United States v. Huffmaster
| Decision Date | 21 May 1888 |
| Citation | 35 F. 81 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of California |
| Parties | UNITED STATES v. C. HUFFMASTER. (No. 3,704.) |
J. C Carey, U.S. Atty., for plaintiff.
Wm. H Cook, for defendant.
Before SAWYER, Circuit Judge.
This is a suit by the United States for the value of 50 cords of wood, cut upon the public lands in Colusa county by the defendant, and converted to his own use. The wood is alleged to be of the value of $250, for which sum plaintiffs demand judgment. The suit was brought on June 6, 1885, when the act to determine the jurisdiction of the circuit courts of the United States, etc., approved March 3, 1875, (Supp. Rev. St 173,) was in force. The objection is made by the defendant that, the amount in controversy being less than $500, this court has no jurisdiction, and that the action must be dismissed on that ground. The court is of the opinion that the objection is well taken. The clause in the act of 1789 (1 St.p. 78, Sec. 11) giving jurisdiction to the circuit courts in this class of cases reads as follows:
'That the circuit courts shall have original cognizance, concurrent with the courts of the several states, of all suits of a civil nature at common law or in equity, where the matter in dispute exceeds, exclusive of costs, the sum or value of five hundred dollars, and the United States are plaintiffs or petitioners.'
It is perfectly clear that, under this act, the circuit courts would not have jurisdiction in a case of this kind brought by the United States, where the amount sought to be recovered is less than $500. The language is susceptible of but one construction.
In the Revised Statutes, which were only intended to collate and consolidate the existing statutes without changing the meaning, section 629, covering these matters of jurisdiction arranges the subject-matter in classes, and expresses the various provisions in language as well as arrangement somewhat different from that found in the original statutes then in force. The provision embracing the subject-matter of this suit is as follows:
It is contended that, under this third clause, the value of the matter in controversy, as...
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...Large, 470, 473;) Act Cong. March 3, 1887, Secs. 2, 6, (24 St.at Large, 552;) Act Aug. 13, 1888, Sec. 1, (25 St.at Large, 433;) U.S. v. Huffmaster, 35 F. 81. As to fact that national banks and their officers are to be considered the same as individuals, and are to be governed by the same la......
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... ... opinion, the court will not be justified in issuing process ... to compel the defendants to permit the Indians to make a ... camping ground of their property while engaged in fishing ... The ... defendants, upon the authority of the cases of U.S. v ... Huffmaster, 35 F. 81-83, contend that this court is ... without jurisdiction, for the reason that the amount in ... controversy does not exceed $2,000. The Huffmaster Cases, ... however, have been overruled by the supreme court in a ... decision rendered December 23, 1895, in the case of U.S ... v ... ...
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United States v. Kentucky River Mills
... ... state and foreign states, citizens, or subjects.' ... This ... act repealed all acts and parts of acts in conflict with its ... provisions, and hence the third subsection of section 629 of ... the Revised Statutes was repealed by it. U.S. v ... Huffmaster, 35 F. 81. But it did not repeal the ... jurisdiction of the circuit court in special cases over ... particular subjects which that court had under existing laws ... U.S. v. Mooney, 116 U.S. 107, 6 S.Ct. 304. It, ... however, applied the limitation of $500 to all the cases in ... which ... ...
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...that, the sum sought to be recovered being less than $2,000, the court has no jurisdiction under the act of March 3, 1887. In U.S. v. Huffmaster, 35 F. 81, (No. 3,704,) held that under the act of March 3, 1875, the court had no jurisdiction over a suit to recover $250, the value of a quanti......