Stephen Johnson Field

“ Their process cannot be executed beyond those limits; and any attempt to act upon persons or things beyond them would be deemed a usurpation of foreign sovereignty, not justified or acknowledged by the law of nations. Even the Court of King's Bench, in England, though a court of general jurisdiction, never imagined that it could serve process in Scotland, Ireland, or the colonies, to compel an appearance, or justify a judgment against persons residing therein at the time of the commencement of the suit. ”

“ When the special powers conferred are brought into action according to the course of that law, that is, in the usual form of common-law and chancery proceedings, by regular process and personal service, where a personal judgment of decree is asked, or by seizure or attachment of the property where a judgment in rem is sought, the same presumption of jurisdiction will usually attend the judgments of the court as in cases failling within its general powers. ”

“ If there is any different course of decision in the State it could hardly be expected that it would be followed by a Federal court, so as to cut off the right of a citizen of another State from showing that the provisions of law, by which judgment has been obtained against him, have never been pursued.
The provisions mentioned were not strictly pursued with respect to the infant defendant. There were various omissions and irregularities in the proceedings taken which prevented the jurisdiction over her from ever attaching. ”

“ Suppose a judgment is rendered against a party by publication of summons, and property sold under it, could not the heirs of the party defend against an ejectment brought by the purchaser, by showing that the party had been dead years before the suit was commenced, and that his estate, including the property in question, had been administered upon and settled? ”

“ Where a man recovers land in a real action, and takes possession or acquires title to land or goods by sale under execution, and the judgment is afterwards reversed, so far as he is concerned his title is at an end, and the land or goods must be restored in specie; not the value of them, but the things themselves. There is an exception where the sale is to a stranger bon a fide, or where a third person has bon a fide acquired some collateral right before the reversal.' [28] The same doctrine is asserted in McJilton v. ”

“ Bank of the United States: [13]
'There is no principle of law better settled than that every act of a court of competent jurisdiction shall be presumed to have been rightly done, till the contrary appears; and this rule applies as well to every judgment or decree, rendered in the various stages of their proceedings from the initiation to their completion, as to their adjudication that the plaintiff has a right of action. Every matter adjudicated becomes a part of their record ”

“ In January, 1855, Eaton, who had been a clerk of the deceased, and who, as administrator, was made defendant in the above action of Gray, resigned his trust and commenced a suit in the District Court of the State against Palmer, the remaining administrator, and against the widow and child. In his bill he also alleged that a copartnership had existed between him and the deceased, that such copartnership embraced all the business and real estate transactions of the deceased, and that his interest in the partnership and its property was one-fourth. ”

“ Such cases show the error of the ruling of the court below. The true doctrine is that the jurisdictional fact must always be open to inquiry; for if the court has in truth no jurisdiction, it cannot cut off inquiry into its authority. ”

“ It follows, then, that we cannot say so.'
The legal chicane exposed in these cases, New York and Georgia, offends the sense of justice of every one; and every logical mind revolts from its wretched sophistry. ”

“ Brown v. Nichols, 42 Id. 36, see dissenting opinion of Grover; Robson v. Eaton, 1 Term, 62; Shelton v. Tiffin, 6 Howard, 186; Thatcher v. Powell, 6 Wheaton, 127; Buchanan v. Rucker, 9 East, 192; 1 Campbell, 63; Bissel v. Briggs, 9 Massachusetts, 462, and other cases.↑ 9 California, 637.↑ Vol. 1, p. 816; note to Crepps v. Durden et al.↑ 17 Wendell, 486.↑ 1 Saunders, 74.↑ Alderson v. Bell, 9 California, 321.↑ Hahn v. Kelly, 34 Id. 391.↑ 10 Peters, 449.↑ Decided at the October Term, 1872.↑ 10 Wallace, 318; and see Miller v. United States, 11 Id. ”