Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ Whether a given statute is intended simply to establish a rule of substantive law, and thus to define the duty of the court, or is meant to limit its power, is a question of construction and common sense. When it affects a court of general jurisdiction, and deals with a matter upon which that court must pass, we naturally are slow to read ambiguous words as meaning to leave the judgment open to dispute, or as intended to do more than to fix the rule by which the court should decide. ”

“ No court would give judgment for a plaintiff unless it believed that the facts were a cause of action by the law determining their effect. Mistakes will be rare. In this case the Missouri court no doubt supposed that the award was binding by the law of Mississippi. If it was mistaken, it made a natural mistake. The validity of its judgment, even in Mississippi, is, as we believe, the result of the Constitution as it always has been understood, and is not a matter to arouse the susceptibiliities of the states, all of which are equally concerned in the question and equally on both sides. ”

“ As suggested by the counsel for the plaintiff in error, no one would say that the words of the Mississippi statute of frauds, 'An action shall not be brought whereby to charge a defendant,' Code 1892, § 4225, go to the jurisdiction of the court. Of course it could be argued that logically they had that scope, but common sense would revolt. See 191 U.S. 375, 48 L. ed. 227, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 92. A stronger case than the present is General Oil Co. ”