formable to the Supreme Court’s opinion. From a decree then entered by the Circuit Court an appeal was taken. On the argument Chief Justice Marshall declared that “nothing is before this court but what is subsequent to the mandate,” and he begins the opinion of the court by saying:
, “A decree having been formerly rendered in this cause, the court is now to determine whether that decree has been executed according to its true intent and meaning.”
In Browder v. McArthur, 7 Wheat. 58, 5 L. Ed. 397 (1822), the court denied an application for a rehearing upon the merits, made after the cause had been remitted to the court below to carry into effect the decree of the Supreme Court according to its mandate. The court declared the application came too late, and it stated that a subsequent appeal for supposed error in carrying into effect the mandate brought up only the proceedings subsequent to the mandate, and did not authorize an inquiry into the merits of the original decree. In Roberts v. Cooper, 20 How. 467, 15 L. Ed. 969 (1857), Mr. Justice Grier declared that the court could not “be compelled on a second writ of error in the same case to review our own decision on the first.” And he added:
“To allow a second writ of error or appeal to a court of last resort on the same questions which were open to dispute on the first would lead to endless litigation. * There would be no end to a suit if every obstinate litigant could, by repeated appeals, compel a court to listen to criticisms on their opinions, or speculate of chances from changes in its members.”
And see The Santa Maria, 10 Wheat. 431, 442, 6 L. Ed. 359; Corning v. Troy Iron & Nail Factory, 15 How. 451, 466, 14 L. Ed. 768; Sizer v. Many, 16 How. 98, 103, 14 L. Ed. 861; Ex parte Sibbald v. United States, 12 Pet. 488, 492, 9 L. Ed. 1167; Tyler v. Magwire, 17 Wall. 253, 284, 21 L. Ed. 576; Supervisors v. Kennicott, 94 U. S. 498, 24 L. Ed. 260; Clark v. Keith, 106 U. S. 464, 1 Sup. Ct. 568, 27 L. Ed. 302; Guarantee Co. of North America v. Phenix Ins. Co., 124 Fed. 170, 59 C. C. A. 376; The New York, 104 Fed. 561, 44 C. C. A. 38; United Press Association v. National Newspapers’ Association, 254 Fed. 284, 165 C. C. A. 572.
In Ellison v. Georgia Railroad Co., 87 Ga. 691, 13 S. E. 809, Chief Justice Bleckley, speaking for the court, said: “Some courts live by correcting the errors of others and adhering to their, own.” And he declared that, when the court was satisfied that it had fallen into a great error “the maxim for a Supreme Court, supreme in the majesty of duty as well as in the majesty of power, is not stare decisis, but fiat justitia ruat ccelum.”
In Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co. v. Merrill, 65 Kan. 436, 70 Pac. 358, 59 L. R. A. 711, 93 Am. St. Rep. 287, the court on a second writ of error overruled its earlier opinion on the first writ of error, saying:
“Counsel for defendant in error have invoked the rule stare decisis, and insist that the former decision must govern on the second appeal. This would come to us with more force, if we were not now considering the same case, with the same parties before the court. If an erroneous decision has been made, it ought to be corrected speedily, especially when it can be done before