Opinion of the Court.

The highest court of New Jersey upheld the tax, on the ground that the long acquiescence of the landowners raised a presumption that the exemption which had once existed. had been surrendered. The jurisdiction of this court to review such judgment was sustained, the court saying:

"Where it is charged that the obligation of a contract has been impaired by a state law, as in this case by the general tax law of New Jersey as administered by the state authorities, and the state courts justify such impairment by the application of some general rule of law to the facts of the case, it is our duty to inquire whether the justification is well grounded. If it is not, the party is entitled to the benefit of the constitutional protection."

In Yazoo &c. Railroad v. Thomas, 132 U. S. 174, 184, the plaintiff in error was given by its charter, which became a law on February 17, 1882, a certain exemption from taxation. In 1888 the legislature passed an act for the collection of taxes for past years, which by its terms was not applicable to railroad companies exempt by law or charter from taxation. The Supreme Court of the State held that the plaintiff was not entitled to the benefit of the exemption named in the act of 1888. The jurisdiction of this court to review that judgment was challenged. But the court, by the Chief Justice, said:

"Although by the terms of the act of 1888 the taxes therein referred to were not to be levied as against a railroad exempt by law or charter, yet the Supreme Court held that this company is not exempt, and is embraced within the act; so that if a contract of exemption is contained in the company's charter, then the obligation of that contract is impaired by the act of 1888, which must be considered, under the ruling of the Supreme Court, as intended to apply to the company. The result is the same, although the act of 1888 be regarded as simply putting in force revenue laws existing at the date of the company's charter, rather than itself imposing taxes, for if the contract existed those laws became inoperative, and would be reinstated by the act of 1888. The motion to dismiss the writ of error is therefore overruled."

Opinion of the Court.

In Wilmington & Weldon Railroad v. Alsbrook, 146 U. S. 279, 293, the state court, conceding the validity of a contract of exemption from taxation, held that certain property was not within its terms, and on this ground a motion to dismiss the writ of error was made by the defendant. In respect to that the Chief Justice said:

"The jurisdiction of this court is questioned, upon the ground that the decision of the Supreme Court of North Carolina conceded the validity of the contract of exemption contained in the act of 1834, but denied that that particular property was embraced by its terms; and that, therefore, such decision did not involve a Federal question.

"In arriving at its conclusions, however, the state court gave effect to the revenue law of 1891, and held that the contract did not confer the right of exemption from its operation. If it did, its obligation was impaired by the subsequent law, and as the inquiry whether it did or not was necessarily directly passed upon, we are of opinion that the writ of error was properly allowed."

In Mobile & Ohio Railroad v. Tennessee, 153 U. S. 486, 492, 493, Mr. Justice Jackson, reviewing prior decisions, said:

"It is well settled that the decision of a state court holding that, as a matter of construction, a particular charter or a charter provision does not constitute a contract, is not binding on this court. The question of the existence or non-existence of a contract in cases like the present is one which this court will determine for itself, the established rule being that where the judgment of the highest court of a State, by its terms or necessary operation, gives effect to some provisions of the state law which is claimed by the unsuccessful party to impair the contract set out and relied on, this court has jurisdiction to determine the question whether such a contract exists as claimed, and whether the state law complained of impairs its obligation."

In the case before us, after the act of 1871, and in 1872, the general assembly passed an act requiring that all taxes should be paid in "gold or silver coin, United States Treasury notes, or notes of the national banks of the United States;" and

Opinion of the Court.

again, in 1882, a further statute commanding tax collectors to receive in payment of taxes "gold, silver, United States Treasury notes, national bank currency, and nothing else." This command was reënacted in the Code of 1887. Under these statutes the State demanded payment of its taxes in money and repudiated its promise to receive coupons in lieu thereof. True, in its opinion, the Court of Appeals did not specifically refer to these statutes, but by declaring that the contract provided for in the act of 1871 was void it did give full force and effect to them, as well as to the general revenue law of the State. Now, it is one of the duties cast upon this court by the Constitution and laws of the United States to inquire whether a State has passed any law impairing the obligation. of a prior contract. No duty is more solemn and imperative than this, and it seems to us that we should be recreant to that duty if we should permit the form in which a state court expresses its conclusions to override the necessary effect of its decision.

It must also be borne in mind that this is not a case in which, after a statute asserted to be the foundation of a contract, acts are passed designed and tending to destroy or impair the alleged contract rights, and the first time the question is presented to the highest court of the State it takes no notice of the subsequent acts, but inquires simply as to the validity of the alleged contract. Here it appears that the state courts had repeatedly held the act claimed to create a contract valid, and had passed upon the validity of subsequent acts designed and calculated to destroy and impair the rights given by such contract, sustaining some and annulling others. Some of those judgments had been brought to this court, and by it the validity of the original act had been uniformly and repeatedly sustained, and the invalidity of subsequent and conflicting acts adjudged, and now at the end of many years of litigation, with these subsequent statutes still standing on the statute books unrepealed by any legislative action, the state court, with only a casual reference to those later statutes, goes back to the original act, and, reversing its prior rulings, adjudges it void, thus in effect putting at naught the repeated

Opinion of the Court.

decisions of this court as well as its own.

Under such circum

stances it seems to us that it would be a clear evasion of the duty cast upon us by the Constitution of the United States to treat all this past litigation and prior decisions as mere nullities and to consider the question as a matter de novo. It would be shutting our eyes to palpable facts to say that the Court of Appeals of Virginia has not by this decision given effect to these subsequent statutes.

Finally, it is urged that since the judgment in the trial court and prior to the decision in the Court of Appeals the general assembly of the State of Virginia passed the act of February 21, 1894, c. 381, Acts General Assembly, 1893-94, p. 381, in terms repealing the statute authorizing this particular form of suit; that no State can be sued without its own consent; that such consent has thus been withdrawn, and therefore the whole proceeding abates and this suit must be dismissed. It is true that such an act was passed, and that in Maury v. Commonwealth, 92 Virginia, 310, its validity was sustained by the Court of Appeals, but the judgment in this case did not go upon the effect of that repealing statute. It was not noticed in the opinion, and the decision was not that the suit abate by reason of the repeal of the statute authorizing it, but that the judgment of the trial court be reversed, and a new judgment be entered against the petitioner for costs. If the action had abated it was error to render judgment against him for costs.

But there are more substantial reasons than this for not entertaining this motion. At the time the judgment was rendered in the Circuit Court of the city of Norfolk the act of 1882 was in force, and the judgment was rightfully entered under the authority of that act. The writ of error to the Court of Appeals of the State brought the validity of that judgment into review, and the question presented to that court was whether at the time it was rendered it was rightful or not. If rightful the plaintiff therein had a vested right which no state legislation could disturb. It is not within the power of a legislature to take away rights which have. been once vested by a judgment. Legislation may act on

Opinion of the Court.

subsequent proceedings, may abate actions pending, but when those actions have passed into judgment the power of the legislature to disturb the rights created thereby ceases. So, properly, the Court of Appeals, in considering the question of the validity of this judgment, took no notice of the subsequent repeal of the act under which the judgment was obtained, and the inquiry in this court is not what effect the repealing act of 1894 had upon proceedings initiated thereafter, or pending at the time, but whether such a repeal divested a plaintiff in a judgment of the rights acquired by that judgment. And in that respect we have no doubt that the rights acquired by the judgment under the act of 1882 were not disturbed by a subsequent repeal of the statute.

Even if the repeal had preceded the judgment in the trial court, or if in a proceeding like this, equitable in its nature, the mere taking of the case to the Court of Appeals operated to vacate the decree, there would still remain a serious question. When the act of 1871 was passed the coupon holder had a remedy by writ of mandamus to compel the acceptance of his coupons in payment of taxes. The form and mode. of proceeding were prescribed by statute. Code Virginia, c. 151, 1873, p. 1023. On January 14, 1882, the general assembly passed the act providing a new remedy for the coupon holder. This act came before this court in Antoni v. Greenhow, 107 U. S. 769, 774, and was sustained, the court holding that while it is true that, "as a general rule, laws applicable to the case which are in force at the time and place of making a contract enter into and form part of the contract itself, and that this embraces alike those laws which affect its validity, construction, discharge and enforcement,' Walker v. Whitehead, 16 Wall. 314, 317," "it is equally well settled that changes in the forms of action and modes of proceeding do not amount to an impairment of the obligations. of a contract, if an adequate and efficacious remedy is left." Upon this ground it was held that the new remedy being adequate and efficacious, the taking away of the old right of proceeding by mandamus was valid, and the coupon holder must be content with the new remedy. Now the statute