Melville Fuller

“ In order to give this court jurisdiction to review the judgment of a state court against a title or right set up or claimed under a statute of, or an authority exercised under, the United States, that title or right must be a title or right of the plaintiff in error, and not of a third person only; and the statute or authority must be directly in issue. In this case the controversy was merely as to which of the claimants had the superior equity in the fund. The statute was only collaterally involved, and plaintiffs in error asserted no right to the money based upon it. ”

“ The construction of the act of congress, and its force and effect as it respected the mortgage security under which defendants claimed a right or title paramount to that of the attachment creditor, were necessarily directly involved, and a proper case for review existed.
In Railroads v. Richmond, 15 Wall. 3, in a suit on a contract, defendants set up that the contract had been rendered void and of no force and effect by provisions of the constitution of the United States and of certain acts of congress, and the decision of the supreme court of Iowa was adverse to that defense. ”

“ The judgment we shall render will not, we suppose, be subject to review by the supreme court. We do not question the validity of the section in question, nor will our decision affect any right of the defendants based thereon. Their right, if any, rests upon the transfer of the draft after it came to the hands of Witherby & Gaffney. They seek to defeat the right of the plaintiffs under their prior assignment of a portion of the fund, and invoke section 3477 to establish that the assignment was void and conferred no right. ”