This case is here by appeal from the court of appeals of the District of Columbia. The case originated in an action brought against the then Postmaster General (Mr. Payne) to compel him to enter and transmit certain publications of the complainants, Houghton, Mifflin, & Company, as second-class matter instead of third class, as ruled by the Postmaster General; and the bill prayed an injunction restraining the Postmaster General from refusing to transmit them at second-class matter rates. A restraining order was issued upon the filing of the bill on May 31, 1902, in the following terms:
Upon the complainant filing undertaking, as required by equity rule 42, the defendant will be hereby restrained as prayed in the within-mentioned bill until further order, to be made, if at all, after a hearing, which is fixed for the 16th day of June, at 10 o'clock A. M., 1902, of which take notice.
By the court.
A. B. Hagner, Justice.
An undertaking was given in the following terms:
George H. Mifflin, one of the complainants, and the American Surety Company of New York, surety, hereby undertake to make good to the defendant all damages by him suffered or sustained by reason of wrongfully and inequitable suing out the injunction in the above-entitled cause, and stipulate that the damages may be ascertained in such manner as the justice shall direct, and that, on dissolving the injunction, he may give judgment thereon against the principal and sureties for said damages in the decree itself dissolving the injunction.
George H. Mifflin.
Company, New York.
By Jno. S. Loud.
Approved 4 June, 1902. A. B. Hagner.
No further hearing was had upon the application for a temporary injunction, and on March 10, 1903, the case was heard on the merits and the following injunction awarded:
'This cause, coming on to be heard upon the bill and the exhibits filed therewith, and on the papers filed in the cause and the proceedings had therein, was argued by counsel. On consideration thereof it is this 10th day of March, 1903, adjudged, ordered, and decreed—
'(1.) That the complainants are entitled to have their publications entitled 'Riverside Literature Series' received and transmitted through the mails as mailable matter of the second class, as defined by the act of Congress approved March 3, 1879. [20 Stat. at L. 355, chap. 180. ]
'(2) That the Postmaster General be, and he is hereby, perpetually restrained from enforcing and continuing the cancelation of the certificate of entry set forth in paragraph six of said bill, and from refusing to receive said publication and transmit the same through the mails as mailable matter of the second class, in accordance with the provisions of said act of Congress approved March 3, 1879, and from denying to the complainants the receipt, entry, and transmission through the mails of their publication entitled 'Riverside Literature Series' as mailable matter of the second class, as defined by the act of Congress approved March 3, 1879.'
An appeal was taken to the court of appeals of the District of Columbia, and on June 5, 1903, the decree of the supreme court was reversed and the case remanded to the court below, with directions to dismiss the bill. 22 App. D. C. 234. From that decree an appeal was taken to this court, and the decree of the District court of appeals was affirmed on April 11, 1904. 194 U.S. 88, 48 L. ed. 888, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 590.
Upon receipt of a mandate of this court the District court of appeals issued its mandate, ordering the court below to dismiss the bill. The Postmaster General moved the court to enter a decree upon the mandate of the District court of appeals, to dismiss the bill, dissolving the injunction, and ascertain the damages by reason of the violation thereof. The District supreme court entered a decree setting aside its original decree, and dismissed the bill, and dissolved the injunction theretofore granted, but being of opinion that, as matter of law, the complainants and sureties on the injunction bond given in the case were not liable to damages thereon, the motion for ascertainment of damages upon such undertaking was overruled and denied, and the injunction undertaking canceled and annulled.