Court Opinion

ID: 9418122
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:09:16.052981+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:21:55.741063
License: Public Domain

*232Me. Justice Haklan,
concurring.
The fundamental question before the state court of original jurisdiction was whether it had jurisdiction, under the constitution and laws of Tennessee, of a suit like this. Manifestly, if that court was forbidden by the laws under which it was created to take cognizance of cases like this, it had no alternative but to dismiss this suit. ' The • court overruled a demurrer to the bill, one of the grounds of demurrer being that the suit was one “against the State or against an officer of the State, acting by authority of the-State with a view to reach the State, its treasury, funds or property.” It thereby sustained its jurisdiction, and proceeded to a decree on the merits. The case being carried to the Supreme Court of Tennessee, that court reversed the judgment and held that no court of Tennessee could, under its statutes, take cognizance of this suit and give the decree asked. Upon that ground it did what it said the inferior state court should have done, namely, dismissed the suit for want of jurisdiction to give the relief asked.
The statute of Tennessee which the Supreme Court of that State construed and held to be prohibitory of this suit was an act passed February 28, 1873, c. 13, p. 15. It provides: “That no court in the State of Tennessee has, nor shall hereafter have, any power, jurisdiction or authority to entertain any suit against the State, or any officer acting by the authority of the State, with a view to reach the State, its treasury, funds or property, and all such suits now pending, or hereafter brought, shall be dismissed as to the State, or such officer, on motion, plea or demurrer of the law officer of the State, or counsel employed by the State.”
The oil company seeks a reversal of the decree of the state court, contending that it was denied a right arising under the commerce clause of the Constitution. But back of any question of that kind was the question before the Supreme Court of Tennessee whether the inferior state court, under the law'of its organization, that is, under the law of Tennessee, could *233entertain jurisdiction of the suit. The question, we have seen, was determined adversely to jurisdiction. That certainly is a state, not a Federal question.. Surely, Tennessee has the right to say of what class of suits its own courts may take cognizance, and it was peculiarly the function of the Supreme Court of Tennessee to determine such a question. When, therefore, its highest court has declared that' the Tennessee statute referred to in argument did not allow the inferior state court to take cognizance of a suit like this, that decision must be accepted as the interpretation to be placed on the local statute. Otherwise, this court will adjudge that the Tennessee court shall take jurisdiction of a suit of which the highest court of the State adjudges that it cannot do consistently with the laws of the State which created it and which established its jurisdiction. It seems to me that this court, accepting the decision of the highest court of Tennessee, as to the meaning of the Tennessee statute in question, as I think it must, has no alternative but to affirm the judgment, on the ground simply that the ground upon which it is placed is broad enough to support the judgment without reference to any question raised or discussed by counsel.
What is said in the opinion of the court about the Eleventh Amendment, is, I submit, entirely irrelevant to any decision of the present case by this court. That Amendment relates wholly to the judicial power of the United States, and has absolutely nothing to do with the inquiry as to the jurisdiction of the inferior state court under the Tennessee statute of . 1873.' In determining what relief this court can or should give, in respect of the judgment under review, we need not considér the scope and meaning of the Eleventh Amendment; for, it was long ago settled that a writ of error to review the final judgment of a state court, even when a State is a formal party and is successful in the inferior court, is not a suit within the meaning, of the Amendment. Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264, 408, 409.
In my opinion, the decision of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, that the inferior state court was forbidden by the law of *234its being from taking cognizance of this suit, is conclusive here, and the judgment of that court should, therefore, be affirmed without reference to any other question raised or discussed.