Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/494

 482 FKDKBAL REPOBTKR. �recover the insurance. The court denied the only equitable relief asked, viz., the correction of the alleged error in the pplicy, and concladed by saying that "as the remedy of the plaintiff, Graves, on the pplicy, to the extent of his own interest, is complete at law.tbe decree of- the circuit court dismissing his bill must be affirmed." Now, in that case, if the plaintiffs had obtained the equitable relief asked, the court of eqnity -would have go^e on and given fuU relief upon the reformed poliey; but, the equitable relief being denied, nothing remained but a legal right capable of adequate re- dresB ,ç,t law, and the plaintiffs were dismissed to that forupi. This case is cited in Hipp y, Pabin, 19, How. 271, 278, tp show that relief bas been. denied "in cases in equity where the remedy at law bas beei^ plain, adequate, and complete, though the question was not raised by the defendants in their plep,dipg8, nor suggested by the counsel in their arguments;" because. it is a question of jurisdiction, and "no admission of parties can change the law, or give jurisdiction to a court in a cause of which it hath no jurisdiction ;" and, further, when- eyer a court of law is competent to take cognizance of a cause, the plaintiff must prpoeed at law, "because the defend- ant has a constitutional right to a trial by jury," "In the courts of the Unitçd States it (this question) is regarded as jurisdictional, and may be enforced by the court sua sponte, though not raised bythe pleading nor suggested by counsel." Parker v. Cotton e Woolen Co. 2 Black, 545, 550. Where the remedy at law is adequate, the party seeking redress must pursue it. In such case the adverse party has a constitu- tional right to trial by jury." Id. 551. �It being a question of power to make a decree, the fact that Ginaca and Gintz have made def ault cannot give the court jurisdiction to deçree in a casenot of equitable cognizance. It seems to us clear that whenever no equitable relief is given the plaintiff can bave no standing in a court of equity ; for, in Buch cases, the only ground upon which a court of equity pro- ceeds to give legal relief is that the party was compelled to corne to the court of equity, and ought not to be deprived of the legal remedy incidental to his equitable claim. When, ����