Horace Gray

“ It may therefore be assumed as indubitable that the circuit courts of the United States have no jurisdiction, either of suits for divorce, or of claims for alimony, whether made in a suit for divorce, or by an original proceeding in equity, before a decree for such alimony in a state court. Within the states of the Union, the whole subject of the domestic relations of husband and wife, parent and child, belongs to the laws of the state, and not to the laws of the United States. ”

“ The decree for alimony and counsel fees, although in one sense an incident to the suit for divorce, is a distinct and severable final judgment in favor of the defendant for a sum of money of a sufficient jurisdictional amount, and is therefore good ground of appeal, for the same reason that a judgment for or against the defendant upon a counterclaim of like amount would support the appellate jurisdiction. ”

“ The just and appropriate way of disposing of the case appears to this court to be, to affirm the validity of the release or remittitur which the supreme court of the territory erroneously ignored, to leave the case as if that court had performed its duty in this regard, and, without considering whether there was any other error in the decree for alimony and counsel fees, to order that the decree of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Arizona for $5,250 be modified so as to stand as a decree for $5,000, and, as so modified, affirmed, with costs. ”