United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Corporation of New Orleans v. Winter, 14 U.S. 1 Wheat. 91 91 (1816)

Corporation of New Orleans v. Winter

14 U.S. (1 Wheat.) 91

Syllabus

A citizen of a territory of the United States cannot sue a citizen of a state in the courts of the United States, nor can those courts take jurisdiction by other parties being joined who are capable of suing in those courts, for the jurisdiction cannot be sustained unless each individual be entitled to claim that jurisdiction.

The defendants in error commenced their suit in the District Court for the District of Louisiana to recover the possession and property of certain lands in the City of New Orleans,

Page 14 U. S. 92

claiming title as the heirs of Elisha Winter, deceased, under an alleged grant from the Spanish government, in 1791, which lands, it was stated, were afterwards reclaimed by the Baron de Carondelet, Governor of the Province of Louisiana, for the use of fortifications. One of the parties, petitioners in the court below, was described in the record as a citizen of the State of Kentucky and the other as a citizen of the Mississippi Territory. The petitioners recovered a judgment in the court below, from which a writ of error was brought.

Page 14 U. S. 94