United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Fox Film Corp. v. Muller, 296 U.S. 207 (1935)

Fox Film Corp. v. Muller

No. 47

Argued November 15, 1935

Decided December 9, 1935

296 U.S. 207

Syllabus

1. Where the judgment of a state court rests upon two grounds, one of which is federal and the other nonfederal in character, the jurisdiction of this Court fails if the nonfederal ground is independent of the federal ground and adequate to support the judgment. P. 296 U. S. 210.

2. Whether the provisions of a contract are nonseverable, so that, if one be held invalid the others must fall with it, is a question of general, and not of federal, law. P. 296 U. S. 210.

3. A ruling by a state supreme court that a concededly invalid arbitration clause in a contract between a motion picture distributor and an exhibitor (the same clause that was held invalid as a violation of the Sherman Act in Paramount Famous Corp. v. United States, 282 U. S. 30) was inseparable from the other provisions, and rendered the entire contract unenforceable, held a nonfederal ground adequate to support the judgment without regard to whether the court decided a federal question in determining the contract invalid also on another ground. P. 296 U. S. 210.

4. Enterprise Irrigation District v. Canal Co., 243 U. S. 157, distinguished. P. 296 U. S. 210.

Writ of certiorari to 194 Minn. 654, 260 N.W. 320, dismissed.

Certiorari, 295 U.S. 730, to review a judgment affirming a judgment denying recovery in an action for damages for breach of contract. A writ of certiorari previously granted in this case, 293 U.S. 550, to review an earlier

Page 296 U. S. 208

judgment of the state court, 192 Minn. 212, 255 N.W. 845, was dismissed as improvidently granted, it appearing that no final Judgment had been entered, 294 U.S. 696.