Source: https://openjurist.org/274/us/195
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 23:13:59+00:00

Document:
Appellant on appeal for the first time challenged the equity jurisdiction of the court, urging that the remedy at law was adequate. The cancellation of appellant's lease, which was the relief sought, was a remedy competent for equity to give. The repeated holdings of the lower courts that a suit brought under section 23 is one cognizable in equity,1 at least suggest that the suit is not so plainly at law that the court should, of its own motion, have dismissed it. Under such circumstances, objection to the equity jurisdiction not seasonably taken is waived (Kilbourn v. Sunderland, 130 U. S. 505, 514, 9 S. Ct. 594, 32 L. Ed. 1005; Brown v. Lake Superior Iron Co., 134 U. S. 530, 534-536, 10 S. Ct. 604, 33 L. Ed. 1021; Perego v. Dodge, supra, 164 (16 S. Ct. 971)), especially where, as here, appellant did not answer the cross-bill. For the same reason it is unnecessary for us to determine whether appellee adopted the proper procedure in seeking the forfeiture of the lease by cross-bill. We do not consider the constitutionality of the forfeiture under section 23. The court below in enumerating the questions raised and presented made no mention of the constitutional question. The assignment of errors below did not refer specifically to it as required by the rules of that court, and so far as the record discloses, it was not presented there. See United States v. Gaffney (C. C. A.) 10 F.(2D) 694, 696. This court sits as a court of review. It is only in exceptional cases coming here from the federal courts that questions not pressed or passed upon below are reviewed. See Montana Ry. Co. v. Warren, 137 U. S. 348, 351, 11 S. Ct. 96, 34 L. Ed. 681; Old Jordan Mining Co. v. Socie te Anonyme Des Moines, 164 U. S. 261, 264, 265, 17 S. Ct. 113, 41 L. Ed. 427; Magruder v. Drury, 235 U. S. 106, 113, 35 S. Ct. 77, 59 L. Ed. 151; Gila Valley Ry. v. Hall, 232 U. S. 94, 98, 34 S. Ct. 229, 58 L. Ed. 521; Grant Bros. v. United States, 232 U. S. 647, 660, 34 S. Ct. 452, 58 L. Ed. 776; Ana Maria Sugar Co. v. Quinones, 254 U. S. 245, 251, 41 S. Ct. 110, 65 L. Ed. 246. Cf. West v. Rutlege Timber Co., 244 U. S. 90, 99, 100, 37 S. Ct. 587, 61 L. Ed. 1010; United States v. Tennessee & Coosa R. R., 176 U. S. 242, 256, 20 S. Ct. 370, 44 L. Ed. 452.

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