APPEAL, a legal term signifying the re moval of a cause from an inferior tribunal to a superior, in order that the latter may revise, and, if needful, reverse or amend, the decision of the former.
In the United States the distinction be tween an appeal, which originated in the civil law, and a writ of error, which is of common law origin, is that the former carries the whole case for review by the higher court, including both the facts and the law; while the latter removes only questions of law. An act of Con gress of 1875 provides that the judgments and decrees of the Circuit Courts of the United States shall not be re-examined in the Supreme Court unless the matter in dispute shall exceed the sum or value of $5,000, exclusive of costs. No judgment, decree, or order of a Circuit or District Court, in any civil action at law or in equity, shall be reviewed in the Supreme Court on writ of error or appeal unless the writ of error is brought or the appeal is taken within two years after the entry of such judgment, decree, or order; save in the case of infants, insane persons and imprisoned persons, when the period is two years exclusive of this term of disability. An appeal from a District Court to a Circuit Court of the United States must be taken within one year. An appeal from the District Court in admiralty to the Circuit Court must be made immediately after the decree, in open court, before the adjournment sine die; and should be taken to the next succeeding Circuit Court. An appeal may be taken from the State courts to the Supreme Court of the United States, in cases involving the validity of a treaty or statute of, or authorized under, the United States, on the ground of repug nance to the Constitution, etc.
The effect of an appeal is generally to annul the judgment of the lower court so far that no action can be taken upon it until after the final decision of the cause. In many States, before the judgment of an inferior court will be reversed on the ground of error, the appel lant, as the party taking the appeal is called, must show to the court that substantial injustice has been done him. In other States courts have held that when an error is shown to have been committed it will be presumed to have been prejudiced to the complaining party, and the judgment will be reversed unless the respondent shows that the error was harmless. Appellate courts, however, will not reverse the judgments of trial courts for technical or other errors where it appears from the record itself that the errors complained of were not preju dicial to the appellant.
In legislation an appeal is the act by which a member of a legislative body who questions the correctness of a decision of the presiding officer, or (chair,° procures a vote of the body upon the decision. In the House of Repre sentatives of the United States the question on an appeal is put to the House in this form: °Shall the decision of the chair stand as the judgment of the whole House?" If the appeal relate to an alleged breach of decorum, or viola tion of the rules of order, the question is taken -without debate. If it relate to the admissibility or relevancy of a proposition, debate is per nutted, except when a motion for the previous question is pending. Consult °Appeal and Error° (in Vol. III, pp. 256— 1449, New York 1914).