Morrison Waite

“ It is apparent, therefore, that no federal question which there may have been in the case was decided by the state court, and that the decision of such a question was not necessary to the final decree rendered. ”

“ The court below has decided that the pleadings were sufficient; that the equitable defense could be made; and that the judgment in that action in favor of Gibson was, in its legal effect, a judgment that Chouteau and Maffit had no title to the land in controversy. Consequently that judgment was a bar to this action, and precluded the court below as well as this court from reopening the original litigation and considering again the questions that were put at rest between the parties by the decision in their former suit. ”