Davis & Farnum Manufacturing Co. v. Los Angeles

Citations

• 189 U.S. 207
• 23 S. Ct. 498
• 47 L. Ed. 778
• 1903 U.S. LEXIS 1344

Syllabus

<p>1. Where abill is based not only upon diversity of citizenship, but also upon the alleged uuconstitutionality of municipal ordinances as impairing the obligation of a contract, an appeal lies to this court and the whole case is opened for consideration.</p> <p>Where a statute delegates powers to a city, the ordinances of the municipality are the acts of the State, and their unconstitutionality is the unconstitutionality of a state law within the meaning of sec. 5 of the Circuit Court of Appeals act.</p> <p>2. A court of equity has no general power to enjoin or stay criminal proceedings unless they are instituted by a party to a suit already pending before it, and to try the same right that is in issue there, or to prohibit the invasion of the rights of property or the enforcement of an unconstitutional law. In re Sawyer, 124 U. S. 200.</p> <p>One who has contracted to deliver gas machinery to a gas and fuel company has no standing in a court of equity to restrain a city from enforcing an ordinance prohibiting the erection of gas works within a portion of the city in which the erection of gas works was not prohibited when the con-, tract was made, on the ground that such ordinances are repugnant to the Federal Constitution as impairing the obligation of a contract, it not appearing that the plaintiff has any contract with the city or that the gas and fuel company would not, or could not, by reason of insolvency, respond to its claim under the contract.</p>