Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/752

 KEITH V. LBVI. ���745 ���state court, wherein the amount in dispute, exclusive of costs, exceeds the sum or value of $500, to be made to appear to the satisfaction of said court, may be removed for trial in the circuit court," etc. The term "dispute," as employed in the Btatute, must be beld to be exactly synonymous with the term "oontroversy" in the above-mentioned clause of the con- stitution. The plain meaning is that before a cause can be removed there must be a litigation; that is to say, amat- ter either of law or fact asserted on one side and denied on ■the other, Where the matter is alleged by the plaintiff, and admitted by the defendant, there is no controvsrsy, no dis- pute, and therefore no case for removal. �If, therefore, there was nothing in the case except the question of the right of the plaintiffs to recover judgment for the sum claimed in their petition, I should hold, without hesi- tation, that they had no right of removal. But there is a controversy as to the truth of the allegations upon which the attachment was issued, and as to the validity of the attach- ment. Concerning this controversy the parties were at issue in the state court. I see no reason why a controversy as to the validity of the attachment may not constitute a case removable within the meaning of the statute. If the contro- versy arising upon the plea in abatement, in a case like the present, is between citizens of different states, and the amount in dispute, exclusive of costs, exceeds the sum or value of $500, I have no doubt the case is removable, even though there be no controversy upon the main case. �That the controversy arising upon the plea in this case ia between citizens of Illinois on one side, and a citizen of Mis- souri on the other, is not disputed. Does the amount in dis- pute, exclusive of costs, exeeed $500 ? Before we can answer this question af&rmatively it must appear, from the record, that the recovery upon the issue joined upon the plea raay exeeed that sum. The value of the goods attached is more than $500, but the value of the goods attached is not the measure of the amount in controversy. The statute of Mis- souri (vol. 1, § 439) provides that if the issue upon the plea in abatement be found against the plaintiff, he and hîs sure- ����