50. Aliens may bring suit under the act of Sept. 24, 1780, sect. 11, which gives the circuit court cognizance of all suits of a civil nature where an alien is a party• but these general words must be restricted by the pro vision in the constitution which gives juris diction in controversies between a state, or the citizens of a state, and foreign states, citi zens, or subjects; and the statute cannot ex tend the jurisdiction beyond the limits of the constitution. 4 Dall. 11; 5 Cranch, 303. When both parties are aliens, the circuit court has no jurisdiction. 4 Cranch, 46; 4 Dall. 11. An alien who holds lands under a special law of the state in which he is resi dent may maintain an action in relation to those lands in the circuit court. 1 Baldw.
C. C. 216.
51. When an assignee is the plaintiff', the court has no jurisdiction unless a suit might have been prosecuted in such court to recover on the contract assigned, if no assignment had been made, except in cases of bills of ex change. Act of September 24, 1789, sect. 11. 2 Pet. 319; 11 id. 83; 12 id. 164; 6 Wheat. 146; 9 id. 137 ; 4 Wash. C. C. 349 ; 1 Mas. C.
C. 243 ; 2 id. 252; 4 id. 435. It is said that this section of the act of congress has no ap plication to the conveyance of lands from a citizen of one state to a citizen of another. The grantee in such case may maintain his action in the circuit court, when otherwise properly qualified, to try the title to such lands. 2 Sumn. C. C. 252.
52. The defendant must be an inhabitant of, or found in, the circuit at the time of serving the writ ; else the circuit court has no jurisdiction. 3 Wash. C. C. 456. A citi zen of one state may be sued in another, if the process be served upon him in the latter ; but in such cases the plaintiff must be a citizen of the latter state, or an alien. 1 Pet. C. C. 431.
liemoval of Actions from the State Courts.
53. The act of Sept. 24, 1789, gives, in certain cases, the right of removing a suit instituted in a state court to the circuit court of the district. It is enacted by that law that if a suit be commenced in any state court against an alien, or by a citizen of the state in which the suit is brought against a citizen of another state, and the matter in dispute exceeds the aforesaid sum or value of five hundred dollars, exclusive of costs, to be made to appear to the satisfaction of the court, and the defendant shall, at the time of entering his appearance in such state court, file a petition for the removal of the cause for trial into the next circuit court to be held in the district where the suit is pend ing, and offer good and sufficient security for his entering in such court, on the first day of its session, copies of the said process against him, and also for his then appearing and entering special bail in the cause, if spe cial bail was originally required therein, it shall then be the duty of the state court to accept the surety and proceed no further in the cause. And any bail that may have been originally taken shall be discharged. And the said copies being entered as afore said in such court of the United States, the cause shall there proceed in the same man ner as if it had been brought there by ori ginal process. And any attachment of the
goods or estate of the defendant by the ori ginal process shall hold the goods or estate so attached, to answer the final judgment, in the same manner as by the laws of such state they would have been holden to answer final judgment had it been rendered by the circuit court in which the suit commenced. See act of September 24,1789, sect. 12; 4 Dall. 11; 5 Cranch, 303 ; 4 Johns. N. Y. 493 ; 1 Pet. 220 ; 2 Yeates, Penn. 275; 4 Wash. C. C. 286, 344.
And sect. 5 of the act of March 3, 1863, enacts that any suit or prosecution, civil or criminal, commenced in any state court against any officer, civil or nnlitary, or any other person, for any arrest or imprisonment made, or other trespasses or wrongs done or committed, or any act omitted to be done, at any time during the present rebellion, by vir tue or under color of any authority derived from or exercised by or under the.president of the United States, or any act of congress, the defendant may, by petition filed in con. formity to the provisions of the act, have such suit or prosecution removed for trial at the next circuit court of the United States to be held in the district where the suit is pending.
54. By the constitution, art. 3, sect. 2, 1, the judicial power shall extend to controversies between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different states.
By a clause of the 12th section of the act of September 24, 1789, it is enacted that if in any action commenced in a state court the title of land be concerned, and the parties are citizens of the same state, and the matter in dispute exceeds the sum or value of five hundred dollars, exclusive of costs, the sum Or wane being Made to appear to the Sibs faction of the court, either party, before the 'trial, shall state to 'the court, and make affi davit, if it require it, that 'he claims and shall rely upoir 'a right or title to the land undergrant Trent a state other than that in 'which the Suit is pending, and 'produce, the Original grant, or an exemplification of it, except where the loss of records shall put it out of his power, and shall move that the 'adverse 'party inform the court whether he claims a right of title to the land Under 'a grant from the state in which the is pending, the said adverse party Shall give such infortnation, otherwise not le allowed to plead Such grant, or give it in evidence upon the trial; and if he informs that he does claim under any such grant, the party 'claiming under the grant first mentioned =1 then, on 'motion, remove the cause for trial to the next circuit court to be holden in 'such diStrict. But if he is the defendant, he shall do it Under the same regulations as in the before-mentioned case of the removal of a cause into such court by an alien. And neither party removing the cause shall be al lowed to plead, or give evidence of, any other `title than that by him stated as aforesaid as the 'ground of his claim. See 9 Cranch, 292; '2 Wheat. 378.