Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/236/50.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 21:09:36+00:00

Document:
Mr. Harry J. Cantwell for David Yost.
[236 U.S. 50, 54] Messrs. John S. Haymes and J. W. Miller for Dallas County.
'1. Has a district court of the United States, sitting as a court of equity, jurisdiction of such a cause?
The fundamental consideration for answering these questions is that the obligation upon which the judgment was recovered was an obligation under, not paramount to, the authority of the state. It is true that the district court of the United States had jurisdiction of the suit upon the contract, but the extent of the obligation imposed was determined by the statutes of Missouri, not by the Constitution of the United States or any extraneous source, the Constitution only requiring that the obligation of the contract should not be impaired by subsequent state law. The plaintiff, by bringing suit in the United States court, acquired no greater rights than were given to him by the local statutes. The right so given was to have a tax levied and collected, it is true, but a tax ordained by and depending on the sovereignty of the state, and therefore limited in whatever way the state saw fit to limit it when, so to speak, it contracted to give the remedy. It is established that 'taxes of the nature now in question can only be levied and collected in the manner provided' by the statute, and therefore that it is impossible [236 U.S. 50, 57] for the courts to substitute their own appointee in place of the one contemplated by the act. Seibert v. Lewis (Seibert v. United States) 122 U.S. 284, 298 , 30 S. L. ed. 1161, 1166, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1190. The Missouri case referred to in that decision states a rule that we believe always to have been recognized in that state and others, as well as reinforced by other decisions of this court. Kansas v. Hannibal & St. J. R. Co. 81 Mo. 285, 293; St. Louis & S. F. R. Co. v. Apperson, 97 Mo. 300, 306, 10 S. W. 478; Rees v. Watertown, 19 Wall. 107, 117, 22 L. ed. 72, 75; Heine v. Levee Comrs. 19 Wall. 655, 658, 22 L. ed. 223, 225; Barkley v. Levee Comrs. 93 U.S. 258, 265 , 23 S. L. ed. 893, 896; Meriwether v. Garrett, 102 U.S. 472, 501 , 26 S. L. ed. 197, 200; Thompson v. Allen County, 115 U.S. 550 , 29 L. ed. 472, 6 Sup. Ct. Rep. 140, s. c. below, 4 Ky. L. Rep. 98, 101, 13 Fed. 97. The rule has other applications; e. g., Smith v. Reeves, 178 U.S. 436, 445 , 44 S. L. ed. 1140, 1145, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 919; United States v. Kaufman, 96 U.S. 567, 569 , 24 S. L. ed. 792.
It is unnecessary to repeat the strong and already often-repeated language of this court that will be found at the pages of the reports referred to. Some of it may go farther than was necessary or than we should be prepared to go in a different case, but to the extent of the principles that we have laid down we apprehend that it is not open to debate. It hardly could be except upon the question of construction: how far the liability to the tax was bound up with the mode of collection provided. But as the tax depended for its creation upon a sovereign act of the state, and was confided for its enforcement to officers of the state, it is decided that it cannot be enforced by others. The fact that it falls upon people who are not parties to the contract or the suit is an additional consideration in favor of the result; which no one would doubt if the judgment had been recovered and the present proceeding brought in another state. Of course it does not follow from the fact that a court has authority to issue a writ of mandamus to compel officers to perform their duty that it can perform that duty in their place. Authority is given by Missouri Rev. Stat. 1909, 11,417, to the circuit court [236 U.S. 50, 58] to enforce 'by mandamus or otherwise' an order to the county court to have the tax assessed, etc. But the words 'or otherwise' do not authorize the circuit court to collect the tax, but only allow the resort to other means beside mandamus to compel the county court to do so. At least until the supreme court of Missouri says otherwise, we should read them in that sense. We answer both questions: No.

References: v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.