Smith v. Greenhow

Citations

• 109 U.S. 669
• 3 S. Ct. 421
• 27 L. Ed. 1080
• 1884 U.S. LEXIS 1745

Syllabus

<p>Constitutional Law — Jurisdiction.</p> <p>The declaration contained a count in trespass for entering the plaintiff’s premises and carrying away his goods. The plea set up that the goods were lawfully taken by the defendant as collector, to satisfy a tax due the State of Virginia ; the replication averred that the plaintiff before the levy, under authority of a law of that State enacted in 1879,- tendered the defendant in payment of the taxes coupons cut from bonds of the State.; the rejoinder set up a. subsequent law of the State forbidding him to receive in payment of taxes anything but gold, silver, United States treasury notes or national bank currency : -to this rejoinder the plaintiff demurred: Held, That this raised a federal question sufficiently to lay the foundation for removing the cause from a State court to the Circuit Court of the United States.</p>