New Orleans Land Co. v. Leader Realty Co., Ltd., 255 U.S. 266 (1921)

New Orleans Land Company v. Leader Realty Company, Ltd.

No. 152

Argued January 18, 1921
Decided February 28, 1921
255 U.S. 266

APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA

Syllabus

In a suit against New Orleans, where jurisdiction rested on diverse citizenship, the district court, through a receiver, sold certain land to satisfy a money judgment previously recovered by the plaintiff against the city on certain drainage warrants, the sale being decreed upon the ground that, under acts of Louisiana, the city held the land in trust to secure such warrants. Held that the proceeding was not in rem, passed only such title as the city had, and afforded no basis for ancillary jurisdiction of a suit in the same court to protect the title sold against a later judgment of the state courts which adjudged it inferior to another title, derived by independent grant from the state, whose holder and its predecessors were not parties to the receivership proceedings.

Affirmed.

This was a direct appeal from a decree of the district court, Eastern District of Louisiana, dismissing for want of jurisdiction a bill to restrain enforcement of a judgment of the supreme court of the state. In addition to the decisions cited in the opinion, see Peake v. New Orleans (1889), 38 F. 779; s.c. 139 U.S. 342; New Orleans v. Peake (C.C.A. 1892), 52 F. 74, the latter being in the case in which the receiver’s sale occurred. The case is stated in the opinion.