law requiring judgments to be recorded in a particular way in order to make them a lien upon property. It was held that the statute did not abrogate the lien which had been acquired under the judgment of 1839, although the latter had not been recorded in the manner required by the State. Mr. Justice McLean, speaking for the Court, said:

"In those States where the judgment on the execution of a State court creates a lien only within the county in which the judgment is entered, it has not been doubted that a similar proceeding in the Circuit Court of the United States would create a lien to the extent of its jurisdiction. This has been the practical construction of the power of the courts of the United States, whether the lien was held to be created by the issuing of process or by express statute. Any other construction would materially affect, and in some degree subvert, the judicial power of the Union. It would place suitors in the State courts in a much better condition than in the federal courts."

It was held, therefore, in that case that the plaintiffs in the judgment had acquired a right under the authority of the United States and that that right could not be affected by subsequent act of the State. This principle was affirmed in Brown v. Pierce, 7 Wall. 205, and Williams v. Benedict, 8 How. 107.

Such was the state of the law until the passage of the Act of August 1, 1888, c. 729, 25 Stat. 357, which was the first formal act to regulate fully the liens of judgments and decrees of the courts of the United States. The whole Act was as follows:

"An act to regulate the liens of judgments and decrees of the courts of the United States.

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That judgments and decrees rendered in a circuit

or district court of the United States within any State, shall be liens on property throughout such State in the same manner and to the same extent and under the same conditions only as if such judgments and decrees had been rendered by a court of general jurisdiction of such State: Provided, That whenever the laws of any State require a judgment or decree of a State court to be registered, recorded, docketed, indexed, or any other thing to be done, in a particular manner, or in a certain office or county, or parish in the State of Louisiana before a lien shall attach, this act shall be applicable therein whenever and only whenever the laws of such State shall authorize the judgments and decrees of the United States courts to be registered, recorded, docketed, indexed, or otherwise conformed to the rules and requirements relating to the judgments and decrees of the courts of the State.

"Sec. 2. That the clerks of the several courts of the United States shall prepare and keep in their respective offices complete and convenient indices and cross-indices of the judgment records of said courts, and such indices and records shall at all times be open to the inspection and examination of the public.

Sec. 3. Nothing herein shall be construed to require the docketing of a judgment or decree of a United States court, or the filing of a transcript thereof, in any State office within the same county or parish in the State of Louisiana in which the judgment or decree is rendered, in order that such judgment or decree may be a lien on any property within such county."

The third section was amended by the Act of March 2, 1895, c. 180, 28 Stat. 813, to read as follows:

"Nothing herein shall be construed to require the docketing of a judgment or decree of a United States court, or the filing of a transcript thereof, in any State office within the same county or the same parish in the State of Louisiana in which the judgment or decree is rendered,

in order that such judgment or decree may be a lien on any property within such county, if the clerk of the United States court be required by law to have a permanent office and a judgment record open at all times for public inspection in such county or parish."

By the Act of August 23, 1916, the amending act of 1895 was repealed, c. 397, 39 Stat. 531.

The legislation of Missouri (Mo. Rev. Statutes 1919) adopted in an effort to comply with the requirement of § 1 of the Congressional act of 1888 was as follows:

"Sec. 1554. Lien of judgment in Supreme Court, Courts of Appeals, and Federal Courts in This State.Judgments and decrees obtained in the supreme court, in any United States district or circuit court held within this state, in the Kansas City court of appeals, or the St. Louis court of appeals, shall, upon the filing of a transcript thereof in the office of the clerk of any circuit court, be a lien on the real estate of the person against whom such judgment or decree is rendered, situate in the county in which such transcript is filed.

"Sec. 1555. Lien in Courts of Record, Generally.Judgments and decrees rendered by any court of record shall be a lien on the real estate of the person against whom they are rendered, situate in the county for which the court is held.

"Sec. 1556. The Commencement, Extent, and Duration of Lien.-The lien of a judgment or decree shall extend as well to the real estate acquired after the rendition thereof as to that which was owned when the judgment or decree was rendered. Such liens shall commence on the day of the rendition of the judgment, and shall continue for three years, subject to be revived as hereinafter provided; but when two or more judgments or decrees are rendered at the same term, as between the parties entitled to such judgments or decrees, the lien

shall commence on the last day of the term at which they are rendered."

It is clear that Congress by the first section of the Act of August 1, 1888, quoted above, intended to change and limit the existing rule, as stated by this Court, through Justice McLean, in Massingill v. Jones, supra, that federal court judgments were a lien upon lands throughout the territorial jurisdictions of the respective federal courts, but intended to do this only in those States which passed laws making the conditions of creation, scope and territorial application of the liens of federal court judgments the same as state court judgments, so that where any State has not passed such laws, the rule that federal judgments are liens throughout the territorial jurisdiction of such courts must still be in force. Dartmouth Savings Bank v. Bates, 44 Fed. 546; Shrew v. Jones, 2 McLean 78-Fed. Cases No. 12818, 22 Fed. Cases 40.

The Missouri Statutes prescribe that judgments rendered by any state court of record shall be a lien on the real estate of the person against whom they are rendered, situate in the county for which the court is held, and the lien shall commence on the day of the rendition of the judgment and shall continue for three years. They further provide that judgments obtained in the Supreme Court of the State, in any federal court held within the State, and in the Court of Appeals of either Kansas City or St. Louis, shall, upon the filing of a transcript in the office of the clerk of any circuit court, be a lien on the real estate of the person against whom such judgment or decree is rendered, situate in the county in which such transcript is filed.

It is very clear from this recital that a judgment of the federal court upon lands in the county in which it sits, if we give effect to the state statute, can not be a lien unless a transcript of the judgment shall be

Opinion of the Court.

274 U.S. made and filed in the office of the clerk of the circuit court of the State in that county, whereas no such transcript of a judgment in the state circuit court is required to create a lien for its judgment, but the lien takes effect the minute that it is entered on its record. Not only is this true with respect to the state circuit court of the county, a court of general jurisdiction, but it is also true. of judgments in the county court and in the probate court of that county, which are courts of record.

The majority opinion of the state Supreme Court in this case expresses the view that the difference is of so slight a character that it ought not to be regarded as a failure to conform to the federal statute. The opinion further points out that judgments of the Supreme Court of the State and of the courts of appeals of St. Louis and Kansas City can only become a lien upon the real estate of a judgment defendant in a particular county upon the filing of a transcript of them in the clerk's office of the circuit court where the land lies. Thus, it is said, the United States District and Circuit Courts are put on the same basis as these appellate state courts having like the Federal District Court a larger jurisdiction than a county.

It is obvious, however, that the District Court of the United States is a court of first instance of general jurisdiction, just as the circuit courts of the various counties in Missouri are courts of general jurisdiction of the first instance. The conformity required should obtain as between them, and not as between the federal court and the state appellate courts.

We are dealing here with a question necessarily of great nicety in determining the effect and the priority of liens upon real estate, and the subject requires exactness. Merely approximate conformity with reference to such a subject matter will not do, especially where complete conformity is entirely possible. The Supreme Court of