Powell v. Brunswick County

Citations

• 150 U.S. 433
• 14 S. Ct. 166
• 37 L. Ed. 1134
• 1893 U.S. LEXIS 2394

Syllabus

<p>This court must determine for itself whether it has jurisdiction uhder Rev. Stat. § 709, to review the judgment of a state court; and the certificate of the presiding judge of the State that a. state of case exists for the interposition of this court cannot, of itself, confer jurisdiction upon it to reexamine a judgment of that court.</p> <p>It is essential to the maintenance of the jurisdiction over the judgment of the state court upon the ground of erroneous decision as to the validity of a state statute or a right under the Constitution of the United States, that it should appear from the record that the validity of such statute was drawn in question, as repugnant to the Constitution,-and that the decision sustained its validity, or that the right was specially set up' or claimed, and denied.</p> <p>It is well settled, that the construction put 'upon a state statute by the highest court of the State will generally be followed by this court, unless it conflicts with the constitution, or a Federal statute, or a general rule of commercial law.</p> <p>Applying these rules it was held that the construction put by the Supreme Court of Appeals of the State of Virginia in Taylor v. Supervisors, 86 Virginia, 506 upon the provision in the charter of the Atlantic and Dan-ville Railway Company considered in this suit, leaves no' Federal question for this court.</p>