Sumptuary law

“ This was to deprive the plaintiffs in error of a right which had vested before the repealing act,-a right which was in every sense a property right. Nothing remained to be done to complete the plaintiffs' right to compensation except the ascertainment of the amount of damage to their property. The right of the plaintiffs in error was fixed by the law in force when their property was damaged for public purposes. ”

“ Here, while the suit is one in equity, the statute and decisions relied upon have nothing to do with the general principles of equity or with federal equity jurisdiction, but simply establish a measure of damages applicable alike to actions at law and suits in equity. The case presented by the bills is primarily one involving title to land and seeking an injunction against continuing trespasses. The conversion of the oil, for which damages are sought, is incidental and dependent. ”

“ The extent of time to which property is allowed to accumulate is very carefully and strictly defined in our statutes. It is generally only during a person’s minority, as in New York and California, and the same is believed to be the rule in general. [223]
The power of suspending the alienation of property by a devise is limited to lives in being in some States, or in others to two lives in being, [224] and no [Pg 147] matter how short may be the duration, the suspension will be invalid if it is not made to depend on life as the condition of the limitation. ”

“ The claim that by so proceeding there is any impairment of the obligation of a contract by any subsequent legislation, or that there has thus been a deprivation of property without due process of law, or a denial of the equal protection of the laws, has no colorable foundation. ”

“ The objection now made, that suits commenced by substituted service, as by publication, and judgments obtained without actual notice to the debtor, are in violation of that constitutional provision that no man shall be deprived of his property 'without due process of law,' has often been presented. ”

“ The substantive right of subrogation which the clause confers can come into effect only after the invalidity of the lien as against the trustee has been established either by an admission of the holder of the lien or by an adjudication. It is entirely immaterial, so far as concerns the enjoyment of the right of subrogation, in which of these ways the invalidity is established. It is entirely immaterial, whether it is established by an adjudication, whether it be that of a state court, the bankruptcy court, or of the federal District Court sitting at law or equity. ”

“ The right to recover the $5,000,00 is on the basis of the common law action of assumpsit. Assumpsit has its origin in relief anciently afforded by chancery in respect to an implied obligation arising by operation of law, and is grounded in equitable principle. ”

“ Mayhew, 218 F. 422, 134 C. C. A. 210, a case arising in California, in which it was held, one judge dissenting, that a bankrupt is not precluded from claiming a homestead as exempt merely because, when the petition in bankruptcy is filed, he has not done all that is required by the state law to entitle him to the exemption, but may rightfully demand that the exemption be allowed where he has met the requirements of the state law within a reasonable time after the filing of the petition. ”

“ A transfer from the dead to the living of any specific property is an event single in character and is effected under the laws, and occurs within the limits, of a particular state; and it is unreasonable and incompatible with a sound construction of the due process of law clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to hold that jurisdiction to tax that event may be distributed among a number of states. ”

“ It may, therefore, very well be held that in an action to recover real or personal property, where the question is as to the removal of the bar of the statute of limitations by a legislative act passed after the bar has become perfect, that such act deprives the party of his property without due process of law. ”

“ The doctrine of subrogation is derived from the civil law, and 'it is said to be a legal fiction, by force of which an obligation extinguished by a payment made by a third person is treated as still subsisting for the benefit of this third person, so that by means of it one creditor is substituted to the rights, remedies, and securities of another. ”

“ A proceeding in bankruptcy has the characteristics of a suit, and since the denial of a discharge, or failure to apply for it, in a former proceeding, is available as a bar, by analogy the pendency of a prior application for discharge is available in abatement as in the nature of a prior suit pending, in accordance with the general rule that the law will not tolerate two suits at the same time for the same cause. ”

“ If contracts are impaired, the tie is cut or loosened through the action of the court of bankruptcy approving a plan of composition under the authority of federal law. There, and not beyond in an ascending train of antecedents, is the cause of the impairment to which the law will have regard. ”

“ In respect to the clause in the ninth section of the Judiciary Act,-'saving and reserving to suitors in all cases a common law remedy where the common law is competent to give it,' we remark, its meaning is, that in cases of concurrent jurisdiction in admiralty and common law, the jurisdiction in the latter is not taken away. The saving is for the benefit of suitors, plaintiff and defendant, when the plaintiff in a case of concurrent jurisdiction chooses to sue in the common law courts, so giving to himself and the defendant all the advantages which such tribunals can give to suitors in them. ”

“ We hold, therefore, that the state law which prohibits a married couple from taking advantage of the survivorship provisions of United States Savings Bonds merely because the purchase price is paid out of community property must fall under the Supremacy Clause. ”

“ For it would put a total stop to commerce if these were answerable for the rents of such places.
Fourthly, What is in the custody of law is not distrainable, for it would be an absurdity that a man should have a right by law, to take things out of the custody of the law itself, such as goods already distrained, or goods taken in execution, or seized by process at the suit of the king.
Fifthly, Things in manual possession of another, are, for the time, privileged, as an ax in a man’s hand, or the horse I ride on. But for damage feasant, as I said before, every thing is distrainable ”

“ What the old books called a right of stoppage-what business men call set-off-is a right given or recognized by the commercial law of each of the states, and is protected by the bankruptcy act if the petition is filed before the parties have themselves given checks, charged notes, made book entries, or stated an account whereby the smaller obligation is applied on the larger. ”

“ If that event or period be within the bounds prescribed by law, it is not a perpetuity.' It is then a limitation upon the jus disponendi of property, upon the common-law right of every man to dispose of his land 'to any other private man at his own discretion.' And one class of those limitations is technically termed alienation in mortmain, and to charitable uses. ”

“ The validity of the ordinance was sustained. The court held that 'the act under which it was passed was not unconstitutional, either as impairing the obligation of contracts, or taking property for public use without compensation, but stands on the police power to make regulations in respect to nuisances.' It was said: 'Every right, from absolute ownership in property down to a mere easement, is purchased and holden subject to the restriction that it shall be so exercised as not to injure others. ”

“ But a sale for money in hand, by an entry made by the party buying, is, throughout the whole body of laws for disposing of the public lands, understood to mean a different thing from the establishment of a pre-emption or homestead right where the party sets up a claim to a definite piece of land, and is bound to build on it, make fences, cultivate and reside on it for a period of time prescribed by law. ”

“ True, we stated in both Prudence opinions that the federal law governing distribution of a bankrupt's estate should be applied with 'appropriate regard for rights acquired under rules of state law.' But the extent to which state law is to be so considered is in the last analysis a matter of federal law. ”

“ But nevertheless, under the principles of the common law, it has required specific statutes to fix civil liability for death by wrongful act; and it is this requirement, rather than the construction put upon the statute in civil law countries, that the inhabitants of the Canal Zone are presumed to be familiar with, and which affords the rule by which the meaning and scope of the statute in question are to be determined. ”

“ Reasoning upon general principles and the analogies of the law, there would be little difficulty in deciding it in the affirmative; for it is deciding no more than that he who has a right, shall recover according to his right, so, always, that he does not recover more than he sues for. No injury is done to the tenant by allowing the demandant who sues for ten acres and shows a title only to one, to recover for the latter; nor if he sues for an entirety and shows title to a moiety, to recover for the latter. ”

“ Therefore its construction and effect present federal questions that are to be determined by this Court in the exercise of its own independent judgment.
This section provides-subject to a saving clause in favor of minors, married women and persons non compos mentis-that: 'No person or persons, or their heirs, shall have, sue or maintain any action or suit, either in law or equity, for any lands, tenements or hereditaments but within seven years next after his, her or their right to commence, have or maintain such suit shall have come, fallen or accrued ”

“ This court, therefore, being the proper court for personal actions, fines of lands are levied here; for they are fictitious actions, founded on a fictitious breach of covenant.
Mixed actions are designed for the recovery of a specific thing, and also damages, and consequently partake of the nature both of real and personal actions. For instance: If a tenant for life, or years, or at will, commits waste, he forfeits to the owner of the inheritance the place wherein the waste was done, and treble damages. The action of waste, therefore being brought to recover both, is a mixed action. ”

“ The right is extended to all millowners, who choose to avail themselves of it, to recover the cost of removal within the defined territory. Ordinarily, the cost of removing personal property from land taken is not a proper element of damage unless made so by express statute (2 Lewis on Eminent Domain [3d Ed.] § 728) , and it was not an unconstitutional exercise of power for the Legislature, in creating the right, to define its extent. Other provisions of the statute alleged to be discriminatory cannot be differentiated in principle from those just discussed. ”

“ The jurisdiction which the court exercises in salvage cases is of a peculiarly equitable character. The right to salvage may arise out of an actual contract, but it does not necessarily do so. It is a legal liability arising out of the fact that property has been saved; that the owner of the property, who has had the benefit of it, shall make remuneration to those who have conferred the benefit upon him, notwithstanding that he has not entered into any contract on the subject. ”

“ But if the sovereign, in proper form and by sufficient proof, makes known to the court that he insists upon his exemption from suit, and that the property sued for is held by the nominal defendants exclusively for him and on his behalf as public property, the right of the plaintiff to prosecute the suit and the authority of the court to exercise jurisdiction over it cease, and all further proceedings must be stayed. ”

“ A suit for a specific performance of the contract, or a suit to recover damages for its non-performance, would be a wholly inadequate remedy in a case like the present. The danger to the health and lives of the inhabitants of the city from impure water, and the continued exposure of the property in the city to destruction by fire from an inadequate supply of water, were public questions, peculiarly under the care of the municipality ”

“ We also agree with the Court of Appeals that the risk of erroneous deprivation that the State permits here is substantial. By definition, attachment statutes premise a deprivation of property on one ultimate factual contingency-the award of damages to the plaintiff which the defendant may not be able to satisfy. ”

“ In the absence of such a provision, the presumption is that the Legislature intends an act to be effective as an entirety-that is to say, the rule is against the mutilation of a statute; and if any provision be unconstitutional, the presumption is that the remaining provisions fall with it. The effect of the statute is to reverse this presumption in favor of inseparability, and create the opposite one of separability. Under the nonstatutory rule, the burden is upon the supporter of the legislation to show the separability of the provisions involved. ”

“ We think that the exceptions thus established by the amending acts show clearly that it was the intent of the Congress that section 23b should operate as a grant of jurisdiction to the federal court of suits brought by a trustee in bankruptcy against adverse claimants, provided the defendant consented to be sued in that court, although the bankrupt could not have brought suit there if proceedings in bankruptcy had not been instituted, and that, in suits falling within the exceptions, the federal court should have jurisdiction without the defendant's consent. ”