Gibbons v. Ogden

APPEAL from the Court for the Trial of Impeachments and the Correction of Errors of the State of New-York. This was a bill filed by the plaintiff below, (Ogden,) against the defendant below, (Gibbons,) in the Court of Chancery of the State of New-York, for an injunction to restrain the defendant from navigating certain steam boats on the waters of the State of New-York, lying between Elizabethtown, in the State of New-Jersey, and the City of New-York: the exclusive navigation of which with steam boats had been granted, by the legislature of New-York, to Livingston and Fulton, under whom the plaintiff below claimed as assignee. On this bill an injunction was granted by the Chancellor, and on the coming in of the answer, which set up a right to navigate with steam boats between the City of New-York and Elizabethtown, under a license to carry on the coasting trade, granted under the laws of the United States, the defendant below moved to dissolve the injunction, which motion was denied by the Chancellor. The defendant below appealed to the Court for the Trial of Impeachments and the Correction of Errors; the decretal order, rufusing to dissolve the injunction, was affirmed by that Court; and from this last order the defendant below appealed to this Court, upon the ground, that the case involved a question arising under the constitution, laws, and treaties of the United States.