Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/215/501/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 16:21:09+00:00

Document:
Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 215 › Macon Grocery Co. v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co.
A suit brought by shippers to enjoin a railroad company from putting a tariff schedule into effect on the ground that it violates rights secured by the Act to Regulate Commerce is a case arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States, and the jurisdiction of the circuit court over the person of the defendant must be determined accordingly.
Under the jurisdictional Act of March 3, 1875, c. 137, 18 Stat. 470, as amended by the Act of March 3, 1887, c. 373, 24 Stat. 552, corrected by the Act of August 13, 1888, c. 866, 25 Stat. 433, the circuit court in the district of which the defendant is not an inhabitant has not jurisdiction of a case arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States, even though diverse citizenship exist, the plaintiff resides in the district, and the cause be one alone cognizable in a federal court.
Where pleas to the jurisdiction which should have been sustained on one ground were overruled but subsequently the circuit court of appeals reversed and remanded with instructions to dismiss without prejudice for want of jurisdiction on a different ground, this Court may reach the result which should have been originally arrived at by affirming the decree of the circuit court of appeals without expressing any opinion as to the merits of the reasoning on which it was based.
The facts, which involve the jurisdiction of the circuit court, are stated in the opinion.
This litigation was commenced on the equity side of the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of Georgia, by the filing on July 25, 1908, of a bill on behalf of the present appellants, all citizens of the State of Georgia, who are wholesale dealers in groceries and food products and like commodities. The defendants named in the bill are the appellees in this Court, railroad corporations of states other than Georgia, viz., the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway Company, the Southern Railway Company, and the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railway Company.
making the advance of rates complained of was the result of a conspiracy unlawful as well at common law as under the statutes of the United States. Averring that to permit the going into effect of the proposed unjust and unreasonable rates would entail irreparable loss and injury to complainants and others similarly situated, would operate to the prejudice of the public interest, and would bring about a multiplicity of suits for reparation, the bill prayed the allowance of an injunction pendente lite, restraining the putting into effect of the proposed advances, and that, upon a final hearing, a decree might be awarded perpetually enjoining such advances.
"be and they are hereby jointly and severally enjoined from enforcing collection of the advance in rates made effective August first, 1908, from Ohio and Mississippi River crossings, Nashville, Tennessee, and points with relation thereto, to all points within the State of Georgia, on classes B, C, D, and F, fresh meats, C, L, grain products, hay, and packinghouse products, this injunction to continue and remain in force pending an investigation and determination of the reasonableness of the rates involved by the Interstate Commerce Commission or until further order of the court."
"that the sound construction of the different provisions of the Act to Regulate Commerce, as amended and now in force, necessarily forbids the exercise of the jurisdiction attempted to be invoked by the bill,"
reversed the decree of the circuit court and remanded the case to that court with instructions to dismiss the bill without prejudice.
"wherein the jurisdiction is not founded only on the fact that the action is between citizens of different states, but is based also upon acts of Congress of the United States relating to interstate commerce, and alleged causes of action arising thereunder,"
"It is true that, it this case, the illegality of the alleged increase in rates must necessarily, in large measure, be determined by the federal law. The legality or illegality of the alleged combination in restraint of trade must be determined by the same law, and it seems to be conceded that, generally speaking, this Court would not have jurisdiction of these questions finally except under conditions which do not exist here. That is to say, the court can only, for final determination, entertain the federal question in the district of which the defendants are inhabitants."
Despite these views, however, as the court considered, if the averments of the bill were taken as true, there was "a threatened and immediate, violation of the federal law of the gravest character to a large number of people," irreparable injury would be occasioned if the increase in rates were allowed to go into effect, and as there was not time for those affected to have protection or seek recourse elsewhere, jurisdiction was entertained for the purpose of giving temporary relief.
"That the circuit courts of the United States shall have original cognizance, concurrent with the court of the several states, of all suits of a civil nature at common law or in equity, where the matter in dispute exceeds, exclusive of interest and costs, the sum or value of two thousand dollars, and arising under the Constitution or laws of the United States . . . or in which there shall be a controversy between citizens of different states, in which the matter in dispute exceeds, exclusive of interest and costs, the sum or value aforesaid. . . . But . . . no civil suit shall be brought before either of said courts against any person by any original process or proceeding in any other district than that, whereof he is an inhabitant; but where the jurisdiction is founded only on the fact that the action is between citizens of different states, suit shall be brought only in the district of the residence of either the plaintiff or the defendant."
"It is said by Chief Justice Marshall that"
"Cohen v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264, 19 U. S. 379, and again, when"
"the title or right set up by the party may be defeated by one construction of the Constitution or law of the United States, and sustained by the opposite construction."
"Osborn v. Bank of United States, 9 Wheat. 738, 22 U. S. 822. See also Little York Gold-Washing & Water Co. v. Keyes, 96 U. S. 199, 96 U. S. 201; Tennessee v. Davis, 100 U. S. 257; White v. Greenhow, 114 U. S. 307; Railroad Company v. Mississippi, 102 U. S. 135, 102 U. S. 139. "
"What constitutes a case, thus arising was early defined in the case cited from 6 Wheat. [Cohen v. Virginia]. It is not merely where a party comes into court to demand something conferred upon him by the Constitution or by a law or treaty. A case consists of the right of one party as well as the other, and may truly be said to arise under the Constitution or a law or a treaty of the United States whenever its correct decision depends upon the construction of either. cases arising under the laws of the United States are such as grow out of the legislation of Congress, whether they constitute the right or privilege or claim, the protection or defense of the party, in whole or in part, by whom they are asserted. Story, Const. sec. 1647. It was said in Osborn v. Bank (9 Wheat. 738),"
"When a question to which the judicial power of the Union is extended by the Constitution forms an ingredient of the original cause, it is in the power of Congress to give the circuit courts jurisdiction of that cause, although other questions of fact or of law may be involved in it."
"And a case arises under the laws of the United States when it arises out of the implication of the law."
had before the passage of the interstate commerce law. It is sufficient that Congress, in the constitutional exercise of power, has given the positive sanction of federal law to the rights secured in the statute, and any case involving the enforcement of those rights is a case arising under the laws of the United States."
The object of the bill was to enjoin alleged unreasonable rates, threatened to be exacted by carriers subject to the Act to Regulate Commerce. The right to be exempt from such unlawful exactions is one protected by the act in question, and the purpose to avail of the benefit of that act, as well as of the antitrust act, is plainly indicated by the averments of the bill. Of necessity, in determining the right to the relief prayed for, a construction of the Act to Regulate Commerce was essentially involved.
either of said courts against any person by any original process or proceeding in any other district than that, whereof he is an inhabitant,' the alternative, 'or in which he shall be found at the time of serving such process or commencing such proceeding,' and by adding, 'but where the jurisdiction is founded only on the fact that the action is between citizens of different states, suit shall be brought only in the district of the residence of either the plaintiff or the defendant.' 24 Stat. 552; 25 Stat. 433."
States, and the only difference is that, by the very terms of the statute, a suit of this class is to be brought in the district of which the defendant is an inhabitant, and cannot, without the consent of the defendant, be brought in any other district, even in one of which the plaintiff is an inhabitant."
"This suit, then, assuming it to be maintainable under the act of 1881, is one of which the courts of the United States have jurisdiction concurrently with the courts of the several states. The only existing act of Congress which enables it to be brought in the circuit court of the United States is the act of 1888. The suit comes within the terms of that act, both as arising under a law of the United States and as being between citizens of different states. In either aspect, by the provisions of the same act, the defendant cannot be compelled to answer in a district of which neither the defendant nor the plaintiff is an inhabitant. The objection, having been seasonably taken by the defendant corporation, appearing specially for the purpose, was rightly sustained by the circuit court."
We are of opinion that the jurisdictional statute of 1888 is applicable, even upon the assumption that the cause of action was alone cognizable in a court of the United States, as the particular venue of the action was not provided for elsewhere than in that statute.
The pleas to the jurisdiction of the circuit court, having been seasonably made, should have been sustained, and the bill dismissed without prejudice for want of jurisdiction over the persons of the defendants. As, however, practically the same result will be reached by the decree entered in the circuit court of appeals, which ordered the reversal of the decree of the circuit court and remanded the cause, with instructions to dismiss the bill without prejudice, we affirm that decree without expressing an opinion as to the merits of the reasoning upon which it was based.
I cannot agree to the opinion in this case, and will briefly state the reasons for my dissenting.
The plaintiffs in error, citizens of Georgia, brought this suit in equity in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of Georgia against the defendants in error, corporations of several different states other than Georgia. The relief sought was a decree enjoining those corporations from putting in force and maintaining in Georgia certain rates established by agreement among themselves. It seems to me that this case could have been disposed of upon the authority of Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. v. Pitcairn Coal Company, recently decided, ante, p. 215 U. S. 481, in which the Court held in substance that shippers who complain of rates adopted by interstate carriers cannot obtain relief by an original suit brought in any court, federal or state, but must make application at the outset to the Interstate Commerce Commission. This, I think, is all that need have been said, for whatever interpretation was given to the Judiciary Act of 1888, 25 Stat. 433, c. 866, the circuit court would have been required, under the case just cited, to decline jurisdiction. But the Court, in its wisdom, does not refer to this view of the case, and deems it necessary to determine whether the plaintiffs, citizens of Georgia, may, under the Judiciary Act of 1888, considered alone, invoke the jurisdiction of the circuit court, held in that state, against the defendant corporations of other states.
"All that is now decided is that, under the existing act of Congress, a corporation incorporated in one state only cannot be compelled to answer in a circuit court of the United States held in another state, in which it has a usual place of business, to a civil suit at law or in equity, brought by a citizen of a different state."
"This suit, then, assuming it to be maintainable under the act of 1881, is one of which the courts of the United States have jurisdiction concurrently with the courts of the several states. The only existing act of Congress, which enables it to be brought in the circuit court of the United States, is the act of 1888. This suit comes within the terms of that act, both as arising under a law of the United States and as being between citizens of different states. In either aspect, by the provisions of the same act, the defendant cannot be compelled to answer in a district of which neither the defendant nor the plaintiff is an inhabitant."
the opinion just delivered, that, although the controversy between the parties involves federal rights, and presents a controversy between citizens of different states, as well as one arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States, it is a suit of which the federal court could not take cognizance by removal. We so say because such a case could not, under the Court's present view of the act of 1888, have been originally brought in that court, and because, according to the settled doctrines of this Court, no case can be removed from a state court to a federal court which could not have been originally brought in the latter court. Tennessee v. Union & Planters' Bank, 152 U. S. 454; Arkansas v. Coal Co., 183 U. S. 185; Joy v. St. Louis, 201 U. S. 340, 201 U. S. 341.
"of all suits of a civil nature at common law or in equity, where the matter in dispute exceeds, exclusive of interest and costs, the sum or value of $2,000 . . . in which there shall be a controversy between citizens of different states,"
the intention of Congress would be best effectuated by holding that the jurisdiction of the circuit court is not excluded, in a controversy between citizens of different states, simply because the plaintiff, who sued in the federal court held in the state of his residence, asserts a federal right and seeks to have it protected against the illegal acts of the defendant, a citizen of another state provided always that the defendant, if a corporation of another state, may, through agents conducting its business in the state where the suit is brought, be reached by the process of the court, and subjected to its authority. The presence in the case of a federal right asserted by the plaintiff ought not to prejudice him, and does not, I think, alter the fact that the controversy is one of which a circuit court may take cognizance, because it is a controversy between citizens of different states.

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