United States Ex Rel. Holzendorf v. Hay

Citations

• 194 U.S. 373
• 24 S. Ct. 681
• 48 L. Ed. 1025
• 1904 U.S. LEXIS 831

Syllabus

<p>TJhe “matter in dispute,” as respects a money demand, as employed in the statutes regulating appeals from the courts of the District of Columbia, has relation to justiciable demands and must be money or some right, the value of which can be ascertained in money, and which appears by the record to be of the requisite pecuniary value.</p> <p>Where the averments in a petition that a mandamus be issued directing the Secretary of State to assert for the petitioner a claim against a foreign government do not state a cause of action under the. principles of law of false imprisonment in this country, and do not show that, the alleged wrong was actionable in such foreign country, the right to have the claim asserted is purely conjectural, and not susceptible of pecuniary estimate, and.cannot be said to have the value necessary to give this court jurisdiction, and the writ must be dismissed.</p>