Brown v. Fletcher

Citations

• 235 U.S. 589
• 35 S. Ct. 154
• 59 L. Ed. 374
• 1915 U.S. LEXIS 1846

Syllabus

<p>•The prohibition against the Federal court entertaining jurisdiction of actions brought by assignees to recover upon a promissory note or other chose in action, as now embodied in § 24, Judicial Code, does not apply to a suit to recover a specific thing or damages for its wrongful detention or caption.</p> <p>Under § 294, Judicial Code, which is the statutory rule for construing that Code, the Slight changes between the wording of the act of 1887 and that of § 24, Judicial Code, in regard to jurisdiction of the Federal court of suits by assignees was not intended to bring about any ■ change in the law but merely the continuation of the existing statute.</p> <p>Federal Statutes have always permitted the vendee or assignee to sue in the United States courts to 'recover property or an interest in property when the requisite value and diversity of citizenship existed. Barney v. Baltimore, 6 Wall. 280.</p> <p>Section 24, Judicial Code, does not deprive the District Court of jurisdiction to enforce an interest under an assignment by the cestui que trust of an interest in the estate to which the latter has a fixed right in the future. Such an assignment is not a chose in action payable to .the assignee within the prohibition of § 24, but an evidence' of the assignee's right, title and estate in the property.</p>