United States & Cuban Allied Works Engineering Corp. v. Lloyds
Headline: Court remands an insurance lawsuit after finding the appeal was filed late and rules it lacks jurisdiction, sending the case back to the appeals court for further handling.
Holding: The Court held it lacked jurisdiction because the writ of error was filed more than three months after the district court’s order, and it remanded the case to the Circuit Court of Appeals for disposition.
- Missing the three‑month deadline can prevent Supreme Court review.
- Transfer rules cannot be used to rescue late appeals.
- Case returned to the appeals court for further disposition.
Summary
Background
A Delaware corporation that owned a floating dry dock in Havana sued to recover on a marine insurance policy it said covered the dock when it sank. The policy was said to be issued by several Lloyds underwriting groups, and service of process was made on a New York agent for a Lloyds corporation alleged to act as treasurer for those unincorporated underwriters. The Lloyds corporation moved to quash service, and the District Court agreed, entering an order quashing service on April 10, 1923. More than three months later, on October 11, 1923, the plaintiff sought a writ of error.
Reasoning
The central question was whether the Supreme Court could review the District Court’s order after the plaintiff filed its writ of error more than three months after the order. The Court explained that a statute requires a writ of error, appeal, or certiorari be applied for within three months of the judgment to give this Court jurisdiction. A later statute allows transfer when an appeal is taken to the wrong court, but this transfer does not rescue appeals filed after the three‑month deadline. Citing the Court’s recent decision in McMillan Co. v. Abernathy, the Court held it lacked jurisdiction to entertain the late writ and that the 1922 transfer statute did not validate the tardy appeal.
Real world impact
Because the Court could not hear the late appeal, it denied the motion to dismiss and remanded the case to the Circuit Court of Appeals for further disposition. This ruling is procedural and does not resolve the underlying insurance dispute.
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