Horace Gray

“ The circuit court of the United States cannot, by treating a question of merits as a question of jurisdiction, enable this court, upon a direct appeal on the question of jurisdiction only, to decide the question of merits, except in so far as it bears upon the question whether the court below had or had not jurisdiction of the case. ”

“ This is a direct appeal to this court, under the act of March 3, 1891, chap. 517, § 5, from a decree of the circuit court of the United States for the district of West Virginia, dismissing for want of jurisdiction a bill in equity filed by Collis P. Huntington, a citizen of New York, as special receiver of the Central Land Company of West Virginia, a corporation of West Virginia, against John B. Laidley, a citizen of West Virginia, and against citizens of other states, to charge a tract of 240 acres of land in that state with a trust. ”

“ Of course, everybody knows that when there has been in separate actions in courts of law and equity final determination as to both the legal and equitable title there is no excuse for further litigation, and I think that we sacrifice substance to form when we hold that the Federal court should not, when these facts are disclosed, act promptly, but must wait until the issues presented by pleadings have been attempted to be supported by testimony and the case is ready for final hearing. ”