Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/257/533/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 00:06:32+00:00

Document:
Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 257 › Missouri Pacific R. Co. v. Clarendon Boat Oar Co., Inc.
Missouri Pacific Railroad Company v.
Clarendon Boat Oar Company, Inc.
A state law for securing jurisdiction over foreign corporations in proceedings in the state courts by requiring appointment of agents upon whom process may be served, applicable alike to actions by residents or nonresidents, clearly does not violate due process in not applying to transitory actions arising outside the state; a contention to the contrary made by plaintiff foreign corporation is frivolous, and will not support a writ of error. P. 257 U. S. 534.
Error to review a judgment of the Court of Appeals of Louisiana affirming a judgment of a district court of the state and dismissing for want of jurisdiction an action for breach of contract brought by the railroad against the Boat Oar Company.
This is a writ of error to the judgment of the highest court of the State of Louisiana to which the case could be taken. The plaintiff, the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, a Missouri corporation, sued the defendant company, the Clarendon Boat Oar Company, a New York company, for damages in the District Court of Richland Parish, for the breach of an affreightment contract entered into in the State of Arkansas and to be performed in that state. The defendant appeared solely to except to the jurisdiction. The district court sustained the exception, and, on appeal to the Court of Appeal of the Second Circuit, this ruling was affirmed and the cause dismissed. The supreme court of the state refused to entertain an appeal.
authoritative construction of the statute by the state courts.
Co. v. Selden Breck Construction Co., ante, 257 U. S. 213; Old Wayne Mutual Life Association v. McDonough, 204 U. S. 22; Simon v. Southern Railway, 236 U. S. 115, 236 U. S. 130. The latter case was a Louisiana case under this same law. In these circumstances and this state of the authorities in this Court, it is frivolous to claim that a statute of procedure by its failure to give jurisdiction over foreign corporations, in transitory actions arising in another state, constitutes a lack of due process of which plaintiff in error can complain. In such a case, the writ must be dismissed. Farrell v. O'Brien, 199 U. S. 89, 199 U. S. 100; Empire state-Idaho Mining Co. v. Hanley, 205 U. S. 225, 205 U. S. 232; Goodrich v. Ferris, 214 U. S. 71, 214 U. S. 79; Toop v. Ulysses Land Co., 237 U. S. 580, 237 U. S. 583; Piedmont Power & Light Co. v. Town of Graham, 253 U. S. 193, 253 U. S. 195.

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