Horace Gray

“ This action was brought in the circuit court of the United States for the Eastern district of Michigan, by a manufacturing corporation of the state of Ohio, having its principal office and its facto y at Akron in that state, against one of its commission agents, a citizen of Michigan, to recover the price of agricultural machines sold by the defendant in Michigan, under a contract in writing, by which the plaintiff authorized the defendant to sell, within a certain territory in Michigan, such machines supplied to him by the plaintiff ”

“ Upon such a writ of error, differing in these respects from a writ of error to the highest court of a state, the jurisdiction of this court does not depend upon the question whether the right claimed under the constitution of the United States has been upheld or denied in the court below ”

“ Both parties thus agreed that the contract was not to be valid until countersigned by the plaintiff's manager at Lansing, in Michigan, and also approved at Akron, in Ohio, the site of the plaintiff's principal office. ”