Opinion
No. 4542.
June 25, 1931. Rehearing Denied July 20, 1931.
Appeal from the District Court of the United States for the Hammond Division of the Northern District of Indiana; Fred L. Wham, Judge.
Action by Otto Gresham against Harry G. Leslie and another. From a judgment sustaining a demurrer and dismissing the complaint, plaintiff appeals.
Affirmed.
Otto Gresham, of Chicago, Ill., pro se.
Richard P. Tinkham and C.B. Tinkham, both of Hammond, Ind., for appellees.
Before EVANS and PAGE, Circuit Judges, and LINDLEY, District Judge.
The District Court sustained a demurrer and dismissed appellant's complaint charging that appellees, as officers of the Lower House of the Indiana Legislature, had damaged him by reason of their refusal to permit action by the Lower House upon a petition presented by appellant. When filed, the petition was said by appellant to be one for the impeachment of two Indiana circuit court judges, and, fairly considered, it is nothing more. Several times the Supreme Court of Indiana in construing the Constitution and statutes of that state has held that its Legislature is without power to impeach circuit judges. State v. Patterson, 181 Ind. 660, 105 N.E. 228; State v. Redman, 183 Ind. 332, 109 N.E. 184; State v. Dearth, 201 Ind. 1, 164 N.E. 489.
We are bound by that court's interpretation of the laws of the state. Slaughter House Cases, 16 Wall. 36, 21 L. Ed. 394; Douglas v. Noble, 261 U.S. 165, 43 S. Ct. 303, 67 L. Ed. 590; Isaacs v. McNeil (C.C.) 44 F. 32, 11 L.R.A. 254.
Affirmed.