Opinion of the Court. an appeal, under the act of 1801, from a judgment of the Circuit Court of this District, affirming a judgment of the Orphans' Court of Alexandria County (which court had the same jurisdiction, and was created by the same act, as the Orphans' Court of Washington County), dismissing a petition filed for the revocation and repeal of the probate of a will. Two objections to the appeal were urged in this court: 1, That by the act of 1801 the Circuit Court had only the power of the chancellor of Maryland, and that by the laws of Maryland the decree of the chancellor was final; 2, That the decree of dismissal was not a final judgment, order or decree of the Circuit Court wherein the matter in dispute, exclusive of costs, exceeded $100. Mr. Justice Story, speaking for the court, said as to the first objection: "We are of opinion that the conclusiveness of its sentence forms no part of the essence of the powers of the court. Its powers to act are as ample, independent of their final quality, as with it. Besides, the act of February 27, 1801, § 8, has expressly allowed an appeal from 'all final judgments, orders and decrees of the Circuit Courts,' where the matter in dispute exceeds the limited value, and there is nothing in the context to narrow the ordinary import of the language. We cannot admit that construction to be a sound one, which seeks by remote inferences to withdraw a case from the general provisions of a statute, which is clearly within its words and perfectly consistent with its intent. The case of Young v. Bank of Alexandria, 4 Cranch, 384, is, in our judgment, decisive against this objection." In reference to the second objection, it was said: "It is conceded by both parties that the estate devised to the respondent, Sally C. Cutting, is worth several thousand dollars. If, then, the probate of the will had any legal operation and was not merely void, the controversy as to the validity of that probate was a matter in dispute equal to the value of the estate devised away from the heirs." The decree of the Circuit Court in that case, dismissing the petition, was reversed, and the cause remanded to that court with directions to proceed to a hearing upon the merits. The Circuit Court was thus required to determine, upon its merits, the validity of the probate of a will. Opinion of the Court. The case of Van Ness v. Van Ness also arose under the act of 1801. It involved the question whether a particular person was the widow of an intestate, and upon that question depended the right of that person to have letters of administration granted to her. This issue, having been raised in the Orphans' Court, by petition, was, pursuant to the Maryland statute of 1798, sent to the Circuit Court, as originally established, for trial by jury. Under the instructions of that court a verdict was returned against the petitioner; and by its order the finding of the jury was certified, under seal, to the Orphans' Court, where the petition was dismissed. From that order a writ of error was brought, raising the question whether this court could take cognizance of the case, and inquire whether the Circuit Court erred in its instruction to the jury. Chief Justice Taney, speaking for the court, said (p. 67): "It is true the Orphans' Court has no power to grant a new trial, and is bound to consider the fact to be as found by the jury; and consequently the judgment of that court must be against the plaintiff. But the matter in contest in the Orphans' Court is the right to the letters of administration. And it is the province of that court to apply the law upon that subject to the fact, as established by the verdict of the jury, and to make their decree accordingly; refusing to revoke the letters granted to the defendant, and dismissing the petition of the plaintiff. The suit between the parties must remain still pending until that decree is pronounced. The certificate from the Circuit Court is nothing more than evidence of the finding of the jury upon the trial of the issue. It merely certifies a fact, that is to say, that the jury had so found. And the order of the Circuit Court, directing a fact to be certified to another court to enable it to proceed to judgment, can hardly be regarded as a judgment, order or decree, in the legal sense of these terms as used in the act of Congress. Certainly it is not a final judg ment or order. For it does not put an end to the suit in the Orphans' Court, as that court alone can dismiss the petition of the plaintiff which is there pending; and no other court has the power to pass a judgment upon it. A verdict in any court. of common law, if not set aside, is in all cases conclusive as to Opinion of the Court. the fact found by the jury, and the judgment of the court must follow it; as the Orphans' Court must follow the verdict in this case. Yet a writ of error will not lie upon the verdict." The case of Brown v. Wiley is to the same effect. That case arose upon a petition filed in the Orphans' Court before the act of 1863 was passed, raising the question whether the petitioner was a child of the intestate, and as such entitled to a certain fund in the hands of an administratrix. After that act was in force the issues were submitted to a jury empanelled in the Supreme Court of the District, at special term, and was determined in favor of the petitioner. A motion for a new trial, on exceptions duly taken, was heard at general term and overruled. The cause was then remanded with direction to proceed according to law. Thereupon an order was made that the finding of the jury be certified by the clerk to the Orphans' Court, which was still in existence. From that order a writ of error was brought, and this court, holding that it was not a final order, dismissed the writ. That this was the utmost extent of the decision is manifest from the following extracts from the opinion delivered by Chief Justice Chase, p. 70: "The case, in almost every particular, is identical with that of Van Ness v. Van Ness. In that case, as in this, an issue of fact was sent out of the Orphans' Court to the Circuit Court to be tried by a jury; was tried and found in the negative. Exceptions were taken to the rulings upon the trial, and an order was made certifying the finding to the Orphans' Court. The proceeding was brought into this court by writ of error, which was dismissed for want of jurisdiction. . The order certifying the finding to the Orphans' Court, in the case of Van Ness, was identical in effect with the two orders overruling the motion for new trial, and certifying the finding in the case before us. In each case the exceptions taken at the trial before the jury were overruled, and nothing was left for action in the court before which the issues were tried; but the case went to the Orphans' Court for final judgment. In that case it was held that the order was not one which could, Opinion of the Court. under the act, be reëxamined on writ of error, and we see no reason for a different ruling in this." Neither of the above cases involved the precise question now under examination. The decision in Carter's Heirs v. Cutting was, that the final order of the Orphans' Court, dismissing a petition which sought the revocation of the probate of a will, could be reviewed upon its merits in the Circuit Court, and that the final order of the latter court could be reëxamined in this court. The decision in both Van Ness v. Van Ness and Brown v. Wiley was, that an order by the Circuit Court in the first case, and by the Supreme Court of the District in the other case, which directed the finding of the jury to be certified, simply directed a fact to be certified, and, therefore, was not a final judgment, reviewable by this court. In none of the above cases did the question arise, whether a final order-made after the trial before the jury of the issue of will or no will-admitting to probate a paper presented as the last will of the decedent, was reviewable upon its merits; by the Circuit Court while the act of 1801 was in force, or by the Supreme Court of the District after the passage of the act of 1863. Nor did either of those cases involve any question as to the jurisdiction of this court to reëxamine a final judgment affirming an order of probate. The latter question is now, for the first time, presented for determination. That an order in the Supreme Court of the District, at special term, admitting a will to probate and record is a final judgment, cannot, it seems to us, be disputed. It was so declared in Van Ness v. Van Ness and Brown v. Wiley. A will, admitted to probate and record by a court of competent jurisdiction, is a muniment of title for all receiving property under it; and, until the order so admitting it to probate is, by some appropriate proceeding, set aside or reversed, stands in the way of those who may have resisted the probate. In every sense, it is a final adjudication. And that an order of probate made in the Supreme Court of the District, special term, is reviewable by the general term is made clear by the provision that a party aggrieved by any order, judgment, or Opinion of the Court. decree in a special term, involving the merits of the action or proceeding, may appeal to the general term, which "shall review such order, judgment, or decree, and affirm, reverse, or modify the same as shall be just." Rev. Stat. D. C. § 772; 12 Stat. 763, c. 91, § 5. Clearly an order of probate, based upon a finding by the jury upon issues as to the competency of the testator to make a will, is one involving the merits. If so, how is it possible, in view of the express words of the statute, to question the jurisdiction of the general term to review such final order of probate? In respect to the authority of this court to reëxamine the final judgments and decrees of the Supreme Court of this District, the words of the statute are quite as clear as those defining the jurisdiction of the general term to review the orders and judgments of the special term. It embraces the final judgment or decree of that court"in any case" involving a specified amount. It is true that this reëxamination must be upon writ of error or appeal "in the same manner and under the same regulations as are provided in cases of writs of error on judgments, or appeals from decrees rendered in a Circuit Court." But this language does not determine the nature of the "case" in the Supreme Court of the District, the final judgment in which is subject to reëxamination by this court. It only indicates the mode in which a case may be brought here for review. So that the only question is whether issues framed by the Supreme Court of the District, and which involve an inquiry as to whether the decedent was or was not incompetent, from unsoundness of mind or because of undue influence exerted upon him, to make a will -issues to which there are adversary parties—constitutes a "case," within the meaning of the act of Congress defining the jurisdiction of this court over the final judgments and decrees of the court below. If it does not, then it would follow that a proceeding in the Supreme Court of the District to revoke the probate of a will is a "case," the final judgment in which, as held in Carter's Heirs v. Cutting, may be reëxamined by this court, when the value of the matter in dispute is sufficient, while a proceeding in the same court involv |