late.

Real world impact

The decision enforces strict time limits for bringing federal constitutional appeals to the Supreme Court and prevents litigants from using later appeals to Circuit Courts to reach the high court. This opinion is procedural: it does not finally resolve the underlying Fourteenth Amendment question and leaves further consideration to the lower courts and appropriate appellate steps.