Illinois Central Railroad Company, Appt. v. Wirt Adams

Citations

• 180 U.S. 28
• 21 S. Ct. 251
• 45 L. Ed. 410
• 1901 U.S. LEXIS 1280

Syllabus

<p>An appeal to this court from a Circuit Court will not be dismissed upon the ground that, after an injunction against the collection of certain taxes was refused by the Circuit Court, and while the suit was still pending in that court, defendant brought suit in the state court and recovered the taxes in question. The defence of res adjudicata cannot be made available upon motion to dismiss an appeal.</p> <p>Jurisdiction, is the right to put the wheels of justice in motion, and to proceed to the final determination of the cause upon the pleadings and evi-' dence. It exists in the Circuit Courts, if the plaintiff be a citizen of one State, the defendant a citizen of another, if the amount in controversy . e.xceed $2000, and if the defendant be properly served with process within the district.</p> <p>A failure to allege a compliance with the Ninety-fourth rule in equity concerning bills brought by stockholders of corporations against the corporation and other parties, does not raise a question of jurisdiction but of the authority of the plaintiff to maintain his bill.</p> <p>As the bill set up a contract with the State in a railway charter, and .also averred that such contract had been impaired bysubsequent legislation, it was held that the bill presented a case under the Constitution of the United States, and that jurisdiction might be sustained upon,that ground alone.</p> <p>The question whether a suit, nominally against an individual by name, is in reality a suit against the State within the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution! is a defence to the merits rather than to the jurisdiction of the court.</p> <p>Such defence.should be raised either by demurrer or other appropriate pleadings, and cannot be made available upon motion to dismiss.</p> <p>Motions are generally appropriate only in the absence of remedies by regular pleadings, and- cannot be made available to settle important questions of law, or to dispose of the merits of the case.</p> <p>As tire suit was