Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/680

 666 FEDERAL REPORTER. �plaîntiff, although he had set up his mortgage in the French court, and that court had disallowed ît under a misappreiien- sion of his rights under the English law. �In delivering the opinion of the court of exchequer cham- ber, on appeal from the common pleas, Mr. Justice Black- burn remarlied: "We think the inquiry is — First, whether the subject matter was bo situated as to be within the lawful control of the state under authority of which the court exists ; and, secondly, whether the BOVereign authority of that state bas conferred on the court power to decide as to the disposi- tion of the thing, and the court has acted within its jurisdic- tion." The judgment of the exchequer chamber was affirmed by the house of lords, their lordships holding that the error of the French court in construing the law of England did not render its judgment void in a foreign country, although it would have been otherwise in a case of fraud, and that they were bound to give it effect, at least so far as to sustain the validity of the sale. �The fact that the vessel in this case was sold for the Bmall sum of $1,000, is due to a multiplicity of causes, amongst others the uncertainty of the law ; but in the absence of fraud it cannot be considered an element in the decision of the case. I am clearly of the opinion that the sale was valid, and vested a complete title to the property in the purchaser. The libel must be dismissed. �As the cases of The Kate Moffatt and The Gladiator differ from this only in the fact that libellants' claims were rejected upon the ground that the maritime court had no authority to enforce liens which accrued before the passage of the aot creating the court, a like disposition will be made of them. ����