Henry Billings Brown

“ I freely concede that if the state system of jurisprudence should invest the court of chancery with an ordinary common-law jurisdiction, as, for example, with jurisdiction of an action upon a promissory note, such cause, when removed to the federal court, would simply be placed on the common-law side, and be tried by a jury. ”

“ As was said in Ex parte McNiel, 13 Wall. 236, 243: 'A state law cannot give jurisdiction to any federal court, but that is not a question in this case. A state law may give a substantial right of such a character that, where there is no impediment arising from the residence of the parties, the right may be enforced in the proper federal tribunal, whether it be a court of equity, of admiralty, or of common law. The statute, in such cases, does not confer the jurisdiction. That exists already, and it is invoked to give effect to the right by applying the appropriate remedy. ”

“ Rep. 495, a statute of Nebraska providing that an action might be brought and prosecuted to a final decree by any person claiming title to real estate, whether in actual possession or not, against any person claiming an adverse estate or interest therein, for the purpose of determining such estate and interest, and quieting title, was held to be enforceable in the federal courts, although it dispensed with the general rule of equity that, in order to maintain a bill to quiet title, it was necessary that the party should be in possession, and that his title should have been established by law. ”