Morrison Waite

“ The precise question we have now to determine is whether the adjudication by this court, under such circumstances, of the matters then and now at issue between the homestead company and the navigation and railroad company was absolutely void for want of jurisdiction. The point is not whether it was error in the circuit court to take jurisdiction of the suit, or of so much of it as related to the navigation and railroad company, originally, but as to the binding effect of the decree of this court so long as it remains in force, and is not judicially annulled, vacated, or set aside. ”

“ It was settled by this court at a very early day that, although the judgments and decrees of the circuit courts might be erroneous, if the records failed to show the facts on which the jurisdiction of the court rested, such as that the plaintiffs were citizens of different states from the defendants, yet that they were not nullities, and would bind the parties until reversed or other wise set aside. In Skillern's Ex'rs v. May's Ex'rs, 6 Cranch, 267, the circuit court had taken jurisdiction of a suit, and rendered a decree. ”

“ Crane, 25 N. W. Rep. 882. The record in that case, taken in connection with that in this, shows that the answer setting up the former adjudication, the reply thereto, and the assignment of errors on this point, were the same in both of the cases. They differed in their facts only in that Mrs. ”