T. M. v. University of Md. Medical System Corporation · ¶60

Unlike the plaintiff in a typical original action, the appellant in a typical appeal cannot simply complain of an injury that the other party caused before a court has spoken. Instead, “the subject matter” under consideration “has already been instituted in, and acted upon, by some other court.” 3 Story §1755, at 627. As the party who lost in the other court, the appellant “complain[s] of an injury caused by” that court’s allegedly erroneous judgment. Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Saudi Basic Industries Corp., 544 U. S. 280, 291 (2005). He thus seeks to invoke the court’s jurisdiction to remedy an injury of that description and, ordinarily, the appellate court cannot directly redress the injury that caused the plaintiff to file his original suit. The remedy, instead, consists in “correcting that judicial action (e.g., reversal or vacatur of the challenged judgment),” not in awarding damages.…

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