United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

New Mexico v. Lane, 243 U.S. 52 (1917)

New Mexico v. Lane

No. 20, Original

Motion to dismiss

Submitted January 8, 1917

Decided March 6, 1917

243 U.S. 52

Syllabus

The State of New Mexico filed its bill in this Court naming the Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioner of the General Land Office as the parties defendant and praying that a tract of land, which the Interior Department had awarded and sold as coal land to an entryman under the coal land law, be decreed the property of the state by virtue of the school land grant to the Territory of New Mexico, and the state's succession thereto; that the entry proceedings be decreed unlawful, and that issuance of patent thereon be enjoined. Questions concerning the construction of the laws mentioned, and questions of fact concerning the character of the land and the knowledge of it, were involved.

Held that the suit must be dismissed as, in substance, a suit against the United States. Louisiana v. Garfield, 211 U. S. 70.

Semble that the presence of the entryman as a party, he having purchased the land and paid the price, would be indispensable to the granting of the relief prayed.

This Court has no original jurisdiction of a suit by a state against citizens of other states 1 and citizens of the state complaining. Constitution, Art. III, 2; California v. Southern Pacific Co., 157 U. S. 229.

Page 243 U. S. 53

The case is stated in the opinion.