United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Cordova v. Grant, 248 U.S. 413 (1919)

Cordova v. Grant

No. 104

Submitted December 18, 1918

Decided January 13, 1919

248 U.S. 413

Syllabus

Plaintiff claimed, under the laws of Texas, land lying between the present and former beds of the Rio Grande. Defendant, claiming under Mexican grants, set up that, as plaintiff's title depended on whether the international boundary had shifted with the river, and as our government, though claiming and exercising de facto jurisdiction over the locus, conceded the true boundary to be unsettled, and by its treaties and acts with Mexico had agreed upon a commission with exclusive jurisdiction to settle it, the courts were thereby deprived of jurisdiction, and the case should be dismissed or the trial stayed until the boundary should be established. Our government had rejected the action of a commission which sat under the last of the treaties referred to, and had waived objection, based on comity, to the litigation. Held that the district court had jurisdiction and might properly proceed with the case, and that its holding to that effect did not involve the validity or construction of a treaty. P. 248 U. S. 419.

Writ of error dismissed.

The case is stated in the opinion.

Page 248 U. S. 417