to creditors and claimants under the limited liability act, must be commenced and prosecuted in the district where the property is found.00

§ 604. Same-Interventions.-Interventions pro interesse suo, to claim proceeds in the registry of the court, or to assert liens on property which has, in suits in rem, been arrested, must, as a matter of course, be filed in the court where the original suit was brought, and in the very suit itself.91 Courts of admiralty, under the forty-third rule, have the power to distribute surplus proceeds to all persons who can show a vested interest therein, in the order of their several priorities, no matter how their claims originated.92

90 The Propeller Commerce, 1 Black, 574 (17:107); Nelson v. Leland, 22 How. 296 (15:909); The Reindeer, 2 Wall. 403 (17:915); The Steamboat Cheesman v. Two Ferry Boats, 2 Bond, 369, Fed. Cas. No. 2,633; Town v. The Western Metropolis, 24 Fed. Cas. 93; The Hungaria, 41 Fed. R. 112; The

Merino, 9 Wheat. 391 (6:118), U.
S. Rev. Stat. sec. 734, 3 Fed. Stat.
Anno. p. 95; Admiralty rules 9,
22, 23, 57.

91 Admiralty rules 34, 43; The Lottawana, 21 Wall. 558, 609 (22: 654).

92 The Lottawana, 21 Wall, 558, 609 (22:654).

CHAPTER XIV.

THE COMMON-LAW AND EQUITY JURISDICTION OF THE DISTRICT COURTS OF THE UNITED STATES.

the act to prevent unlaw-
ful occupancy of the
public lands.

§ 643. Jurisdiction of actions for
damages under the inter-
state commerce act.
644. Jurisdiction to issue writs
of mandamus to compel
equal facilities to ship-
pers.

645. Same-Foundation of the
right to the writ of man-
damus.

646. Same-Same-Purposes of the interstate commerce act.

647. Same-Plea in abatementFormer suit pending.

648. Same-Increased jurisdiction of the district courts by the last amendment to the act.

649. Seizure and destruction of obscene books, pictures and other articles imported from foreign countries in violation of law.

650. Jurisdiction of actions to
recover penalties for vio-
lations of the Safety Ap-
pliances Act.

651. Jurisdiction of suits pend-
ing in territorial courts
upon admission of the
territory as a state.
652. All issues of fact in actions
at law tried by jury.

§ 605. District courts are courts of common law, equity and admiralty. By the acts of congress constituting the judicial system of the United States, and vesting the judicial power of the government, the district courts are made courts of common law, and equity, and admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, and in all cases at common law the trial is by jury, and in all cases of equity, and admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, the trial is by the court without the intervention of a jury; and although

the three jurisdictions are vested in the same tribunal they are as distinct from each other as if they were vested in different tribunals, and cannot be blended, but the remedies common to each jurisdiction must be separately pursueb.'

§ 606. District courts are government courts.-The district courts occupy, in the federal judicial system, the position of government courts, having and exercising jurisdiction of crimes against the government, and also of civil actions touching the public revenues, and for penalties and forfeitures, and of seizures, arising out of the customs and revenue laws; and in their jurisdiction in the latter respect they bear a strong analogy to the English exchequer.3

11 U. S. Stat. at L. ch. 9, pp. 7379; U. S. Rev. Stat. secs. 563, 566, 3207; The Sarah, 8 Wheat. 391, 296 (5:644); Ex parte Phillips, 101 U. S. (25:781).

2 U. S. Rev. Stat. sec. 563; 1 U. S. Stat. at L. ch. 20, sec. 9, pp. 7379; Matthews v. Offley, 3 Sumn. 115, Fed. Cas. 9,290.

82 Chitty's Prac. 314, 315, 316, 389-402, 450, 451.

"The court of exchequer, as originally constituted, was a court of record merely for the hearing and determining of matters relating to the revenue of the crown; and in many respects revenue questions must exclusively be heard and determined either on the common-law or equity side of this court and not in chancery; and hence it is supposed by other courts that this court is more eligible for the decisions upon revenue questions, and may be so, subject to the possibility of bias in favor of the crown. The exchequer was originally divided into eight courtsas: the court of pleas (still the proper law court). * The first specified court, viz: the court of pleas, is the exchequer

2

court of law, and was properly and anciently the court in which debts or duties to the king were to be recovered, usually by information by the attorney-general, and actions by and against the officers of this court, and the king's actual debtors, and against actual prisoners in the Fleet prison of the court, were always sustainable in this court. Magna Charta prohibited real, mixed and personal actions to be brought elsewhere than in the common pleas, and the statute of Rutland, 10 Ed. I., in affirmance, as is said. of the common law, enacted that 'no plea shall be held in the exchequer unless it specially concern the king or his ministers. Anciently equity suits could only be instituted in this court in revenue matters, and when a party was a debtor to the crown, or was a clergyman bound to pay to the king his first fruits and annual tenths.' 2 Chitty's Prac. 389, 390, 391, 450, 451, supra."

*

*

In Matthews v. Offley, 3 Sumn. 115, Fed. Cas. 9,290, supra, Story, justice, said:

"Upon general principles, where

§ 607. Statutes defining the jurisdiction of the district courts. The jurisdiction of the district courts was first defined. by the ninth section of the original judiciary act, and it has, since its enactment, continued to be the basis of that jurisdiction, down to the present time. That section is as follows:

"Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That the district courts shall have, exclusively of the courts of the several states, cognizance of all crimes and offenses that shall be cognizable under the authority of the United States, committed within their respective districts, or upon the high seas, where no other punishment than whipping, not exceeding thirty stripes, a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, or a term of imprisonment not exceeding six months, is to be inflicted; and shall also have exclusive original cognizance of all civil causes of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, including all seizures under laws of impost, navigation or trade of the United States, where the seizures are made on waters which are navigable from the sea by vessels of ten or more tons burthen, within their respective districts, as well as upon the high seas; saving to suitors, in all cases, the right of a common-law remedy, where the common law is competent to give it; and shall also have exclusive original cognizance of all seizures on land, or other waters than as aforesaid, made, and of all suits for penalties and forfeitures incurred, under the laws of the United States. And shall also have cognizance, concurrent with the courts of the several states, or the circuit courts, as the case may be, of all causes where an alien sues for a tort only in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States. And shall also

a pecuniary penalty or forfeiture is inflicted for any public offense or wrong, it seems clear that the action to recover the penalty or forfeiture must be brought in the name of the government, and not in the name of a private party, unless some other mode for the recovery is prescribed by the stat ute; and the usual remedy of a pecuniary penalty is an action or information of debt by the gov ernment itself. This is the rule of the common law; therefore, it

has been held, that a suit will not lie by a common informer for such a penalty, unless also specially allowed by statute, for it is properly recoverable as a debt in a court of revenue by the government, and is in no just sense a criminal proceeding."

41 U. S. Stat. at L. ch. 20, sec. 9, pp. 73–79.

5 United States v. Mooney, 116 U. S. 104 (29:550); Lees v. United States, 150 U. S. 476, 478 (37: