after stating the contents. of the certificate of the court below as above reproduced, delivered the opinion of the court.
The question as to which the court below desires to be instructed upon the case as stated in the foregoing certificate is this:
“Where a contract between a citizen of the State of New York and a citizen of the State of Texas is entered into, made and executed in the State of New York, for the sale of cottоn for future delivery upon the New York Cotton Exchange, pursuant to the rules, regulations, customs and usages of said Exchange, and the same is a valid exigible contract in the State of New York, does the statute of the State of Texas (known as the 'Bucket Shop Law’) passed by the 30th Legislature of the State of Texas, in 1907, the same being incorporated in the Revised Criminal Statutes of Texas (1911) as Chapter 3, pages 141, 142, or any public policy therein declared, prevent a district court of the United States, sitting in Texas, wherein a suit is brought to recover for breach of said contract from granting such relief as otherwise but for such statute the parties would be entitled to have and receive?” .
We construe the question as simply аsking whether under the pleadings as stated in the certificate a cause of action was disclosed which there was jurisdiction to hear, taking into consideration the local law including the provisions of the Texas statute referred to in thе question.
It is obvious on the face of the pleadings as stated in the certificate that the contract the enforcement of which was sought was valid under the laws of the State of New York, the place where it was entered into and where it was executed, and this validity was not and could not be affected by the laws of the State of Texas, as in the nature of things such laws could have no extraterritorial opera *21 tion. This conclusion is, however, negligible, as the question is not whether the contract was valid, but whether being valid' under the law of New York, it was susceptible, consistently with the laws of Texas, of enforcement in the courts of the United States sitting in that State. And this question involves the inquiry: Was there any local public poliсy in the State of Texas which, consistently with the duty of the courts of that State under the Constitution to give effect to a contract validly made in another State, was sufficient to warrant a refusal by the courts of that State to discharge such duty?
A statеment of a few elementary doctrines is essential to a consideration of this issue. Treating the two States as sovereign and foreign to each other — New York, under whose laws the contract was made and where it was valid, and Texas, in whоse courts we are assuming it was sought to be enforced — it is elementary that the right to enforce a foreign contract in another foreign country could alone rest upon the general principles of comity. But elementary as is the rule of comity, it is equally rudimentary that an independent State under that principle will not lend the aid of its courts to enforce a contract founded upon a foreign law where to do so would be repugnant to good morals, would leаd to disturbance and disorganization of the local municipal law, or in other words, violate the public policy of the State where the enforcement of the foreign contract is sought. It is moreover axiomatic that the existence of the described conditions preventing the enforcement in a given case does not exclusively depend upon legislation but may result from a judicial consideration of the subject, although it is also true that courts of one sovereignty will not refuse to give effect to the principle of comity by declining to enforce contracts which are valid under the laws of another sovereignty unless constrained to do so by clear convictions of the existence, оf the conditions justifying that course. And
*22
finally it is certain that as it is peculiarly within the province of the law-making power to define the public policy of the State, where that power has been exerted in such a way as to manifest that a violation of public policy would result from the enforcement of a foreign contract validly, entered into finder a foreign law, comity will yield to the manifestation of the legislative will and enforcement will not be permitted. It is certain that these principles which govern as between countries foreign to each other apply with greater force to the relation of the several States to each other, since the obligations of the Constitution which bind them all in a common orbit of national unity impose of necessity restrictions which otherwise would not obtain and exact a greater degree of respect for each other than otherwise by the principles of comity would be expected. It is unnecessary to cite authority for these several doctrines since, as wq have said, they are indisputable, but -they nowhere find a more lucid exposition than that long ago made by Mr. Chief Justice Taney in
Bank of Augusta
v.
Earle,
Coming to apply these princiрles from general considerations, as it is undoubted that the New York contract as declared on was not only valid under the law of New York, but was not repugnant to the common or general law, as long since settled by this court
(Irwin
v.
Williar,
The statute is criminal and provides a punishment for the offences which it defines and the argumеnt is that, *23 this being true, it necessarily forbids as a matter of public policy the ¡enforcement in, Texas of contracts, although lawful by the laws of another State, which, if entered into in Texas, would be criminal, since it must be that the public policy of Tеxas exacts that the results of a contract which if made in Texas would be punished as a crime shall not be susceptible of enforcement in its civil courts because made in another State. But without stopping to analyze the authoritiеs relied upon to sustain the proposition in order to determine whether they support the doctrine as broadly stated, we observe that although the proposition were to be conceded for the sake of the argument only, thаt concession is immaterial for this reason: The statute relied upon (the pertinent sections are in the margin 1 ) does not make criminal all shies for future delivery *24 of the property described, but only forbids and punishes the making of contracts of that nature where certain prescribed сonditions are not exacted or do not exist. It looks, therefore, not to prohibit all such contracts but to secure in all when made in Texas the presence of conditions deemed to be essential. Indeed, it goes further, since еven although the contract on the subject may have been made with the express stipulation as to delivery exacted by the statute, nevertheless crime and punishment may result as against a particular party to the contract who in bad faith has assented to the express stipulation, which otherwise would be valid. These conclusions we think plainly result from the definitions which the statute makes in the first class as to delivery, in the second class as to option, and in the third as to ultimatе performance, none of which conditions we think can be said to. necessarily embrace the contract sued upon taking the facts alleged in the petition to be established. It is true the statute contains general provisions in articles 545 and 546 (which we do not reproduce) that wherever a criminal prosecution is commenced against a person who may have, made a particular future contract containing provisions in violation of the statute, thе presumption shall be prima facie that the illegal conditions existed and therefore that there was guilt until the contrary was shown. But we are of opinion that this affords no ground in a civil case brought to enforce a contract, for holding that the averments of the petition must be taken to be untrue in order to defeat a right to be heard simply be'cause under a criminal statute as to particular offences the burden of proof is shifted.
Concluding as we do that, accepting the averments of the petition as true, the cause of action was susceptible *25 of being heard in the courts of Texas and therefore was also susceptible ,of being, brought in the courts of the United States in that State, we are of opinion that thе question asked should be replied tó in the negative. And of course we must not be understood as deciding whether the mere existence of a state statute punishing one who in bad faith, and because of such bad faith, had made an agreement to deliver in a contract of sale which would be otherwise valid, could become the' basis of a public policy preventing the enforcement in Texas of contracts for sale and delivery made in another State which were there valid although one of the parties might have made the agreement to deliver in bad faith. In other words, wé must not be understood as expressing any opinion on the subject of whether, consistently with the very nature of the relations between the sеveral States resulting from the constitutional obligations resting upon thém, the courts of Texas under the guise of a public policy resting merely on the conditions stated could rightfully refuse to enforce a contract validly made in another State, or at all events whether under such circumstances, such a contract would not in the nature of things be enforceable in the appropriate courts of the United States.
A negative answer is therefore made to the question askеd and it is ordered that it he so certified.
Notes
Texas Revised Criminal Statutes; 1911, Title 11, c. 3, p. 141.
Art. 538. A bucket shop defined. — A bucket shop, -within the meaning of this law, is any place wherein dealing in futures is carried on contrary to any of the provisions hereof.
Art. 539. Futures or dealing in futures defined. — By each of the expressions, “futures,” “dealing in futures,” and “future contracts,” as these terms are used in this law is meant: 1. A sale or purchase, or contract to sell, or any offer to sell or purchase, any cotton, grain, meаt, lard, or any stocks or bonds of any corporation, to be delivered in the future, when it was not the bona fide intention of the party being prosecuted under this chapter, at the time that such sale, contract, purchase, or offer tо sell or purchase, was made, that the thing mentioned in such transaction should be delivered and paid for as-specified in such transaction. 2. Any such sale, purchase, offer or contract, where it was the intention of the party being prosecuted hereunder at the time of making such contract or offer, that the same should, or, at the option of either party, might be settled by paying or receiving a margin or profit on such contract. 3. Any purchase, sale or offer оf sale or purchase, or contract for future delivery of any of the things mentioned in this article on, by or through any exchange or board of trade, the rules, bylaws, customs or regulations of which permit such contract or transaction to bе’ settled or closed by delivery or tender of any grade or grades of the thing mentioned in such contract or transaction, other *24 than the grade upon which the price is based in said transaction, at any price other than the actual price for spot delivery of such other grade or grades, at the time and place of delivery or tender.