Case ID: f_114/html/0096-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "GIRBERT, Circuit Judge.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

CITY OF SEATTLE v. THOMPSON.
    (Circuit Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
    February 24, 1902.)
    No. 781.
    Appeal — Constitutional Question — Jurisdiction.
    Under Judiciary Act March 3, 1891, § 6, providing that appeal may he taken from the district or circuit courts directly to the supreme court, in any case'that involves the construction of the constitution of the United States, the appellate jurisdiction of the supreme court is exclusive, where the record shows, from plaintiff’s own statement, that the suit really and substantially involves a controversy as to a right depending on the construction or application of such constitution, and the jurisdiction of the circuit court is invoked on that ground alone.
    
    Appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Northern Division of the District of Washington.
    John W. -Pratt and Pratt & Riddle, for appellant.
    Frederick Bausman, for appellee.
    Before GIDBERT and ROSS, Circuit Judges, and HAWREY, District Judge.
    
      
       Jurisdiction oí supreme court on direct review of trial courts, see note to Lau Ow Bew v. U. S., 1 C. C. A. 9.
    
   GIRBERT, Circuit Judge.

The jurisdiction of the circuit court in this case was invoked, not upon the ground of the diverse citizenship of the parties, but upon the ground that the case directly involved the construction of the fifth and fourteenth amendments of the constitution of the United States, in that, as alleged in the bill, the appellant, the city of Seattle, in a proceeding to appropriate a part of an unplatted tract of land for use as a public street, without compensation to the owner, and creating a lien upon the owner’s other land abutting on such street, deprived the' appellee of his property without due process of law. It is now moved to dismiss the appeal upon the ground that this court has no’jurisdiction thereof.

By the fifth section of the judiciary act of March 3, 1891, it is provided, that appeals or writs of error may be taken from the district or circuit, courts directly to the supreme court in any case that “involves the construction or application of the constitution of the United States.” In the case of American Sugar Refining Co. v. City of New Orleans, 181 U. S. 277, 21 Sup. Ct. 646, 45 L. Ed. 859, it is held that, where it appears on the record from the plaintiff’s own statement that the suit is one which does really and substantially involve a dispute or controversy as to a right which depends upon the construction or application of the constitution or some law or treaty of the United States, and the jurisdiction of the circuit court is invoked upon that ground alone, the case falls strictly within the terms of section 5, and the appellate jurisdiction of the supreme court in respect thereto is exclusive. Upon the authority of that decision the appeal in the present case must be dismissed.