Page:Pitcock v. State.pdf/11

Rh its contract, the suit is still, in substance, though not in form, a suit against the State."

And again, in the same case, it is said: "Where the contract is between the individual and the State, no action will lie against the State, and any action founded upon it against defendants who are officers of the State, the object of which is to enforce its specific performance by compelling those things to be done by the defendant which, when done, would constitute a performance by the State, or to forbid the doing of those things which, if done, would be merely breaches of the contract by the State, is in substance a suit against the State itself, and equally within the prohibition of the Constitution."

In actions against officers of the United States, the same principle has been announced. Belknap v. Schild, 161 U. S. 19; Minnesota v. Hitchcock, 185 U. S. 373; International Postal Supply Co. v. Bruce, 194 U. S. 601; Naganab v. Hitchcock, 202 U. S. 473.

In Belknap v. Schild, supra, which was a suit filed against Belknap, a commodore in the United State Navy and commandant of the United States Navy Yard at Mare Island, California, to restrain him from using caisson gates which, it is charged, were an infringement of letters patent granted by the United States to the plaintiff, the court held that it was a suit against the United States, and could not be maintained. In discussing the question, the court said: "No injunction can be issued against the officers of a State to restrain or control the use of property already in the possesion of the State, or money in its treasury when the suit is commenced; or to compel the State to perform its obligations; or where the State has otherwise such an interest in the object of the suit as to be a necessary party."

The doctrine of these cases is reaffirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States in the recent case of Murray v. Wilson Distilling Co.', 213 U. S. 151.

The only distinction found in these cases is that where the suit is against an officer to prevent him from doing an unlawful act to the injury of the complaining party, such as the taking or trespass upon the property belonging to the latter, the former cannot shield himself behind the fact that he is an officer of the State; and also where the officer refuses to perform