Sawyer v. Piper

Citations

• 189 U.S. 154
• 23 S. Ct. 633
• 47 L. Ed. 757
• 1903 U.S. LEXIS 1339

Syllabus

<p>The mere averment of the existence of a Federal question is not sufficient to give this court jurisdiction, but as held in Hamblin v. Western Land Company, 147 U. S. 531, a real, and not a fictitious, Federal question is essential to the jurisdiction of this court over the .judgments of state courts. Where the only Federal question alleged is that the refusal of the state court to allow the plaintiff in error to file a supplementary answer in a suit, in which foreclosure and sale had been decreed and sustained by the highest court of the State, was a talcing of property without due process of law, and a denial of the equal protection of the laws, and the trial court does not appear to have abused its discretion, there is no real Federal question involved and the writ of error will be dismissed.</p>