Nathan Clifford

“ Under any such circumstances, the wisdom of Congress has provided the means of protection to all persons sued or imprisoned for any act done or omitted to be done in pursuance of a law of the United States, or any order, process, or decree of any Federal judge or court of competent jurisdiction. ”

“ Instead of framing the forms of process, and prescribing the modes of process, Congress adopted those already prepared and in use in the respective States, not as State regulations, but as the rules and regulations prescribed by Congress for use in the several Circuit Courts. Adopted as they were, by an act of Congress, they became the permanent forms and modes of proceeding, and continue in force wholly unaffected by any subsequent State legislation. Alterations can only be made by Congress, or by the Federal courts, acting under the authority of an act of Congress. ”

“ Guided by the experience of the past, our just expectations of the future are that the same just views will prevail. Should it be otherwise, however, the defendants will find the most ample means of protection at hand. Proper course for them to pursue, in case they are sued for damages, is to plead the commands of the writ in bar of the suit, and if their defence is overruled, and judgment is rendered against them, a writ of error will lie to the judgment, under the twenty-fifth section of the Judiciary Act. ”

“ Here previously to the issue of the mandamus to levy, an injunction from the State court forbade a levy. That is the special feature of our case. It will be observed then, that in this case the mandamus cannot be granted and enforced, without compelling the respondents to do that which they are enjoined from doing by another court of competent jurisdiction. If the mandamus is allowed, they must of necessity disobey the one process or the other; and thus, by no possibility can they avoid liability to punishment for contempt, and that punishment is generally, if not always, imprisonment. ”

“ Congress, it is conceded, possesses the uncontrolled power to legislate in respect both to the form and effect of executions and other final process to be issued in the Federal courts. Implied concession also is, that Congress might authorize such courts to employ the writ of mandamus to enforce a judgment rendered in those courts in a case where the ordinary process of execution is inappropriate, and where the judgment creditor is without other legal remedy; but the defendants insist that Congress has not made any such provision. ”

“ The defendant may plead or demur to the information upon which it is sought, or move to quash the alternative writ, or the plaintiff may reply or demur to or move to quash the answer or return of the respondent, and judgment is rendered as in any other cause. Such especially is the case in the State of Iowa, [14] where the code calls it, over and over again, an 'action,' and where its 'form of pleading' is prescirbed; being made the same as in assumpsit. [15]
As said by this court, [16] in modern practice it is nothing more nor less than an ordinary suit at law. ”

“ Undoubtedly Circuit courts and State courts, in certain controversies between citizens of different States, are courts of concurrent and co-ordinate jurisdiction, and the general rule is, that as between courts of concurrent jurisdiction, the court that first obtains possession of the controversy, or of the property in dispute, must be allowed to dispose of it without interference or interruption from the co-ordinate court. ”

“ It is urged that without the allowance of a mandamus the relator's judgment cannot be collected. If this were true, the law would remain as we have stated it. There are many judgments which cannot be collected. The same result might have followed, if an execution issued upon the relator's judgment had been levied the day after a State court had through its process levied upon the property of the county subject to execution. But this court would, nevertheless, adhere to its well-settled and salutary rule, of yielding the property to the State court in such cases. ”

“ These rules have their foundation, not merely in amity, but in necessity; for if one may enjoin, another may retort by injunction, and thus the parties be without remedy, being liable to a process for contempt in one, if they dare to proceed in the other.'
2. When the Circuit Court rendered judgment on the coupons attached to the railroad bonds, all questions involved in that cause, as between the relator, plaintiff there, and all parties liable on account of said bonds, became res adjudicata. One of the questions and the main question involved in that judgment, was the validity of the bonds ”

“ Aspinwall, much relied on by the other side, is not, as is there supposed, in point. Certainly it decides that a mandamus may issue from this court after judgment to compel county commissioners to levy a tax. But no injunction had been previously laid on the commissioners there not to do it. There was no State court previously in possession of the matter on which the mandamus asked for was to act. ”

“ The State court having then got possession of the matter first, cannot be disturbed in its jurisdiction of it.
3. The whole argument of the other side rests and must rest upon an assumption that a mandamus is like a fi. fa., or habere facias possessionem, mere process issuing upon a judgment. But this is assumption of that which is false; a mistaken view of what a mandamus is. It is not a writ of final process at all. ”

“ Moneys so raised for such a purpose are regarded as specially appropriated by law and as constituting a fund, distinct from all others, in the hands of the treasurer, until the obligation assumed is discharged. ”

“ Here then was nothing left undecided between the relator and the corporation of Johnson County, as to not only whether it ought, but should pay said bonds. Nothing was left behind for the State court to act upon, which the parties began proceedings to stop the execution of the judgment of the United States court. ”

“ The State court, not regarding the principles laid down by this court in Gelpcke v. The City of Dubuque, as binding on them, but treating the bonds still as void, will issue any number of injunctions. There is nothing to prevent counties getting them, and unless the decision below is reversed they will all get them, of course. The bondholders are powerless to prevent it. ”

“ They appeared, and in their return to the writ, they deny that it is their duty to levy the tax to pay the judgment, or that the relator is entitled to a peremptory writ, and allege that they have been enjoined not to assess a tax for that purpose by the State court, and aver that they cannot do so without being guilty of contempt and becoming liable to punishment. Plaintiff demurred specially to the return, and assigned the following causes of demurrer: 1. That the relator was no party to the proceedings in the State court. 2. ”