Wood v. Chesborough

Citations

• 228 U.S. 672
• 33 S. Ct. 706
• 57 L. Ed. 1018
• 1913 U.S. LEXIS 2410

Syllabus

<p>If the judgment of the state court rests on Federal and non-Federal grounds, and the latter be sufficient to support it, there can be no review by this court. Preston v. Chicago, 226 U. S. 447..</p> <p>The application of laches and the statute of limitation does not present a Federal question.</p> <p>This court can only review findings of fact by the state court to the extent necessary to determine whether, there being no evidence to support them, a Federal right has been denied by them, or where conclusions of law as to a Federal right and questions of fact are so intermingled as to make such review necessary for the purpose ,of passing on'the Federal question. Chapman v. Goodnow, 123 U. S. 540.</p> <p>The highest court of the State having held, following its former decisions on the same subject, that the plaintiff’s cause of action was barred by laches and res judicata, the judgment rests on non-Federal grounds sufficient to sustain it..</p> <p>This court will not review the judgment of the highest state court in accepting its former decisions as determining the law of the State and give a different interpretation of that law. To do so would give this court power to review all judgments of state courts where Federal questions are set up and to substitute its judgment for that of the state courts as to state laws.</p>