Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/220/413.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 15:24:36+00:00

Document:
[220 U.S. 413, 414] Messrs. Albert J. Hopkins and Chester M. Dawes for petitioner.
[220 U.S. 413, 415] Messrs. Arthur J. Eddy, Emil C. Wetten, Patrick C. Haley, and Coll McNaughton for respondent.
This suit originated in one of the courts of Illinois. It is a joint action against two railroad corporations,-the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Railway Company of Iowa, and the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Railroad Company of Illinois,-to recover damages alleged to have [220 U.S. 413, 417] been caused by the negligence, carelessness, and improper conduct of the defendants by their agents and servants, whereby one Harold R. Wellman, the intestate of the plaintiff, was killed. the particular railroad from the operation of which the injuries in question arose is located wholly in Illinois, and the plaintiff, Willard, is a citizen of that state. The case involves a question, to be presently mentioned, of the jurisdiction of the circuit court. It also involves a question as to the power and duty of an appellate Federal court, where it appears, from the record, that a subordinate court has disposed of a case of which it could not properly take cognizance, but in respect to which the parties are silent.
The facts are: The defendant, the Iowa corporation, filed its petition for the removal of this cause to the circuit court of the United States. It appears that in November, 1901, the Chicago, Burglington, & Aquincy Railroad Company of Illinois leased, for a period of ninety-nine years from September 30th, 1901, to the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Rail way Company of Iowa, its line of railway, and the rights, privileges, franchises, rights of way, yards, stations, tracks, and all appliances thereunto belonging, including in the lease that part of the road in Illinois described in the declaration; that the lessor company also assigned to the lessee company all other real and personal property not above mentioned, and all the rights, privileges, immunities, and franchises of the lessor company, except its franchise to be a corporation; that after December 21st, 1901, as well as on the day of the alleged injury and death of Wellman, the Iowa company operated and was then operating, controlling, and managing the railway lines of the Illinois company. At the time of the injuries complained of, neither the Illinois company nor any of its servants controlled, used, or operated the railroad engine or cars with which the deceased came into contact and was killed, but that the management, custody, [220 U.S. 413, 418] control, and operation of the leased road and property was with the Iowa corporation exclusively; and that there was, it is alleged, a separable controversy between the Iowa company and the plaintiff, citizen of Illinois, which entitled that corporation to have the cause transferred for trial into the Federal court. It was further alleged that as the plaintiff was a citizen of Illinois, the two corporations were fraudulently and improperly joined as codefendants for the purpose of defeating the removal of the case to the Federal court.
The state court made an order recognizing the right of the Iowa corporation to have the cause removed to the Federal court. Subsequently, in the circuit court of the United States, the plaintiff moved to remand the case to the state court; but a few days thereafter he was given leave to withdraw that motion and to amend his declaration. He did not renew the motion to remand, but was given leave to amend his declaration, under which privilege he made extended amendments. But we do not perceive that those amendments affect the conclusion which, in our judgment, must be reached in the determination of the cause. The case remained throughout as a joint action against two companies, one of which was a corporation of the state of which the plaintiff was a citizen. What would have been the effect of any amendment made by the plaintiff, in the circuit court, eliminating or dismissing the lessor company, the Illinois corporation, altogether as a party defendant, thus leaving the case as presenting issues between citizens of different states only, we have no occasion now to determine. A trial was had in the circuit court, between the plaintiff and the two corporations, without objection as to the jurisdiction of that court, and at the conclusion of the evidence the jury, by direction of the court, returned a verdict for the defendants, and a judgment was accordingly rendered for them. The case went to the circuit court of appeals, where that [220 U.S. 413, 419] court, being of opinion that the record disclosed a want of jurisdiction in the circuit court of the United States, the judgment was reversed, with directions to remand to the state court. That action was taken by the circuit court of appeals upon its own inspection of the record, and without any suggestion by either party as to a want of jurisdiction in the circuit court. The case is now here upon certiorari.
Had the circuit court jurisdiction of this case? As the plaintiff withdrew and did not renew his motion to remand to the state court, but went to trial in the Federal court without objection, was the circuit court of appeals, or is this court, precluded from considering the question of jurisdiction? These questions can have but one answer. It is firmly established by many decisions that in every case pending in an appellate Federal court of the United States, the inquiry must always be whether, under the Constitution and laws of the United States, that court of the court of original jurisdiction could take cognizance of the case. The leading authority on the subject is Mansfield C. & L. M. R. Co. v. Swan, 111 U.S. 379, 382 , 28 S. L. ed. 462, 463, 4 Sup. C. Rep. 510, where the cases are fully reviewed. In that case the question of jurisdiction was raised in this court by the party at whose instance the subordinate Federal court exercised jurisdiction. But that fact was held not to be decisive; for, said Mr. Justice Matthews, speaking for the court, 'on every writ of error or appeal, the first and fundamental question is that of jurisdiction, first, of this court, and then of the court from which the record comes. This question the court is bound to ask and answer for itself, even when not otherwise suggested, and without respect to the relation of the parties to it.' This rule was said to be inflexible and without exception, and has been uniformly sustained by this court. In Ayers v. Watson, 113 U.S. 594, 598 , 28 S. L. ed. 1093, 1094, 5 Sup. Ct. Rep. 641, Mr. Justice Bradley, speaking for the court, and referring to the 2d section (the removal section) of [220 U.S. 413, 420] the act of 1875 [18 Stat. at L. 470, chap. 137, U. S. Com. Stat. 1901, p. 509], said: 'In the nature of things, the 2d section is jurisdictional, and the 3d is but modal and formal. The conditions of the 2d section are indispensable, and must be shown by the record; the directions of the 3d, though obligatory, may, to a certain extent, be waived. Diverse state citizenship of the parties, or some other jurisdictional fact prescribed by the 2d section, is absolutely essential, and cannot be waived, and the want of it will be error at any stage of the cause, even though assigned by the party at whose instance it was committed. Mansfield C. & L. M. R. Co. v. Swan, 111 U.S. 379 , 28 L. ed. 462, 4 Sup. Ct. Rep. 510.' In Cameron v. Hodges, 127 U.S. 322, 326 , 32 S. L. ed. 132, 134, 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1154, it was held to be an express requirement of the statute that the circuit court shall remand a case to the court from which it was removed whenever it appears that it is not one of which the Federal court can properly take cognizance. In Martin v. Baltimore & O. R. Co. (Gerling v. Baltimore & O. R. Co.) 151 U.S. 673, 689 , 38 S. L. ed. 311, 317, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 533, after referring to the judiciary act of 1875, Mr. Justice Gray, speaking for the court, said: 'Diverse state citizenship of the parties, or some other jurisdictional fact prescribed by the 2d section, is absolutely essential, and cannot be waived, and the want of it will be error at any stage of the cause, even though assigned by the party at whose instance it was committed.' In Minnesota v. Northern Securities Co. 194 U.S. 48, 62 , 63 S., 48 L. ed. 870, 877, 878, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 598, in which both parties insisted upon the jurisdiction of the circuit court, the said court: 'Consent of [the] parties can never confer jurisdiction upon a Federal court. If the record does not affirmatively show jurisdiction in the circuit court, we must, upon our own motion, so declare, and make such order as will prevent that court from exercising an authority not conferred upon it by statute.' In Thomas v. Ohio State University, 195 U.S. 207, 211 , 49 S. L. ed. 160, 164, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 24; 'It is equally well established that when jurisdiction depends upon diverse citizenship, the absence of sufficient averments or of facts in the record showing such required diversity of citizen- [220 U.S. 413, 421] ship is fatal, and cannot be overlooked by the court, even if the parties fail to call attention to the defect, or consent that it may be waived.' In Kentucky v. Powers, 201 U.S. 1, 35 , 50 S. L. ed. 633, 648, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 387, 5 A. & E. Ann. Cas. 692, it was said that this court 'must see to it that they [the subordinate courts of the United States] do not usurp authority given to them by acts of Congress.'-citing Mansfield C. & L. M. R. Co. v. Swan, 111 U.S. 379, 382 , 28 S. L. ed. 462, 463, 4 Sup. Ct. Rep. 510. In Perez v. Fernandez, 202 U.S. 80, 100 , 50 S. L. ed. 942, 949, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 561, which came to this court from the district court of the United States for the district of Porto Rico, this court, upon the authority of the Swan and other cases cited, held that 'where the jurisdiction fails, the objection can be raised in this court; if not by the parties, then by the court itself.' There are many other authorities to the same effect, but we cite a few of the additional cases: King Iron Bridge & Mfg. Co. v. Otoe County, 120 U.S. 225 , 30 L. ed. 623, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 552; Continental L. Ins. Co. v. Rhoads, 119 U.S. 237 , 30 L. ed. 380, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 193; Peper v. Fordyce, 119 U.S. 469 , 30 L. ed. 435, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 287; Blacklock v. Small, 127 U.S. 96, 103 , 105 S., 32 L. ed. 70, 73, 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1096; Metcalf v. Watertown, 128 U.S. 586, 587 , 32 S. L. ed. 543, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 173; Crehore v. Ohio & M. R. Co. 131 U.S. 240, 242 , 33 S. L. ed. 144, 145, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 692; Graves v. Corbin, 132 U.S. 571, 589 , 33 S. L. ed. 462, 468, 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 196; Neel v. Pennsylvania Co. 157 U.S. 153 , 39 L. ed. 654, 15 Sup. Ct. Rep. 589; Continental Nat. Bank v. Buford, 191 U.S. 119, 120 , 48 S. L. ed. 119, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 54.
We now come to the question of jurisdiction upon its merits. If, under the statutes relating to the jurisdiction of the Federal courts, and upon the facts as disclosed by the record and litigated, the circuit court could not have taken cognizance of the case, then, according to the authoritives above cited, it was the duty of the circuit court of appeals, upon its own motion, and without regard to the wishes of the parties or of either of them, to reverse the judgment of the trial court, with directions to remand the case to the state court.
We are of opinion that the circuit court could not properly take cognizance of this case. The action was brought by a citizen of Illinois against two companies,-one a corporation of Iowa and the other a corporation of [220 U.S. 413, 422] Illinois. It is said that as, long before the injury complained of, the Illinois corporation, the legal owner of the railroad in question, had leased to the Iowa company its road, with its property, rights, privileges, yards, stations, etc., appertaining thereto (excepting only the lessor company's franchise to be a corporation), and was in nowise, by its agents or servants, in the control of the road or of its operations at the time the plaintiff intestate was killed, the making of that corporation a party defendant in order to defeat the removal of the case to the Federal court was fraudulent and improper. A complete answer to this suggestion is that, by the settled law of Illinois at the time the injury in question was received, the lessor company of Illinois, although it had ceased to operate the road, was liable with the lessee company in such an action as this. The cause of action arose in Illinois, and it was entirely competent for that state, in the exercise of its governmental powers, to say that one of its own corporations, operating a railroad within its limits, by its authority, shall not, by leasing its road and property, be freed from liability for damages for which it would have been legally liable under its charter had it not made such lease.
In West Chicago Street R. Co. v. Horne, 197 Ill. 250, 251, 64 N. E. 331, the state supreme court said that 'the law is well settled that when an injury results from the negligence or unlawful operation of a railway, whether by the corporation to which the franchise is granted or by another corporation which the proprietary company authorizes or permits to use its tracks, both the lessor and the lessee are liable to respond in damages to the party injured,'-citing Pennsylvania Co. v. Ellett, 132 Ill. 654, 24 N. E. 559; Chicago & E. R. Co. v. Meech, 163 Ill. 305, 45 N. E. 290. In the Ellett case, the language of the court was: 'The law has become settled in this state, by an unbroken line of decisions, that the grant of a franchise giving the right to build, own, and operate a railway carries with it the duty to so use the property and manage and control the railroad as to do no unnecessary damage to the person or property of others; and where injury results from the negligent or unlawful operation of the railroad, whether by the corporation to which the franchise is granted, or by another corporation, or by individuals whom the owner authorizes or permits to use its tracks, the company owning the railway and franchise will be liable.' Many cases in Illinois were cited by the state court in support of its view.
It is thus made clear that if the plaintiff had any cause of action on account of the injury in question, he could bring a joint action in an Illinois court against the lessor and lessee companies. Whatever liability was incurred [220 U.S. 413, 425] on account of the death of the plaintiff's intestate could, at the plaintiff's election, be asserted against both companies in one joint action, or, at his election, against either of them in a separate action. In Powers v. Chesapeake & O. R. Co. 169 U.S. 92, 96 , 97 S., 42 L. ed. 673- 675, 18 Sup. Ct. Rep. 264, which was an action against a railroad company and several of its servants for negligence resulting in an injury alleged to have been caused by the joint negligence or carelessness of all the defendants, the court, speaking by Mr. Justice Gray, said: 'It is well settled that an action of tort, which might have been brought against many persons or against any one or more of them, and which is brought in a state court against all jointly, contains no separate controversy which will suthorize its removal by some of the defendants into the circuit court of the United States, even if they file separate answers and set up different defenses from the other defendants, and allege that they are not jointly liable with them, and that their own controversy with the plaintiff is a separate one; for, as this court has often said: 'A defendant has no right to say that an action shall be several which the plaintiff seeks to make joint. A separate defense may defeat a joint recovery, but it cannot deprive a plaintiff of his right to prosecute his suit to final decision in his own way. The cause of action is the subject- matter of the controversy, and that is, for all the purposes of the suit, whatever the plaintiff declares it to be in his pleadings,"-citing Pirie v. Tvedt, 115 U.S. 41, 43 , 29 S. L. ed. 331, 332, 5 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1034, 1161; Sloane v. Anderson, 117 U.S. 275 , 29 L. ed. 899, 6 Sup. Ct. Rep. 730; Little v. Giles, 118 U.S. 596, 600 , 601 S., 30 L. ed. 269-271, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 32; Louisville & N. R. Co. v. Wangelin, 132 U.S. 599 , 33 L. ed. 474, 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 203; Torrence v. Shedd, 144 U.S. 527, 530 , 36 S. L. ed. 528, 531, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep. 726; Connell v. Smiley, 156 U.S. 335, 340 , 39 S. L. ed. 443, 444, 15 Sup. Ct. Rep. 353.
It results that, upon the face of the record, the action throughout was proceeded in as a joint action, and that there was no separable controversy in such an action, entitling the Iowa corporation, as matter of law, to remove the case from the state court. And it cannot be predicated of the plaintiff that he fraudulently and improperly made the Illinois corporation a codefendant with the Iowa corporation when such a charge is negatived, as matter of law, by the fact that the plaintiff was, as we have seen, entitled under the laws of Illinois, where the cause of action originated and within which the road in question was located, to bring a joint action against the Illinois and Iowa companies. Illinois C. R. Co. v. Sheegog, 215 U.S. 308, 316 , 54 S. L. ed. 208, 211, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 101. He may have preferred to have the case tried in the state court, just as the Iowa corporation preferred the Federal court. But these preferences or motives, not fraudulent or unnatural, were of no consequence. They were immaterial in determining whether the plaintiff had a legal right to bring a joint action against the lessor and lessee companies, and to carry it on in that form to a conclusion. The silence of the parties, at the trial or in the appellate court, on the question of jurisdiction, could not, in disregard of the judiciary act, confer authority on the circuit court to try the case. The circuit court of appeals, therefore, properly, of its own motion, reversed the judgment of the trial court, and sent the case back to the circuit court, with instructions to remand it to the state court. Restricting this opinion to the case made by the record before us, and as litigated, and without imagining cases in which the rules herein announced might be difficult to apply, the judgment is affirmed.

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