Opinion of the Court. not, namely, that the Circuit Court had no authority to order an erasure of a mortgage on the records of the State. We should hesitate to concur with the state court in the opinion that the Circuit Court of the United States would have no authority to order the erasure of an incumbrance from the mortgage book of the State. The courts of the United States, in cases over which they have jurisdiction, have just as much power to effectuate justice between the parties as the state courts have. But we do not suppose that the jurisdiction of the state court in the present case depends on the incapacity of the Circuit Court to afford relief; but on its own inherent powers, and the fact that such jurisdiction has not been taken away by the proceedings in the federal court. We held in a number of cases, that the jurisdiction of the state courts over controversies between parties, one of whom was proceeded against under the late national bankrupt law, was not taken away by the bankruptcy proceedings; although a suit against the bankrupt might be suspended by order of the bankruptcy court until he obtained or was refused a discharge. See Eyster v. Gaff, 91 U. S. 521; Claflin v. Houseman, 93 U. S. 130; Mays v. Fritton, 20 Wall. 414; McHenry v. La Société Francaise &c., 95 U. S. 58. In the case of Bank of Bethel v. Pahquioque Bank, 14 Wall. 383, we decided that suit might be brought in a state court against a national bank, although it had made default in paying its circulating notes, and a receiver of a bank had been appointed by the Comptroller of the Currency. A fortiori, a company may be sued whose assets have been placed in the hands of a receiver in an ordinary suit in chancery. It is objected, however, that no action can be commenced against receivers without permission of the court which appointed them; and reference is made to Barton v. Barbour, 104 U. S. 126, 128, and Davis v. Gray, 16 Wall. 203. This is not an action against the receivers, but against the Consolidated Association and the recorder of mortgages. The receivers were notified of the proceeding by being served with a copy of the petition, so as to give them an opportunity of objecting if they saw fit to do so. They did not appear, and Syllabus. made no objections. The state bondholders were made parties, and they did appear. We are not concerned, however, with the proceedings, or the merits of the case, but only with the question of the jurisdiction of the court. Of this we have no doubt. Perhaps the Circuit Court, on application of the receivers, might have interfered to prevent the petitioner from proceeding in the state court, had they thought proper to make such an application; but they did nothing of the kind. This was not the case of a proceeding in the state court to deprive the receivers of property in their possession as such. That would have been a different thing, and the state court would not have had jurisdiction for such a purpose. This was only a case for enforcing the right of the petitioner to have cancelled on the books of the recorder a mortgage which had been satisfied and paid, not interfering in any way with. the possession of the receiver. -- We are satisfied that the state court had jurisdiction of the case, and The judgment of the Supreme Court is affirmed. LELOUP v. PORT OF MOBILE. ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF ALABAMA. No. 274. Submitted May 2, 1888. - Decided May 14, 1888. Where a telegraph company is doing the business of transmitting messages between different States, and has accepted and is acting under the telegraph law passed by Congress July 24th, 1866, no State within which it sees fit to establish an office can impose upon it a license tax, or require it to take out a license for the transaction of such business. Telegraphic communications are commerce, as well as in the nature of postal service, and if carried on between different States, they are interstate commerce, and within the power of regulation conferred upon Congress, free from the control of state regulations, except such as are strictly of a police character; and any state regulations by way of tax on the occupation or business, or requiring a license to transact such business, are unconstitutional and void. Opinion of the Court. A general license tax on a telegraph company affects its entire business, interstate as well as domestic or internal, and is unconstitutional. The property of a telegraph company, situated within a State, may be taxed by the State as all other property is taxed; but its business of an interstate character cannot be thus taxed. The Western Union Telegraph Company established an office in the city of Mobile, Alabama, and was required to pay a license tax under a city ordinance, which imposed an annual license tax of $225 on all telegraph companies, and the agent of the company was fined for the non-payment of this tax in an action to recover the fine, he pleaded the charter and nature of occupation of the company, and its acceptance of the act of Congress of July 24th 1866, and the fact that its business consisted in transmitting messages to all parts of the United States, as well as in Alabama: Held, a good defence. THE case is stated in the opinion. Mr. Gaylord B. Clark for plaintiff in error submitted on his brief. No appearance for defendant in error. MR. JUSTICE BRADLEY delivered the opinion of the court. This was an action brought in the Mobile Circuit Court, in the State of Alabama, by the Port of Mobile, a municipal corporation, against Edward Leloup, agent of the Western Union Telegraph Company, to recover a penalty imposed upon him for the violation of an ordinance of said corporation, adopted in pursuance of the powers given to it by the legislature of Alabama, and in force in August, 1883. The ordinance was as follows, to wit: "Be it ordained by the Mobile Police Board, that the license tax for the year, from the 15th of March, 1883, to the 15th of March, 1884, be, and the same is hereby, fixed as follows: "On telegraph companies, $225. "Be it further ordained: For each and every violation of the aforesaid ordinance the person convicted thereof shall be fined by the recorder not less than one nor more than fifty dollars." The complaint averred that the defendant, being the managing agent of the Western Union Telegraph Company, a cor VOL. CXXVII-41 Opinion of the Court. poration having its place of business in the said port of Mobile, and then and there engaged in the business and occupation of transmitting telegrams from and to points within the State. of Alabama and between the private individuals of the State of Alabama, as well as between citizens of said State and citizens of other States, committed a breach of said ordinance by neglecting and refusing to pay said license to the said municipal corporation. The complainant further averred that for this breach the recorder of the port of Mobile imposed on the defendant a fine of five dollars, for which sum the suit was brought. The defendant pleaded that at the time of the alleged breach of said ordinance, he was the duly appointed manager, at the port of Mobile, of the Western Union Telegraph Company. That said company "was prior to the fifth day of June, 1867, a telegraph company duly incorporated and organized under the laws of the State of New York, and by its charter authorized to construct, maintain, and operate lines of telegraph in and between the various States of the Union, including the State of Alabama. That on said fifth day of June, 1867, the said telegraph company duly filed its written acceptance with the Postmaster General of the United States of the restrictions and obligations of an act of Congress entitled 'An act to aid in the construction of telegraph lines and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes,' approved July 24th, 1866. That in accordance with the authority of its said charter and the said act of Congress, and by agreement with the railroad companies, the said telegraph company constructed its lines and was at the time of the said alleged breach of said ordinance, maintaining and operating said lines of telegraph on the various public railroads leading into or through the said port of Mobile, to wit, the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, a railroad extending from the said port of Mobile, in Alabama, through the States of Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky, to Cairo, in the State of Illinois; the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, extending from Cincinnati, in the State of Ohio, through said port of Mobile to New Orleans, in the State of Opinion of the Court. Louisiana, with a branch extending from said State of Alabama over the Pensacola and Louisville Railroad to Pensacola, in the State of Florida. That the said telegraph lines so running into or through said port of Mobile connected with and extended beyond the termini of the said railroads over other railroads, making continuous lines of telegraph from the office of said company, in said port of Mobile, to, through, and over all of the principal railroads, post roads, and military roads in and of the United States, and having offices for the transaction of telegraph business in the departments at Washington, in the District of Columbia, and in all of the principal cities, towns, and villages in each of the United States and in the Territories thereof. That all of said railroads so leading into and through the said port of Mobile and elsewhere in the United States are public highways, and that the daily mails of the United States are regularly carried thereon, under authority of law and the direction of the Postmaster General, and that said railroads and each of them are post roads of the United States. That said telegraph lines are also constructed under and across the navigable streams of the United States, in the State of Alabama and in the other States of the Union, but in all cases said lines are so constructed and maintained as not to obstruct the navigation of such streams and the ordinary travel on such military and post roads. That the said telegraph company was, before and during said year, commencing March 15th, 1883, and now is, engaged in the business of sending and receiving telegrams over said lines for the public between its said office in the port of Mobile and other places in other States and Territories of the United States, and to and from foreign countries; also in sending telegraphic communications between the several departments of the Government of the United States and their officers and agents, giving priority to said official telegraphic communications over all other business. And defendant avers that said official telegrams have been and are sent at rates which have been fixed by the Postmaster General annually since the said 5th of June, 1867. And defendant avers that as the manager of said company and in its name and under its direction and appoint |