UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE

W. brought an action in the Circuit Court for the District of South Carolina to recover possession of a lot of land. The defendants set up that they held for that state, and had no individual rights in the premises. The Attorney General of the state, the day before the cause came on for trial, filed a suggestion that the property in controversy was used by the state for public uses, and, without submitting the rights of the state to the jurisdiction of the court, moved the dismissal of the proceedings for want of jurisdiction. The record did not show that the averments in the suggestion were either proved or admitted. The trial resulted in a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff. After the verdict and before the entry of judgment, the court overruled the motion of the Attorney General. The record showed no bill of exceptions to this ruling, but it appeared by agreement of counsel that the motion was overruled and exception taken. The state sued out this writ of error. Held:

(1) That the course pursued below as to the suggestion by the Attorney General could not be recognized as regular and sufficient.

(2) That as the record did not show that the averments of the suggestion were either proved or admitted, the circuit court could not properly arrest the proceedings.

(3) That as the state was not a party to the record, and refused to submit to the jurisdiction of the court, its writ of error should be dismissed.

Reference cannot properly be made to a transcript of record in a case pending in another court to supply defects in the record of a case in this Court.

Motion to dismiss. The case is stated in the opinion. clubjuris

Page 155 U. S. 543