Melville Fuller

“ Charles,' there being no allegation that he was a citizen of the United States, was insufficient. Since the act of 1875, if it appears from the pleadings and proofs, taken together, that the defendants are citizens of the United States, and reside, in the sense of having their permanent domicile, in the state of which the complainants are citizens, (or that each of the indispensable adverse parties is not competent to sue, or liable to be sued, therein,) the circuit court cannot maintain cognizance of the suit. ”

“ This court held that jurisdiction depended upon the state of the parties at the commencement of the suit, which no subsequent change could give or take away; that, if an alien became a citizen pending the suit, the jurisdiction which was once vested would not be divested; and so, if a citizen sued a citizen of the same state, he could not give jurisdiction by removing and becoming a citizen of a different state ”

“ But the law,' he continued, 'will recognize a wife as having a separate existence and separate interests and seprat e rights in those cases where the express object of all proceedings is to show that the relation itself ought to be dissolved, or so modified as to establish separate interests.' Mrs. Davis was not separated from her husband, and no element of separate domicile, in any legal sense, existed. ”