1 Indian Terr. 199 | Ct. App. Ind. Terr. | 1897
(after stating the facts). Construing sec-m 905, Rev. St., U. S., it is held by the United States rcuit Court of appeals for the Eighth circuit that the pro-edings and judgments of the courts of the Cherokee and ■eek Nations are upon the same footing, and entitled to the me faith and credit, as the proceedings and judgments of e courts of the territories of the Union. Mehlin vs Ice, 5 C. A. 403, 56 Fed. 19; Davison vs Gibson, 12 U. S. App. 4, 5 C. C. A. 543, and 56 Fed. 443; Exendine vs Pore, 6 C. A. 112, 56 Fed. 777; Standley vs Roberts, 8 C. C. A. 305, Fed. 836. These decisions are supported by the authority Mackey vs Coxe, 18 How. 100. The judgments of the irts of the territories, by the terms of the statute, stand m the same footing as the judgments of the courts of the bes. In fixing the scope and extent of section 905, the áreme Court has declared that, in a collateral attack upon idgment of the courts named therein, it is of no avail to w that there are errors in the record relied upon, unless IHy be such as prove that the court had no jurisdiction of M case, or that the judgment rendered was beyond its Hrer. Scotland Co. vs Hill, 132 U. S. 107, 10 Sup. Ct. 26; Cooper vs Reynolds, 10 Wall. 308. The record of a judg-
In applying these rules to the case in hqmd, the fir: question that arises is, has the Creek Court rendered a judf.
Much of the testimony in the record goes to show thal the lease from the Creek Nation under which appellant] claim is illegal because not made in compliance with th Creek laws upon the subject, and because the grant was i: excess of the authority of the principal chief. The jud, ment of the Creek court precludes our consideration of the: questions. We cannot review errors of law or practice i| such courts, when their judgments are presented to u unless such errors are jurisdictional. Cornells vs Shannon 27 U. S. App. 329, 11 C. C. A. 465, and 63 Fed. 305.
' It is further ■ urged that the judgment of the Cre< court is in excess of its jurisdiction, because the amount i| controversy exceeds $100, the limit of the jurisdiction of tl| District Courts of the Creek Nation. It is enough to say this that the record does not show what the value of tl| premises in controversy was at the time of the rendition the judgment by Judge Mingo in the Creek court, and tl| presumption is in favor of the jurisdiction.
We have considered long whether we should rega: the proceedings before ■ Judge Mingo, with their pate:
The contention is further made that, if the appellants had a right of action at all, their action should have been at law. Equitable jurisdiction, in our judgment, can be sustained upon distinct grounds. It is alleged and proven that appellees were entering in and upon a portion of the premises adjudged by the Creek Court to belong to appellants, and had run a wire fence across the same, inclosing nearly 1,000 acres of said pasture, and threatened to turn their own cattle in and upon the same, and to use and graze it, to the exclusion of the appellants and their lessees. In 2 Beach, Inj. 1146, it is said: “A trespass upon real property, effected by m unlawful structure, is continuous in its nature, and gives eparate, successive causes of action from time to time, jarred only by the running of the statute of limitations, igainst the successive trespasses.” This statement of the aw is abundantly supported by the authorities cited by the buthor. The principle upon which equitable relief is grant-r r r ° d in such cases is the avoidance of a multiplicity of suits; uch multiplicity not necessarily and solely arising from the xistenee of a number of parties for or against whom a cause ay exist, as held in Carney vs Hadley (Fla.) 14 South. 4, ut arising from the necessity of bringing many and succes,ive suits at law to obtain full redress for a continuous rong. “Jurisdiction of equity arises by reason of the ecessity of repeated actions at law to redress the owner’s rievance, and .must, from the nature of the case, continue long as that necessity exists. ” Galway vs Railway Co., 28 N. Y. 132, 28 N. E. 479. That this is one of the grounds ion which equity interferes to avoid a multiplicity of suits stated by Mr. Pomeroy in his work on Equity Jurispru- ' ¡nee (volume 1, § 264), and is supported by an array of thorities cited by him. The rule has been acted upon