Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/127/96/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 04:39:05+00:00

Document:
mortgage annulled and the bond and mortgage delivered up by S., and the bond paid, and the mortgaged premises sold. Before the alleged payment to R., B. had assigned the bond to R., in trust for the three children. When the suit was brought, B. was a citizen of South Carolina. Held that, as B. could not have brought the suit, the circuit court was forbidden to take cognizance of it by § 1 of the Act of March 3, 1875, c. 137, 18 Stat. 470.
This suit was a suit founded on contract in favor of an assignee, and was not a suit founded on the wrongful detention by S. of the bond and mortgage.
The defendant H., by answer, joined in the prayer of the bill and asked to have the bond and mortgage declared valid in the hands of R., as trustee, for the benefit of H. and the plaintiffs, and for a decree that S. pay to H. and the plaintiffs the amount secured by the bond and mortgage. Held that as H. and S. were, when the suit was brought, both of them citizens of South Carolina, the circuit court had no jurisdiction.
As that court had dismissed the bill on the merits, with costs, and the plaintiffs and H. had appealed to this Court, the decree was reversed, with costs in this Court against the appellants, and the case was remanded, with a direction to dismiss the bill for want of jurisdiction, without costs of that court.
This is a bill in equity, filed on the 8th of October, 1879, in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of South Carolina by Emma Jane Blacklock and Mary Blacklock, citizens of Georgia, against Jacob Small, a citizen of South Carolina, Alexander Robertson, a citizen of North Carolina, and Helen Robertson Blacklock, a citizen of South Carolina.
"For value received, I hereby assign, transfer, and set over all my right, title, and interest in this bond to Alexander Robertson, in trust for children of J. F. Blacklock."
That the assignee was the defendant Robertson, and the "children of J. F. Blacklock" were the plaintiffs and the defendant Helen Robertson Blacklock; that small pretended to pay the bond by making payments to Robertson as follows: on the 16th of October, 1861, $3,600 on account of principal, and $147 for interest; on the 4th of April, 1862, $2,000 on account of principal, and $490 for interest, and on the 10th of April, 1862, the balance of the principal and interest -- making such payments in the Treasury notes of the Confederate States; that upon the receipt thereof, Robertson satisfied the mortgage, and delivered up the bond to Small; that at the time of the creation of the trust in the hands of Robertson, the children of Blacklock were infants; that in May, 1861, Blacklock went with the children to England, and remained there until the close of the war; that Robertson, in receiving such payments in the Treasury notes of the Confederate States, violated his duty and was guilty of a breach of trust; that Small, in attempting to pay the debt in an illegal currency, with full notice of the trust, had not paid the debt; that the satisfaction of the mortgage was void, and its lien was still subsisting, and that Small was still liable for the amount due on the bond, with interest.
The prayer of the bill is that the payment of the bond in Confederate Treasury notes may be disallowed; that the satisfaction of the mortgage may be annulled, and the mortgage be reestablished, and declared a subsisting lien on the land; that Small may be ordered to deliver up the bond and mortgage to the plaintiffs, and that the plaintiffs may have a decree for the payment to them by Small of the amount due, and for a sale of the mortgaged premises.
was filed. On issue joined on this plea, it was overruled and Small put in an answer to the bill, as did also Robertson.
The defendant Helen Robertson Blacklock put in an answer, admitting the allegations of the bill and averring that Robertson held the bond and mortgage as a trustee for herself and her sisters, in whom was the real and actual interest therein; that the attempted payment by Small was without legal effect; that the bond and mortgage were still the property of the defendant and her sisters, and that she joins in the prayer of the bill that the pretended payments of the bond by Small to Robertson, and the satisfaction entered on the mortgage, be declared null and void, that the bond and mortgage be declared valid and subsisting obligations of Small to Robertson as the trustee of a trust for the benefit of the defendant and her sisters, and that Small be decreed to pay the defendant and the plaintiffs the amount of money secured by the bond and mortgage.
Under replications to the answers, proofs were taken by the several parties. The case was heard on its merits, and a decree was made dismissing the bill, with costs. From this decree the plaintiffs and the defendant Helen Robertson Blacklock have appealed to this Court.
"Nor shall any circuit or district court have cognizance of any suit founded on contract in favor of an assignee unless a suit might have been prosecuted in such court to recover thereon if no assignment had been made, except in cases of promissory notes negotiable by the law merchant, and bills of exchange."
The present suit is a suit against Small, founded on contract -- namely his bond and mortgage in favor of the plaintiffs -- who claim only under the assignment made by their father, John F. Blacklock, to the defendant Robertson. John F. Blacklock could not have prosecuted this suit in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of South Carolina to recover on the bond and mortgage against Small if he had made no assignment of the bond to Robertson, for the reason that he and Small were not citizens of different states when the suit was commenced, but were both of them at that time citizens of South Carolina.
In answer to this objection, it is contended by the appellants that this suit is not to be regarded as a suit founded on the contract of Small to recover thereon, but is to be regarded as a suit for the delivery of the bond and mortgage by Small to the plaintiffs founded on their wrongful detention, and that the rest of the relief prayed by the bill is ancillary and incidental, and the cases of Deshler v. Dodge, 16 How. 622, and Bushnell v. Kennedy, 9 Wall. 387, are cited as authorities. But they do not apply.
in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Ohio to recover possession of a package of bank bills. The title of the plaintiff to the contents of the package was derived by assignment from corporations of Ohio. The Court held that the action could be maintained although the assignors could not have brought the suit, and that the suit was not one to recover the contents of a chose in action within the meaning of § 11 of the Judiciary Act of September 24, 1789.
In Bushnell v. Kennedy, it was said, though not determined because not necessary to that case, that the provision of the eleventh section of the Judiciary Act of 1789 did not apply to a naked right of action founded on a wrongful act or a neglect of duty, to which the law attached damages.
In the present case, the bill is clearly one for a decree against Small for the amount of the bond, and for a foreclosure of the mortgage and a sale of the mortgaged premises.
is a citizen. Ayres v. Wiswall, 112 U. S. 187; Thayer v. Life Association, 112 U. S. 717; New Jersey Central Railroad Co. v. Mills, 113 U. S. 249; Louisville & Nashville Railroad v. Ide, 114 U. S. 52.
The case is remanded to the circuit court, with a direction to dismiss the bill for want of jurisdiction, without costs of that court.

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