Kawananakoa v. Polyblank

Citations

• 205 U.S. 349
• 27 S. Ct. 526
• 51 L. Ed. 834
• 1907 U.S. LEXIS 1402

Syllabus

<p>■Under Equity Rule 92, where a part of the mortgage premises has been sold to the sovereign power which refuses to waive, its exemption from suit, the court can, all other parties being joined, except the land so conveyed and decree sale .of the balance and enter deficiency judgment for sum remaining due- if proceeds of salé are insufficient to pay the debt.</p> <p>A sovereign is exempt from suit, not because of any formal conception or obsolete theory, but on the logical and practical ground that there can be no legal right as against the authority that makes the law on which the right depends, and as this doctrine is not confined to full sovereign powers it extends to those, such as the Territories of the United States, which in actual administration originate and change the law of contract . and property.</p> <p>A Territory of the United States differs from the District of Columbia in that the former is itself the fountain from which rights ordinarily flow, although Congress may intervene, while in the latter the body of private .rights is created and controlled by Congress and not-by a legislature of the District.</p> <p>17 Hawaii, 82, affirmed.</p>