Stevirmac Oil & Gas Co. v. Dittman

Citations

• 245 U.S. 210
• 38 S. Ct. 116
• 62 L. Ed. 248
• 1917 U.S. LEXIS 1731

Syllabus

<p>A party against whom a default judgment had been rendered in the District Court eighteen months previously, applied there to have it set aside for lack of personal jurisdiction, alleging that there was no service and that the return of service, upon which the default was based, was unauthorised and false. After hearing the application and affidavits, the court sustained its jurisdiction to enter the judgment and overruled the application. Held, that the proceeding to set aside the judgment amounted to an independent action, and that the question of jurisdiction, as it related only to the power of the court in the original action, could not be made the basis of a direct •writ of error, under Judicial Code, § 238, to determine the correctness of the order overruling the application.</p>