United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Mansfield, C. & L.M. Ry. Co. v. Swan, 111 U.S. 379 (1884)

Mansfield, Coldwater and Lake Michigan Railway Company v. Swan

Submitted April 2, 1884

Decided April 21, 1884

111 U.S. 379

Syllabus

The necessary citizenship must appear in she record in order to give jurisdiction to a court of the United States.

When a cause is removed from a state court the difference of citizenship on which the right of removal depends must have existed at the time when the suit was begun, as well as at the time of removal.

It is an inflexible rule that the judicial power of the United States must not be exerted in a case to which it does not extend, even if both parties desire to have it exerted. The language of Mr. Justice Curtis in Dred Scott Case, 19 How. 566, cited and adopted.

Under the Act of March 3, 1875, 18 Stat. 470, costs may be awarded in a court of the United States against a party wrongfully removing a cause from a state court when the cause is remanded for want of jurisdiction.

A judgment of this Court remanding to a circuit court a cause wrongfully removed into it, with directions to remand it to the state court, is an exercise of jurisdiction. In such case, costs will be awarded against the party wrongfully removing the cause when justice and right require.

There was a voluminous record in this case, with a long assignment of errors, and an elaborate brief on behalf of the plaintiffs in error. The court gave no opinion on the questions discussed, but dismissed the case for want of jurisdiction.