United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Erie Railroad Co. v. Purdy, 185 U.S. 148 (1902)

Erie Railroad Company v. Purdy

No. 171

Argued and submitted March 6, 1902

Decided April 7, 1902

185 U.S. 148

Syllabus

Where a party, drawing in question in this Court a state enactment as invalid under the Constitution of the United States or asserting that the final judgment of the highest court of a state denied to him a right or immunity under the Constitution of the United States, did not raise such question or specially set up or claim such right or immunity in the trial court, this Court cannot review such final judgment and hold that the state judgment was unconstitutional, or that the right or immunity so claimed had been denied by the highest court of the state, if that court did nothing more than decline to pass upon the federal question because not raised in the trial court, as required by the state practice.

If, upon examining the record, this Court had found that a federal question was properly raised or that a federal right or immunity was specially claimed in the trial court, then the jurisdiction of this Court would not have been defeated by the mere failure of the highest court of the state to dispose of the question so raised or to pass upon the right or immunity so claimed.

The case is stated in the opinion of the Court.