A citizen of a territory of the United States cannot sue a
citizen of a state in the courts of the United States, nor can
those courts take jurisdiction by other parties being joined who
are capable of suing in those courts, for the jurisdiction cannot
be sustained unless each individual be entitled to claim that
jurisdiction.
The defendants in error commenced their suit in the District
Court for the District of Louisiana to recover the possession and
property of certain lands in the City of New Orleans,
Page 14 U. S. 92
claiming title as the heirs of Elisha Winter, deceased, under an
alleged grant from the Spanish government, in 1791, which lands, it
was stated, were afterwards reclaimed by the Baron de Carondelet,
Governor of the Province of Louisiana, for the use of
fortifications. One of the parties, petitioners in the court below,
was described in the record as a citizen of the State of Kentucky
and the other as a citizen of the Mississippi Territory. The
petitioners recovered a judgment in the court below, from which a
writ of error was brought.
Page 14 U. S. 94
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL delivered the opinion of the Court,
and after stating the facts, proceeded as follows:
The proceedings of the Court therefore is arrested
in
limine by a question respecting its jurisdiction. In the case
of
Hepburn & Dundas v.
Ellzey, 2 Cranch 445, this Court determined on
mature consideration that a citizen of the District of Columbia
could not maintain a suit in the circuit court of the United
States. That opinion is still retained.
It has been attempted to distinguish a territory from the
District of Columbia, but the Court is of opinion that this
distinction cannot be maintained. They may differ in many respects,
but neither of them is a state in the sense in which that term is
used in the Constitution. Every reason assigned for the opinion of
the Court that a citizen of Columbia was not capable of suing in
the courts of the United States under the Judiciary Act is equally
applicable to a citizen of a territory. Gabriel Winter, then,
Page 14 U. S. 95
being a citizen of the Mississippi Territory, was incapable of
maintaining a suit alone in the Circuit Court of Louisiana. Is his
case mended by being associated with others who are capable of
suing in that court? In the case of
Strawbridge
v. Curtiss, 3 Cranch 267, it was decided that where
a joint interest is prosecuted, the jurisdiction cannot be
sustained unless each individual be entitled to claim that
jurisdiction. In this case it has been doubted, whether the parties
might elect to sue jointly or severally. However this may be,
having elected to sue jointly, the Court is incapable of
distinguishing their case, so far as respects jurisdiction, from
one in which they were compelled to unite. The Circuit Court of
Louisiana therefore had no jurisdiction of the cause, and its
judgment must on that account be reversed and the petition
dismissed.
Judgment reversed.
