Rooker v. Fidelity Trust Company

263 U.S. 413 (1923)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P filed a bill in equity to have a judgment of a circuit court in Indiana, which was affirmed by the Supreme Court of the State, declared null and void, and to obtain other relief dependent on that outcome. The parties to the bill are the same as in the litigation in the state court. The grounds for resorting to the District Court are that the judgment was rendered and affirmed in contravention of the contract clause of the Constitution of the United States and the due process of law and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, in that it gave effect to a state statute alleged to be in conflict with those clauses and did not give effect to a prior decision in the same cause by the Supreme Court of the State which is alleged to have become the 'law of the case.' The District Court held that it was not within its jurisdiction as defined by Congress, and dismissed the bill. Ps appealed directly to Supreme Court. Fidelity (Ds) moved that the appeal be dismissed