Iowa Central Railway Co. v. Iowa

Citations

• 160 U.S. 389
• 16 S. Ct. 344
• 40 L. Ed. 467
• 1896 U.S. LEXIS 2110

Syllabus

<p>The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution in no way undertakes to control, the power of a State to determine by what process legal rights may be asserted, or legal obligations be enforced, provided the method of procedure adopted for these purposes gives reasonable notice, and affords fair opportunity to be heard, before the issues are decided.</p> <p>Whether the court of last resort of a State has properly construed its own constitution and laws in determining that a summary process under those laws was.applicable to the matter which it adjudged, is purely the decision of a question of state law, binding upon this court.</p> <p>This court has no power to review a decision of a state court that the averments of an answer in a pending case set forth no defence to the plaintiff’s claim.</p> <p>It is no denial of a right protected by the Constitution of the United States to refuse a jury trial in a civil cause pending in a state court, even though it be clearly erroneous to construe the laws of the State as justifying the refusal.</p>