Durfee v. Duke case brief

Durfee v. Duke case brief summary
375 U.S. 106 (1963)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Petitioners filed suit against respondent to quiet title to land on the boundary of Nebraska and Missouri. Petitioners obtained a state court judgment that the land was in Nebraska. Respondent filed a second quiet title suit in Missouri. The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that the Missouri district court was not required to give full faith and credit to the Nebraska judgment. Petitioners sought certiorari review.

DISCUSSION

• The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari and reversed the judgment because the federal court in Missouri had the power and, upon proper averments, the duty to inquire into the jurisdiction of the Nebraska courts to render the decree quieting title to the land in petitioners. 
• The Court held that when that inquiry disclosed, as it did, that the jurisdictional issues had been fully and fairly litigated by the parties and finally determined in the Nebraska courts, the federal court in Missouri was correct in ruling that further inquiry was precluded.

CONCLUSION
The court reversed the judgment of the lower court.

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