McDonald v. Oregon Railroad & Navigation Co.

Citations

• 233 U.S. 665
• 34 S. Ct. 772
• 58 L. Ed. 1145
• 1914 U.S. LEXIS 1174

Syllabus

<p>The due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment does not control methods of state procedure or give jurisdiction to this court to review mere errors of law alleged to have been committed by a state court in the performance of its duties and within the scope of its authority concerning matters non-Féderal in character.</p> <p>It is the lack of jurisdiction in the sense of fundamental'absence of any and all right to take cognizance of the cause that amounts to deprivation of property without due process of law and gives this court power to review the judgment'of the state court under § 237, Judicial Code, not the wrongful exercise of jurisdiction in the sense of duty to rightfully decide subjects to which judicial power extends. Castillo v. McConnico, 168 U. S. 674.</p> <p>Where a defendant in the state court did not object to the jurisdiction of the court to entertain an action to enjoin him from enforcing his rights of .ownership, but went further and sought affirmative relief in that action, he cannot be heard in this court to deny that the court had any power to exert the very jurisdiction which he invoked.</p>