Following
Walter v. Northeastern Railroad Company,
147 U. S. 370, it
is again held that a circuit court of the United States has no
jurisdiction over a bill in equity to enjoin the collection of
taxes from a railroad company when distinct assessments, in
separate counties, no one of which amounts to $2,000, and for
which, in case of payment under protest, separate suits must be
brought to recover back the amounts paid, are joined in the bill
and make an aggregate of over $2000.
As perhaps by amendment this bill might be retained as to some
one of the defendants, this Court declines to dismiss the bill, and
reverses the judgment and remands the cause to the court below for
further proceedings in conformity with this opinion.
The case is stated in the opinion.
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE FULLER delivered the opinion of the Court.
This was a bill filed in the Circuit Court of the United States
for the District of North Dakota, November 21, 1890, by the
Page 148 U. S. 392
Northern Pacific Railroad Company against the county auditors of
twelve counties of that state, praying for a decree adjudging
certain assessments and taxes levied upon lands in each of said
counties to be illegal and void, and a cloud upon complainant's
title, and that defendants and each of them be restrained from
selling or attempting to sell said lands, or any portion thereof,
or issuing any tax certificates therefor. The case proceeded to a
decree dismissing the bill for want of equity, whereupon it was
carried by appeal to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth
Circuit.
Certain questions or propositions of law concerning which that
court desired the instruction of the Supreme Court for a proper
decision of the case were certified to this Court, and argument
having been had upon the certificate, we directed a certiorari to
issue requiring the whole record and cause to be sent up for
consideration. This has been done, and we find upon examination
that the case comes directly within
Walter v. Northeastern
Railroad, 147 U. S. 370.
The record does not show that the amount of the assessments and
taxes, forming the subject of the litigation, levied in either or
all of the counties, exceeded the sum of $2,000, and even if this
had been so as to the aggregate, the defendants could not have been
joined in a single suit, and the jurisdiction thus been sustained.
Upon the face of the record, therefore, the circuit court was
without jurisdiction, Act of March 3, 1887, 24 Stat. 552, c. 373;
Act of August 13, 1888, 25 Stat. 433, c. 866, but as perhaps by
amendment the bill might be retained as to some one of the
defendants, we will not direct its dismissal.
In pursuance of section 10 of the Judiciary Act of March 3,
1891, 26 Stat. 829, c. 527, the decree of the circuit court is
reversed at the costs of the appellant and the cause remanded to
that court with a direction for further proceedings in conformity
with this opinion.
