Opinion of the Court. cuit Court may consider and decide any matters left open by the mandate of this court; and its decision of such matters can be reviewed by a new appeal only. The opinion delivered by this court, at the time of rendering its decree, may be consulted to ascertain what was intended by its mandate; and, either upon an application for a writ of mandamus, or upon a new appeal, it is for this court to construe its own mandate, and to act accordingly." 160 U. S. 255, 256. In that case, the Circuit Court, at a hearing upon exceptions to an answer in equity, had sustained the exceptions, and, the defendant electing to stand by his answer, had entered a final decree for the plaintiff; and this court, upon appeal, ordered that decree to be reversed, and the cause remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with its opinion. As the record stood, the only matter which was or could be decided by the Circuit Court, or by this court on the appeal, was the sufficiency of the answer; and, neither the Circuit Court, nor this court, upon adjudging the answer to be sufficient, could deprive the plaintiffs of the right to file a replication, putting the cause at issue. It was for that reason, and because no issue of fact had been joined or tried in either court, that this court held that the cause had been left open for a trial of the facts in controversy between the parties, and that the Circuit Court, for the purpose of more fully or clearly presenting those facts, was authorized to allow an amendment of the bill. This court therefore declined to grant a writ of mandamus, but took the precaution of adding, "The case is quite different, in this respect, from those in which the whole case, or all but a subsidiary question of accounting, had been brought to and decided by this court upon the appeal." 160 U. S. 259. The case now in question comes exactly within the class of cases so referred to and distinguished. It was originally heard in the Circuit Court, not merely upon a question of sufficiency of pleading, but upon the whole merits. That court, at a hearing upon pleadings and proofs, involving the questions of the novelty of the alleged invention, and of its infringement by the defendants, entered a final decree dismissing the bill. Upon the appeal from that decree, both those questions Opinion of the Court. were presented to and considered by this court, and were by it decided in the plaintiff's favor. Its decision of those questions in that way was the ground of its opinion, decree and mandate, reversing the decree of the Circuit Court dismissing the bill, and remanding the cause to that court for further proceedings in conformity with the opinion of this court. The decision and decree of this court did not amount, indeed, technically speaking, to a final judgment, because the matter of accounting still remained to be disposed of. Humiston v. Stainthorp, 2 Wall. 106; Smith v. Vulcan Iron Works, 165 U. S. 518. But they constituted an adjudication by this court of all questions, whether of law or of fact, involved in the conclusion that the letters patent of the plaintiff were valid and had been infringed. Applying the rules stated at the beginning of this opinion, the questions of novelty and infringement were before this court, and disposed of by its decree, and must therefore be deemed to have been finally settled, and could not afterwards be reconsidered by the Circuit Court. When the merits of a case have been once decided by this court on appeal, the Circuit Court has no authority, without express leave of this court, to grant a new trial, a rehearing or a review, or to permit new defences on the merits to be introduced by amendment of the answer. Ex parte Story, 12 Pet. 339; Southard v. Russell, 16 How. 547; Ex parte Dubuque & Pacific Railroad, 1 Wall. 69; Stewart v. Salamon, 97 U. S. 361; Gaines v. Rugg, 148 U. S. 228. In this respect, a motion for a new trial or a petition for a rehearing stands upon the same ground as a bill of review, as to which Mr. Justice Nelson, speaking for this court, in Southard v. Russell, above cited, said: "Nor will a bill of review lie in the case of newly discovered evidence after the publication, or decree below, where a decision has taken place on an appeal, unless the right is reserved in the decree of the appellate court, or permission be given on an application to that court directly for the purpose. This appears to be the practice of the Court of Chancery and House of Lords, in England; and we think it founded in principles essential to the proper administration of the law, and to a reasonable termination of litigation Opinion of the Court. between the parties in chancery suits." 16 How. 570, 571. So, in United States v. Knight, 1 Black, 488, 489, Chief Justice Taney said that, in a case brought before this court exercising general jurisdiction in chancery, "the defeated party, upon the discovery of new evidence, may, after a final decree in this court, obtain leave here to file a bill of review in the court below to review the judgment which this court had rendered." The decree entered by the Circuit Court, presently after receiving the mandate, setting aside its former decree, and adjudging that the letters patent were valid and had been infringed, referring the case to a master for an account of profits, and awarding a perpetual injunction, was, as it purported to be, in conformity with the mandate of this court. But the subsequent orders of the Circuit Court, entertaining and granting the petition for a rehearing, without previous leave obtained from this court for the filing of such a petition, were irregular and unauthorized, based upon a misunderstanding of the mandate, and in practical, though unintentional, disobedience of the command thereof that further proceedings be had in conformity with the opinion of this court. Upon the record as it stands, a clear case is shown for issuing a writ of mandamus to set aside those orders, and to execute the mandate according to what appears to this court to be its manifest meaning and effect. Upon the question whether an application for leave to file a petition for a rehearing in the Circuit Court could and should be entertained by this court, at the present stage of the case, no opinion is expressed, because no such application has been made. Unless such an application shall be made to this court within twenty days, and shall upon consideration be granted by this court, an order will be entered that the Writ of mandamus issue as prayed for. 1 See DECISIONS ANNOUNCED WITHOUT OPINIONS, post. Riparian ownership on navigable waters is subject to the obligation to suffer the consequences of an improvement of the navigation, under an act of Congress, passed in the exercise of the dominant right of the Government in that regard; and damages resulting from the prosecution of such an improvement cannot be recovered in the Court of Claims. THIS was a petition to recover damages because of the construction of a dike by the United States in the Ohio River at a point off Neville Island, about nine miles west of the city of Pittsburgh. The Court of Claims made the following findings. of fact: "I. In the year 1885, and before, the claimant was the owner in her own right and in possession of a tract of land containing about 20 acres, situate on Neville Island, in the Ohio River, 9 miles below the city of Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania. "II. The claimant's land, at the time of the alleged grievance, was in a high state of cultivation, well improved with a good dwelling house, barn and other outbuildings. The claimant was in the year 1885, and is now, engaged in market gardening, cultivating and shipping strawberries, raspberries, potatoes, melons, apples, peaches, etc., to the cities of Pittsburg and Allegheny, Pa., for sale. "III. The claimant's farm has a frontage of 1000 feet on the north, or main navigable, channel of the Ohio River, where the claimant has a landing, which was used in shipping the products from, and the supplies to, her said farm; that the said farm extends across the said Neville Island in a southwesterly direction to the south channel of said Ohio River, which is not navigable; that the said landing is the only one on claimant's farm from which she can ship the products from, and supplies to, her farm. Statement of the Case. "IV. Congress, by the river and harbor acts of July 5, 1884, 23 Stat. 133, 147, and August 5, 1886, 24 Stat. 310, 327, authorized and directed the improvement of the said Ohio River as follows: "Improving the Ohio River: six hundred thousand dollars' "Improving the Ohio River: Continuing improvement, (act 1884). Continuing improvement, three hundred and seventy-five thousand ($375,000) dollars' (act 1886). "Under said authority Lieut. Col. William E. Merrill, of the engineer corps of the U. S. Army, by the direction of the chief of engineers of the U. S. Army, and the Secretary of War, commenced, June 17, 1885, the construction of a dike 2200 feet in length to concentrate the water-flow in the main channel of the Ohio River, beginning at a point on said Neville Island 400 feet east of the claimant's farm and running in a northwesterly direction with the main or navigable channel of the said Ohio River to the outer point of a bar in said river known as Merriman's bar, contiguous to and extending into the said river from the northwest point of claimant's farm; that the said dike has been completed to, and beyond, the northeastern point of said Merriman's bar. "V. The construction of said dike by the United States for the purposes aforesaid has substantially destroyed the landing of the claimant, by preventing the free egress and ingress to and from said landing on and in front of the claimant's farm, to the main or navigable channel of said river. "The claimant is unable to use her landing for the shipment of products from, and supplies to, her farm for the greater part of the gardening season on account of said dike obstructing the passage of the boats; that she can only use the said landing at a high stage of water. That during the ordinary stage of water, the claimant cannot get the products off, or the supplies to, her farm, without going over the farms of her neighbors to reach another landing. "VI. The claimant's land was worth $600 per acre before the construction of the said dike; that it is now greatly reduced in value (from $150 to $200 per acre) by the obstruction caused |