Opinion ID: 1186922
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Transfer of Jurisdiction

Text: It is claimed by Suazo that the territorial district court in Manby was divested of jurisdiction when the case was transferred into the state district court after statehood in 1912. In the Enabling Act, ch. 130, §§ 14-15, 36 Stat. 557 (1910), the specific problem regarding transfer of jurisdiction was confronted. The Act provides that if the case was one that would have fallen within the exclusive original cognizance of a federal circuit or district court it was to be transferred to the appropriate federal court sitting within the State of New Mexico; but if the case was of a nature that would have fallen within the concurrent, but not the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal courts, the transfer was to be made to the state courts unless, upon the application of the party within sixty days after the lodgment of the record in the proper court of the state, a party requested removal to the federal courts. No such attempt at removal was made here. The Act further provides that cases not transferable to the federal courts should be heard and determined by the proper state court. Thus, in Manby the state courts properly obtained jurisdiction over the cause.