United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Smith v. Greenhow, 109 U.S. 669 (1884)

Smith v. Greenhow

Submitted November 19, 1883

Decided January 7, 1884

109 U.S. 669

Syllabus

The declaration contained a count in trespass for entering the plaintiff's premises and carrying away his goods. The plea set up that the goods were lawfully taken by the defendant as collector to satisfy a tax due the State of Virginia; the replication averred that the plaintiff, before the levy, under authority of a law of that state enacted in 1879, tendered the defendant in payment of the taxes coupons cut from bonds of the state; the rejoinder set up a subsequent law of the state forbidding him to receive in payment of taxes anything but gold, silver, United States Treasury notes or national bank currency. To this rejoinder the plaintiff demurred.

Held that this raised a federal question sufficiently to lay the foundation for removing the cause from a state court to the circuit court of the United States.