Dickinson v. Petroleum Conversion Corp. (338 U.S. 507)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 16, 1950 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 338 U.S. 507 · 70 S. Ct. 322
- Docket
- No. 150
- Argued
- December 5, 1949
- Decided
- January 16, 1950
- Term
- October Term 1949
- Vote
- 7–1
- Majority author
- Justice Jackson (R.H.)
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Minton, Justice Clark, Justice Burton, Justice R. H. Jackson (wrote), Justice Frankfurter, Justice Reed
- Dissenting
- Justice Black (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Jackson delivered the opinion of the Court. The only issue presented by this case turns on the finality of a judgment for purposes of appeal, a subject on which the volume of judicial writing already is formidable. The Court of Appeals resolved against finality of the decree in question, saying, however, that it did so against the unanimous conviction of the court as constituted but in deference to a precedent established by a differently constituted court of the same Circuit. 173 F. 2d 738. Because of this intracircuit conflict, we made a limited grant of certiorari. 338 U. S. 811. That we cannot devise a form of words that will settle this recurrent problem seems certain; but in this case we agree with the convictions of the court below and reverse its judgment. Something over a decade ago, Dickinson sued Lloyd, with whom he had been associated in promoting the Petroleum Conversion Corporation, along with others, to impress an equitable lien upon certain of the Corporation’s shares then in Lloyd’s name and possession. The District Court dismissed the complaint but the Court of Appeals reversed and directed a new trial. Dickinson v. Rinke, 132 F. 2d 805. Before retrial, Burnham and Vaughan, on behalf of themselves and such other stockholders as subscribed to a fund to aid the company or its predecessor in its embarrassment, were allowed to intervene. They set up…
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