United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Robertson v. Cease, 97 U.S. 646 (1878)

Robertson v. Cease

97 U.S. 646

Syllabus

1. Where the jurisdiction of a court of the United States depends upon the citizenship of the parties, such citizenship, and not simply their residence, must be shown by the record.

2. The ruling in Railway Company v. Ramsey, 22 Wall. 322, approved in Briges v. Sperry, 95 U. S. 401, that such citizenship need not necessarily be averred in the pleadings if it otherwise affirmatively appears by the record, does not apply to papers copied into the transcript which do not make a part of the record by bill of exceptions, or by an order of the court referring to them, or by some other mode recognized by law.

3. The presumption that a case is without the jurisdiction of the circuit court remains now as it was before the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

4. The defendant having made no objection in the court below to its jurisdiction by reason of the nonaverment of the citizenship of the plaintiff, this Court, in reversing the judgment, grants leave to the latter to amend his declaration in respect to his citizenship at the commencement of the suit if it be such as to authorize that court to proceed with the trial.

Page 97 U. S. 647