UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE

COLVIN V. JACKSONVILLE, 158 U. S. 456 (1895)

158 U. S. 456

U.S. Supreme Court

Colvin v. Jacksonville, 158 U.S. 456 (1895)

Colvin v. Jacksonville

No. 991

Submitted May 8, 1595

Decided May 27, 1895

158 U.S. 456

Syllabus

Where the jurisdiction of the court below is in issue and the case is certified here for decision, the certificate must be granted during the term at which the judgment or decree is entered.

In a suit in equity to restrain the issue of bonds by a municipal corporation, clubjuris

Page 158 U. S. 457

brought by a taxpayer, the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court is determined by the amount of the interest of the complainant, and not by the amount of the issue of the bonds.

This was a bill filed by John H. Colvin, a citizen of the State of Illinois, on May 8, 1894, against the City of Jacksonville, Florida, and its mayor, in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Northern District of Florida, to enjoin and restrain the issue, sale, delivery, pledge, or other disposition of a certain issue of bonds to the amount of $1,000,000.

By the Act of Congress entitled "An act to change the boundaries of the Judicial Districts of the State of Florida," approved July 23, 1894, 28 Stat. 117, c. 149, the County of Duval, in which the City of Jacksonville is situated, was detached from the Northern District of the state, and attached to the Southern District thereof.

The bill was dismissed by the circuit court, December 4, 1894, for want of jurisdiction, and an appeal prayed and allowed to this Court; and, being docketed, the case was dismissed April 1, 1895, because of the absence of a certificate of the circuit court, in accordance with section 5 of the Judiciary Act of March 3, 1891. Colvin v. Jacksonville, 157 U. S. 368. Thereupon plaintiff prayed a second appeal, which was allowed and a certificate on the question of jurisdiction to this Court signed April 11, 1895, and the cause, having been again docketed, was submitted as under the thirty-second rule.


ClubJuris.Com