The learned circuit court of appeals has certified to this court six questions, concerning which it desires the instruction of this court for a proper decision of the cause. The following are the questions so certified: '(1) Has the United States circuit court for the district of North Dakota jurisdiction to hear and decide said case?
'(2) Were or were not the lands described in the bill of complaint subject to taxation under the laws of the territory of Dakota in the year 1888, by reason of the facts stated in the bill of complaint respecting the condition of the title thereof?
'(3) Was it the purpose of chapter 99 of the Laws of Dakota for 1883 to exempt from taxation lands granted to aid in the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad by the act of July 2, 1864, which are outside of its right of way, and are not shown to be used in its business as a common carrier?
'(4) If such was the purpose of the act, was the act void in whole or in part as transgressing the limitations placed upon the power of the territorial legislature?
'(5) Conceding that the purpose of chapter 99 of the Laws of 1883 was to exempt, among other things, the land grant of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and that said law is valid, are the payments of the percentage of the gross earnings for the year 1888, alleged in the bill to have been made, sufficient to entitle the complainant to the equitable relief sought?
'(6) Conceding the lands in controversy to have been subject to taxation for the year 1888, were the appellants, by reason of any of the alleged irregularities or defects in the mode of assessment, entitled to equitable relief without first offering to pay the taxes properly chargeable against said lands?'
Of these questions we think we ought to answer only the third, fourth, and fifth. The first, second, and sixth come within our rulings in the cases of Jewell v. Knight, 123 U.S. 426, 8 Sup. Ct. 193; Association v. Wickham, 128 U.S. 426, 9 Sup. Ct. 113; Maynard v. Hecht, 151 U.S. 324, 14 Sup. Ct. 353; Graver v. Faurot, 162 U.S. 435, 16 Sup. Ct. 799; Cross v. Evans, 167 U.S. 60, 17 Sup. Ct. 733; and U.S. v. Union Pac. R. Co. (decided December 13, 1897; not yet officially reported) 18 Sup. Ct. 167.
In the case last cited, in speaking of the rules which govern the certification provided for in sections 5 and 6 of the judiciary act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 826, c. 517), the chief justice repeated those rules as derived from prior decisions, and said that 'each question had to be a distinct point or proposition of law, clearly stated, so that it could be distinctly answered without regard to the other issues of law in the case; to be a question of law only, and not a question of fact, or of mixed law and fact; and hence could not involve or imply a conclusion or judgment upon the weight or effect of testimony or facts adduced in the case, and could not embrace the whole case, even where its decision turned upon matter of law only, and even though it was split up in the form of questions.'
Guided by these rules, we find that the first question does not comply with their requirements. No single question of law is plainly raised therein. The record only shows that the case was commenced in a state court, and was removed upon the petition of one of the individual defendants into the circuit court of the United States for the district of North Dakota. Neither party (so far as appears from the record) raised any question of jurisdiction in the circuit court to hear and determine the whole case. Whether there is some defect supposed to exist in the petition for removal, or whether the controversy was or was not a separable one, or whether the citizenship of the different parties was not sufficiently alleged or did not sufficiently appear, whether the petition was filed in the proper time, or the bond was sufficient in form, or the approval of the court was or was not sufficient, all these questions are possible subjects of inquiry in order to answer the general question submitted to us. We should not be asked to grope our way through the papers submitted, and examine every objection that imagination could raise, with no hint as to what, if any, objection is really supposed to exist. Some of the above enumerated possible objections could not in any event be answered in the present state of the record, which does not contain all the facts necessary to be known in their consideration. If the whole case were here upon writ of error or appeal, we should have to look into any question of jurisdiction, whether raised or not; but we are not obliged to do so when questions only are certified to us, unless presented in proper form.