Matton Steamboat Co. v. Murphy
Headline: People who sought review of New York rulings lose as the Court dismisses late appeals, holding that review applications must be filed within three months so state judgments remain final.
Holding: The appeals were dismissed as untimely because the required application for allowance was not made within the statute's three-month period.
- Late appeals filed after three months are dismissed and state judgments stay in effect.
- Applicants must file for review within three months or lose the right to appeal.
- A denied state-court application does not permit a new, post-deadline appeal request.
Summary
Background
A group of people who wanted to appeal New York court judgments upholding the State’s Unemployment Insurance Law asked the state’s chief judge for permission to bring their cases to this Court. Those initial requests were made within three months but were denied just before the deadline expired. After the three-month period ended, the appellants asked a Justice of this Court to allow the appeals, and that Justice granted them so the high court could decide a unsettled practice question.
Reasoning
The central question was whether the later requests to this Court were timely under the statute that requires an application for review to be made within three months. The Court explained that the statute’s language is peremptory: the appeal that is allowed must be one that was applied for within the three-month period. A timely application that was denied does not satisfy that requirement, and a new application filed after the deadline is too late. The Court said allowing late successive applications would defeat the statute’s purpose of finality and could let appellants extend the appeal period indefinitely.
Real world impact
Because the later applications came after the three-month deadline, the Court concluded it lacked power to hear the appeals and dismissed them. Practically, this means people seeking review of state-court decisions must make any required application within the statutory three months; a denial by the state judge does not preserve the right to try again after the deadline. State-court judgments in these cases therefore remain in place.
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