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91-1158.ZS
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NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is
being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued.
The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been
prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.
See United States v. Detroit Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Syllabus
MISSISSIPPI et al. v. LOUISIANA et al.
certiorari to the united states court of appeals for
the fifth circuit
No. 91-1158. Argued November 9, 1992-Decided December 14, 1992
After private plaintiffs brought suit against private defendants in the
District Court to quiet title to certain land riparian to the Mississippi
River, Louisiana intervened in the action and filed a third-party
complaint against Mississippi seeking to determine the boundary
between the two States in the vicinity of the disputed land. Follow-
ing this Court's denial of leave to Louisiana to file a bill of complaint
against Mississippi in this Court, the District Court found the land
in question to be part of Mississippi and quieted title in the plain-
tiffs. The Court of Appeals reversed.
Held:The uncompromising language of 28 U.S.C. 1251(a), which
gives to this Court ``original and exclusive jurisdiction of all controver-
sies between two or more States'' (emphasis added), deprived the
District Court of jurisdiction over Louisiana's third-party complaint
against Mississippi. Though 1251(a) is phrased in terms of a grant
of jurisdiction to this Court, the plain meaning of ``exclusive'' neces-
sarily denies jurisdiction of such cases to any other federal court.
See, e. g., California v. Arizona, 440 U.S. 59, 63. The District
Court's adjudication of a private action involving the location of the
boundary between two States does not violate 1251(a), since that
section speaks in terms of parties, not claims or issues. But the
adjudication of such an action would not be binding on the States in
any way. Because both of the Courts below intermixed the questions
of title to real property and of the state boundary's location, it must
be determined on remand whether on this record the claims of title
may fairly be decided without additional proceedings in the District
Court. Pp.2-6.
937 F.2d 247, reversed and remanded.
Rehnquist, C. J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.