Moore v. McGuire

Citations

• 205 U.S. 214
• 27 S. Ct. 483
• 51 L. Ed. 776
• 1907 U.S. LEXIS 1420

Syllabus

<p>Where the bill is brought in the Circuit Court to quiet, and remove a cloud Upon, the title of land alleged to be within the State and District where the suit is brought, and the cloud is bashed upon tax sales made under,the authority of an adjoining State in -which defendants claim the land is situated, although the chief difference may be upon the question of fact as to the location of the boundary line between, the two States, if the construction of the act of Congress admitting one of the States to the Union and defining its boundaries is also in dispute the Circuit Court has jurisdiction of the case .as one arising under the Constitution or laws of the- United States. Joy v. St. Louis, 201 U. S. 332, distinguished.</p> <p>Under the acts of Congress of March 1, 1817, 3 Stat. 348, admitting Mjssissippi, and of June 15, 1836, 5 Stat. 50, admitting Arkansas' to the Union, the boundary line between the two States is the middle of the; main channel of the Mississippi River as it was in 1817, and at the point where Island No. 76 is situated it was at that time on the Mississippi side of that island which has never beefi within the State of Mississippi, notwithstanding attempts on the part of that State to exercise jurisdiction thereover.</p> <p>In this ease the court determined a controversy between private parties involving the location of the boundary line between two States favorably to the party in possession' of the land involved under the authority of the State actually exercising jurisdiction thereover, but expressed doubt as to whether courts should in such a case go further than the actual conditions rather than leave it to the other State, if dissatisfied, to bring • .a suit in its own name. '</p> <p>142 Fed. Rep. 787, reversed.</p>