This case comes before the court upon a writ of error to the District Court of the United States for the western district of Texas. It was a petitory suit, commenced by the present defendants, and was founded upon a certain final decree rendered at the April term, 1854, by the district chancery court, held at Carrollton, in the State of Mississippi, for the northern district of that State. Among other things, the petitioners allege that Nancy A. Johnson, then Nancy A. Alvis, and a minor, by her next friend, brought a suit by bill of complaint in that court against the present plaintiffs to recover three slaves belonging to her, together with hire for the same for a specified time; that she subsequently intermarried with James Johnson, who was admitted with her to prosecute the suit; that the cause was afterwards submitted to the court for a final hearing, and a decree entered dismissing the bill of complaint at the cost of the petitioners. They also allege that they prosecuted a writ of error to the high court of erros and appeals in that State, and that the decree of the district court of chancery was there reversed, and a decree entered in their favor. That decree, as set forth in the petition, shows that the appellate court was of the opinion that the slaves in controversy were the property and separate estate of the first-named complainant. Wherefore it was considered by the court that the decree of the vice chancellor ought to be reversed, and it was so ordered, adjudged, and decreed; and the court proceeding to pronounce such a decree as the subordinate court should have rendered, entered a decree that the complainants do have and recover of the respondents the slaves then in controversy, for the sole and separate use and right of the first-named complainant, and requiring the respondents to restore the slaves and deliver the possession of the same to the said complainant, or her authorized agent. It is also recited in the decree that the court was of the opinion that the complainant was entitled to recover hire for the slaves from the time they were taken from her possession by the respondents. To carry out the directions of the court, it was further ordered, adjudged, and decreed, that the cause be remanded to the subordinate court, and that an account be taken of the hire of the slaves, and for such other and further proceedings as may be required in the premises. After the mandate went down, the cause was sent to a commissioner to carry into effect the directions of the appellate court. He made a report, showing that on the fourth day of February, 1854, the reasonable hire for the slaves amounted to the sum of twenty-two hundred dollars; and he also reported that the hire of the slaves was reasonably worth two hundred dollars per annum. That report was confirmed by the court, and on the fourteenth day of April of the same year a decree was entered in favor of the complainants, that they do have and recover of the respondents the said sum of twenty-two hundred dollars with interest; and also, that they do have and recover of the respondents at the rate of two hundred dollars per year for the hire of the slaves, from the date of the report until they shall be surrendered up according to the decree in the cause. As a part of the decree, it was also ordered and directed that execution issue, as at law, for the amount awarded to the complainants, together with the costs of suit. Plaintiffs also allege in their petition or declaration, that those decrees or judgments were in full force, and that they have never in any manner been annulled, reversed, satisfied, or discharged, either in whole or part. Process was duly served upon the defendants in this case, and on the fifth day of December, 1854, they appeared and made answer to the suit. From the minutes of the clerk it would seem that the suit was entered, in the first place, as a suit at law, and it was certainly so treated by the defendants in their first answer. Those proceedings, however, are of no importance in this investigation, because the record states, that on the fourth day of December, 1856, the cause was docketed on the chancery side of the court; and on the second day of June, 1857, the defendants again appeared and filed their answer to the petition, without objection to the transfer which had been made of the cause. To that answer the plaintiffs excepted on various grounds, and after a full hearing the exceptions were sustained, and the answer was stricken out by the order of the court.