Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/236/115.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 23:19:16+00:00

Document:
SIMON v. SOUTHERN R. CO.
Availing himself of the provisions of this statute, Ephraim Simon, on December 1, 1904, brought suit, in the civil district court for the parish of Orleans, against the Southern Railway Company, averring that the defendant was a Virginia corporation 'doing business in the city of New Orleans.' The petition alleged that Simon, a New Orleans merchant and manufacturer, purchased, on February 8, 1904, a ticket from Selma, Alabama, to Meridian, Mississippi, and while riding over its lines, through the negligence of defendant, a collision occurred in which were inflicted upon him great personal injuries and financial loss. The petitioner claimed as damages $5,000 for personal injury; $340 for medical expenses; $4,000 for loss of profit that he would have earned; $3,000 for deterioration in the stock while he was confined to his bed and unable to sell; and $1,000 for increased cost of manufacture, due to his absence from business.
There was a prayer that the company be cited to appear and answer, and 'it having failed to comply with the provisions of 1 of act No. 54 of the Session of 1904, that service of process in this suit be made upon Hon. John T. Michel, Secretary of State, said service, so made, to be a service upon the said Southern Railway [236 U.S. 115, 118] Company, as provided for in the act aforesaid.' The plaintiff asked for judgment for $13,348.
The summons was directed to 'the Southern Railway Company, through Hon. John T. Michel, Secretary of State of Louisiana, New Orleans,' and required the defendant to answer within ten days after service. The deputy sheriff on December 3, 1904, made return that he had served the citation and petition 'on the within named Southern Railway Company in the parish of East Baton Rouge, state of Louisiana, by personal service on E. J. McGivney, Assistant Secretary of State, Jno. T. Michel, Secretary of State, being absent at the time of service.' The assistant secretary of state, acting under the instructions of the attorney general, filed the citation and petition in his office.
No notice, however, was given to the Southern Railway of the service of the citation or of the fact that suit had been brought. It therefore made no appearance in the suit brought against it by Simon, and, on January 10, 1905, the court, on motion of the plaintiff, ordered that judgment by default be entered against the railway company. Under the Louisiana practice, the case was thereafter submitted to a 'trial by jury on confirmation of default.' The plaintiff himself testified and other witnesses were examined, and on January 16 the jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for $13,348,-being the exact amount claimed in the petition. On January 20 the court, considering 'the verdict of the jury in the matter, and that the demand of the plaintiff was proved, the law and the evidence being in favor of said plaintiff,' entered judgment on the verdict.
Thereafter the company learned of the existence of the judgment, and averring itself to be a citizen of Virginia, filed (Febuary 6, 1905) in the United States circuit court for the district of Louisiana a bill against Simon, a citizen of Louisiana, asking that he be perpetually enjoined from enforcing the same. [236 U.S. 115, 119] The bill attached, as an exhibit, a copy of the record in the state court, and alleged that, in the collision referred to, Simon had received injuries which a surgeon had reported were slight; that the company had offered him $350 in settlement. Simon refused to accept this sum, but considered and discussed the acceptance of $750, which, however, was not agreed to by the defendant; the matter was temporarily left in abeyance, it being understood that negotiations were still pending and would probably result in an agreement of settlement. It was alleged that thereafter the plaintiff surreptitiously and without the knowledge of the railway company entered suit for $13,348, 'falsely and fraudulently pretending that he had been injured in that sum;' that Simon's personal injuries were slight, as shown by the report of the surgeon; that the claim for loss of profit on stock and the extra cost of manufacturing stock were claims that he well knew were fraudulent, fictitious, and utterly untrue; but by false testimony he secured a verdict therefor.
The bill further alleged that the Southern Railway was not doing business in the state of Louisiana; that the service upon the secretary or assistant secretary of state was not a citation upon the railway company, and was null and void for the purpose of bringing it under the jurisdiction of the civil district court; that any judgment rendered upon such attempted citation would be, if rendered without appearance of the defendant, a judgment without due process of law and in violation of the Constitution; that the railway company had never received the citation issued in the suit, nor was it advised, nor had it any knowledge, of the pendency of said proceedings until after the rendition of the judgment; that the verdict of the jury having been rendered upon false testimony and without notice, it would be against good conscience to allow the judgment thereon to be enforced against the railway company, which has [236 U.S. 115, 120] no remedy at law in the premises, and has a complete meritorious defense to the claim on which the judgment is based; that by fraud and accident, unmixed with its own negligence, the railway company has been prevented from making such defense.
In habeas corpus proceedings instituted in this court he sought to be discharged from the sentence of imprisonment imposed in the contempt case, claiming that, under Revised Statutes, 720, the circuit court was without jurisdiction to grant the injunction, and therefore the order in the contempt proceedings was absolutely void. The writ was denied.
After this court refused to grant the writ of habeas corpus the case, on the main bill, was referred to a master to hear evidence and to report his conclusions of law and facts. He found that the railway was not doing business in Louisiana in the sense of the statute; that the judgment was not fraudulent, but held it to be void because service upon the assistant secretary of state was not [236 U.S. 115, 121] the 'service upon the secretary of state' required by the statute.
The circuit court did not consider the question of fraud, but held ( 184 Fed. 959) that the state judgment was void because the Louisiana statute providing for service on foreign corporations was unconstitutional. It thereupon entered a permanent injunction against Simon as prayed for in the bill. From that decree Simon appealed, making many assignments of error, attacking the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the bill, and especially denying its power to grant the relief prayed for in view of the provisions of 720 of the Revised Statutes. The circuit court of appeals held (115 C. C. A. 58, 195 Fed. 56) that it had been authoritatively decided in Ex parte Simon, supra, that the circuit court had jurisdiction. It found that the railway company was doing business in New Orleans; but ruled that act 54 did not provide for service on the assistant secretary of state, and hence that the judgment by default in the state court was void for want of jurisdiction of the person of the defendant. The decree of the circuit court was affirmed, and thereupon Simon prosecuted the present appeal.
Messrs. Henry L. Lazarus, Herman Michel, Eldon S. Lazarus, David Sessler, and Girault Farrar for appellant.
Messrs. J. Blanc Monroe, Monte M. Lemann, and Alfred P. Thom for appellee.
The primary question whether the United States court had jurisdiction of the case must, of course, be determined by considering the allegations of the bill. It shows [236 U.S. 115, 122] diversity of citizenship, and charges that Simon was seeking to enforce by levy a judgment obtained by fraud and without notice to the railway company. If that be so, the United States courts, by virtue of their general equity powers, had jurisdiction to enjoin the plaintiff from enforcing a judgment thus doubly void. For even where there has been process and service, if the court 'finds that the parties have been guilty of fraud in obtaining a judgment . . . it will deprive them of the benefit of it.' McDaniel v. Traylor, 196 U.S. 415, 423 , 49 S. L. ed. 533, 537, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 369. Much more so will equity enjoin parties from enforcing those obtained without service. For in such a case the person named as defendant 'can no more be regarded as a party than any other member of the community.' Such judgments are not erroneous and not voidable, but, upon principles of natural justice, and under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment, are absolutely void. They constitute no justification to a plaintiff who, if concerned in executing such judgments, is considered in law as a mere trespasser. Harris v. Hardeman, 14 How. 339, 14 L. ed. 446 ( default judgment entered on improper service); Williamson v. Berry, 8 How. 541, 12 L. ed. 1189; Scott v. McNeal, 154 U.S. 46 , 38 L. ed. 901, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1108; Western Life Indemnity Co. v. Rupp, 235 U.S. 273 , 59 L. ed . --, 35 Sup. Ct. Rep. 37.
On principle and authority, therefore, a judgment obtained in a suit of which the defendant had no notice was a nullity and the party against whom it was obtained was entitled to relief. It serves to illustrate the existence of appellee's right and the method of its enforcement to note that under the law of Louisiana the railway company was not obliged to attack a void judgment in the court that rendered it, but, in a court having jurisdiction of the plaintiff's person, could have instituted a new and independent proceeding to enjoin Simon from enforcing it. See Langridge v. 21st Judicial District Judge, 46 La. Ann. 29, 14 So. 427, where a suit was brought in the 21st district court to enjoin the enforcement of a void judgment obtained in the 17th district [236 U.S. 115, 123] court. See also Hibernia Nat. Bank v. Standard Guana Chemical & Mfg. Co. 1 La. Ann. 1321, 26 So. 274. Of course, the jurisdiction of the United States courts could not be lessened or increased by state statutes regulating venue or establishing rules of procedure. But, manifestly, if a new and independent suit could have been brought in a state court to enjoin Simon from enforcing this judgment, a like new and independent suit could have been brought for a like purpose in a Federal court, which was then bound to act within its jurisdiction and afford redress (Hyde v. Stone, 20 How. 175, 15 L. ed. 875; Reagan v. Farmers' Loan & T. Co. 154 U.S. 391 , 38 L. ed. 1021, 4 Inters. Com. Rep. 560, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1047; Payne v. Hook, 7 Wall. 429, 19 L. ed. 261). The United States courts could not stay original or supplementary proceedings in a state court (Mutual Reserve Fund Life Asso. v. Phelps, 190 U.S. 159 , 47 L. ed. 995, 23 Sup. Ct. Rep. 707), or revise its judgment. But by virtue of their general equity jurisdiction they could enjoin a party from enforcing a void judgment.
In 1793, when that statute was adopted (1 Stat. at L. 334, chap. 22), courts of equity had a well-recognized power to issue writs of injunction to stay proceedings pending in court,-in order to avoid a multiplicity of suits, to enable the defendant to avail himself of equitable defenses, and the like. It was also true that the courts of equity of one state or country could enjoin its own citizens from prosecuting suits in another state or country. Cole v. Cunningham, 133 U.S. 107 , 33 L. ed. 538, 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 269. This, of course, often gave rise to irritating controversies between the courts themselves, [236 U.S. 115, 124] which could, and sometimes did, issue contradictory injunctions.
On principles of comity and to avoid such inevitable conflicts the act of 1793 was passed. Diggs v. Wolcott, 4 Cranch, 179, 180, 2 L. ed. 587, 588 (1807), and Hull v. Burr, 234 U.S. 712 , 58 L. ed. 1557, 34 Sup. Ct. Rep. 892 (1914), (the first and last cases in this court dealing with that question), furnish typical instances in which the statute has been applied. Those decisions, and the authorities therein cited, show that although the facts might have been such as to warrant an injunction against a suit then pending in a state court, yet 720 prevented the Federal court from staying the proceedings in the state court.
3. But when the litigation has ended and a final judgment has been obtained, and when the plaintiff endeavors to use such judgment, a new state of facts, not within the language of the statute, may arise. In the nature of the case, however, there are few decisions dealing with such a question. For where the state court had jurisdiction of the person and subject-matter, the judgment rendered in the suit would be binding on the parties until reversed, and there would therefore usually be no equity in a bill in a Federal court seeking an injunction against the enforcement of a state judgment thus binding between the parties. See Marshall v. Holmes, 141 U.S. 600 , 25 L. ed. 874, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep. 62, where Nougu e v. Clapp, 101 U.S. 551 , 25 L. ed. 1026, relied on by appellant, is discussed.
There have, however, been a few cases in which there was equity in the bill brought to enjoin the plaintiff from enforcing the state judgment, and where that equity was found to exist appropriate relief has been granted. For example, in Julian v. Central Trust Co. 193 U.S. 112 , 48 L. ed. 639, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 399, a judgment was obtained in a state court, execution thereon was levied on property which, while not in possession of the Federal court, was in possession of a purchaser who held under the conditions of a Federal decree. It [236 U.S. 115, 125] was held that the existence of that equity authorized an injunction to prevent the plaintiff from improperly enforcing his judgment, even though it may have been perfectly valid in itself.
Other cases might be cited involving the same principle. But this is sufficient to show that if, in a proper case, the plaintiff holding a valid state judgment can be enjoined by the United States court from its inequitable use, by so much the more can the Federal courts enjoin him from using that which purports to be a judgment, but is, in fact, an absolute nullity. Marshall v. Holmes, 141 U.S. 597 , 35 L. ed. 873, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep. 62; Gaines v. Fuentes, 92 U.S. 10 , 23 L. ed. 524; Barrow v. Hunton, 99 U.S. 85 , 25 L. ed. 408.
The appellant insists, however, that Marshall v. Holmes, referred to as conclusive unless overruled, does not support the jurisdiction of the circuit court because there no injunction was granted by the United States court.
'Authorities would seem to place beyond question the jurisdiction of the circuit court to take cognizance of the present suit, which is, none the less, an original, independent suit, because it relates to judgments obtained in the court of another jurisdiction. While it cannot require the state court itself to set aside or vacate the judgment in question, it may, as between the parties before it, if the facts justify such relief, adjudge that Mayer shall [236 U.S. 115, 127] not enjoy the inequitable advantage obtained by his judgments. A decree to that effect would operate directly upon him, and would not contravene that provision of the statute prohibiting a court of the United States from granting a writ of injunction to stay proceedings in a state court. It would simply take from him the benefit of judgments obtained by fraud.' And if a United States court can enjoin a plaintiff from using a judgment, proved to be fraudulent, it can likewise enjoin him from using a judgment absolutely void for want of service.
4. The appellant, Simon, further contends that Marshall v. Holmes is not applicable here because that was a removal case; and it is urged that even if a Federal court can grant an injunction in a case removed, it cannot award the same relief in a bill originally brought in the Federal court. But that is a clear case of distinction without a difference, and was not the basis of the decision.
The ground of the decision in the Marshall Case, in Gaines v. Fuentes, 92 U.S. 10 , 23 L. ed. 524; Barrow v. Hunton, 99 U.S. 85 , 25 L. ed. 408; McDaniel v. Traylor, 196 U.S. 415 , 49 L. ed. 533, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 369; Arrowsmith v. Gleason, 129 U.S. 86 , 32 L. ed. 630, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 237; Johnson v. Waters, 111 U.S. 640 , 28 L. ed. 547, 4 Sup. Ct. Rep. 619; Sharon v. Terry, 1 L.R.A. 572, 13 Sawy. 387, 36 Fed. 337, cited in Julian v. Central Trust Co. 193 U.S. 112 , 48 L. ed. 638, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 399; Dobbins v. Los Angeles, 195 U.S. 224 , 49 L. ed. 169, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 18; Howard v. De Cordova, 177 U.S. 609 , 44 L. ed. 908, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 817, is that while 720 prohibits United States courts from 'staying proceedings in a state court,' it does not prevent them from depriving a party of the fruits of a fraudulent judgment, nor prevent the Federal courts from enjoining a party from using that which he calls a judgment, but which is, in fact and in law, a mere nullity. That conclusion is inevitable, or else the Federal court must hold that a judgment-void for want of service-is 'a proceeding in a state court' even after the pretended litigation has ended and the void judgment has been obtained. Such a ruling would involve a contradiction in terms, and treat as valid for some purposes that which the courts have universally held to be a nullity for all purposes.
On the other hand, the circuit court of appeals (115 C. C. A. 58, 195 Fed. 56), while referring to this case, held, citing Amy v. Watertown, 130 U.S. 317 , 32 L. ed. 951, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 530, that though the Southern Railway was doing business in Louisiana, yet the default judgment was void because entered in a suit served on the assistant when the statute designated the secretary of state as the officer upon whom the citation should be served.
The broader the ground of the decision here, the more likelihood there will be of affecting judgments held by persons not before the court. We therefore purposely [236 U.S. 115, 130] refrain from passing upon either of the propositions decided in the courts below, and without discussing the right to sue on a transitory cause of action and serve the same on an agent voluntarily appointed, put the decision here on the special fact, relied on in the court below, that in this case the cause of action arising within the state of Alabama, and the suit therefor, was served on an agent designated by a Louisiana statute.
Subject to exceptions, not material here, every state has the undoubted right to provide for service of process upon any foreign corporations doing business therein; to require such companies to name agents upon whom service may be made; and also to provide that in case of the company's failure to appoint such agent, service, in proper cases, may be made upon an officer designated by law. Mutual Reserve Fund Life Asso. v. Phelps, 190 U.S. 147 , 47 L. ed. 987, 23 Sup. Ct. Rep. 707; Connecticut Mut. L. Ins. Co. v. Spratley, 172 U.S. 603 , 43 L. ed. 569, 19 Sup. Ct. Rep. 308. But this power to designate by statute the officer upon whom service in suits against foreign corporations may be made relates to business and transactions within the jurisdiction of the state enacting the law. Otherwise, claims on contracts, wherever made, and suits for torts, wherever committed, might, by virtue of such compulsory statute, be drawn to the jurisdiction of any state in which the foreign corporation might at any time be carrying on business. The manifest inconvenience and hardship arising from such extraterritorial extension of jurisdiction by virtue of the power to make such compulsory appointments could not defeat the power if in law it could be rightfully exerted. But these possible inconveniences serve to emphasize the importance of the principle laid down in Old Wayne Mut. Life Asso. v. McDonough, 204 U.S. 22 , 51 L. ed. 351, 27 Sup. Ct. Rep. 236, that the statutory consent of a foreign corporation to be sued does not extend to causes of action arising in other states.
From the principle announced in that case it follows that service under the Louisiana statute would not be effective to give the district court of Orleans jurisdiction over defendant as to a cause of action arising in the state of Alabama. The service on the Southern Railway, even if in compliance with the requirements of act 54, was not that kind of process, which could give the court jurisdiction over the person of the defendant for a cause of action arising in Alabama. As the company made no appearance, the default judgment was void. Being void, the plaintiff acquired no rights thereby, and could be enjoined by a Federal court from attempting to enforce what is a judgment in name, but a nullity in fact. This conclusion makes it unnecessary to consider whether the Southern Railway was doing business in Louisiana. It also makes it unnecessary to consider the question of fact as to whether the judgment was void because of fraud in its procurement.
The decree of the Circuit Court of Appeals must be affirmed.

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