Page:United States Reports, Volume 2.djvu/364

 35, Casts ruled and adjudged in tb 1796. vvv Apr:] Term, 1 796• p —·—1-—- ·· 1‘refeut—Im:net.x. and Psrzns, julticea. i Huhsrgcaur mjiu Test. D ,_/_;  HTS was an aétion for an Affault and Battery committee! ` T on the High Seas, and the damages were laid iu the de- 3  claration at tooo dollars; but the controverfy being referred, the referees reported only 45 dollars in favor of dy: plaintitii In April term 179;, M. Leary, for the defendant, obraineda Z rule to` lhew caufe, why the report of the referees fhould not be l qualhed, and the aéiion difmilfed : And the quefliiou wasnuw argued by him- on the one tide, and by Rau-}: upon the other. In fupport of the rule, Levy, having adverted to the gd Article •f the Conititution of the United Siam, as the foundation of the judicial authority, contended, that hy the uth_/28ivx of‘_the· judicial a£l*,.grhich‘cflablifhes the j_urifdi£i0n of the Chcuit Court, no [nit could be there inltituted and mahrtai¤ed,unlef• the . plaintiff wasgerrtitled to recover,and aétually recovered, a fum ex- ceeding goo dollars,exclufive of cofts. He dtewa limilar inference- from the providoh in the tzthjidiwof the A&,which requires. that fuits removed into the Circuit Qourt from a State Court, {hould be of the fame value; and he diftinguifhed between ac·` tions for tort, and aéiions upon contrat}, in order more forcibly `to exclude the cognizance of the Court in the former, than in the latter,‘inllances. Thezotli jé¢7im, empowering tlre_Court to adjudge the plaintiff to pay colts, was manifcftly defigncd, in that refpcét, to give a jurifdiftion, which the Court would not, otherwifc, poffefs on account of the general limitation of jurif- rliétion, as to the fum or matter in dilpute: And in the provi- lion, that the Dillriéi Court {hall have juiifdiélion of offences where the fine docs not exceed too dollars, it is evident, that . the jurifdiition cannot be afcertained ’till the judge is about to pronounce fentence. , · Rawle, in oppoling the rule, obferved that the a€t of Con- grefs did not recognize any dill inéhou between aélions for tort, . and aétions upon contraél; but barely required that the matter in dg/put: lhould exceed the fum, or value, of goo dollars, ex~ elulive of coils; and the language is the_fame in the gth_/ZWZ1, in ` re tum

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