Edward Douglass White

“ The remaining question, then, is, Was the local statutory rule of real property, requiring the giving and recording of a cautionary notice of the pending suit in order to affect innocent third parties dealing with the recorded owner, applicable to a suit brought on the equity side of the United States district court for Porto Rico? Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that the lower court correctly reasoned that an innocent third party would be affected by the constructive notice resulting from the pendency of an equity cause in a circuit court of the United States sitting within a state. ”

“ The district court of the United States for Porto Rico is in no sense a constitutional court of the United States, and its authority emanates wholly from Congress under the sanction of the power possessed by that body to govern territory occupying the relation to the United States which Porto Rico does. ”

“ The court below, in its opinion, assumed that, under the local law, a third party in good faith purchasing from or dealing with the registered owner of real estate, without notice in fact of the existence of a pending suit concerning the title to property, was not to be treated by operation of law as constructively notified of the pendency of the suit unless the cautionary notice which the law of Porto Rico required to be put upon the record was given. ”