Source: https://openjurist.org/232/us/124
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 03:14:17+00:00

Document:
Messrs. Marcellus Geeen, Garner Wynn Green, and Marcellus Green, Jr., for plaintiff in error.
Messrs. Lovick P. Miles, Luke E. Wright, Sam P. Walker, and Roane Waring for defendant in error.
Action for libel brought in the circuit court of Hinds county, first district, state of Mississippi. Plaintiff in error (as he was plaintiff in the action, we will so refer to him), alleged himself to be a citizen of the state of Mississippi; that defendant in error, Commercial Publishing Company (referred to herein as defendant), published a libel against him in its 'newspaper called the Commercial Appeal, in the city of Memphis, state of Tennessee, but that the said Commercial Appeal has a large circulation throughout the state of Mississippi and of adjoining states and among foreign cities, and also in foreign countries.' $10,000 actual damages were prayed and $10,000 punitive damages.
Defendant filed a petition for removal of the action to the district court of the United States, which petition stated the nature of the action, that plaintiff was a resident and citizen of Mississippi, that defendant was a corporation chartered under and by virtue of the laws of Tennessee, that the time for answering or pleading to the declaration had not expired, that defendant had not appeared therein, and that defendant appeared only specially, and for the sole purpose of requesting the removal of the cause to the district court of the United States, and that it did not waive any objections or exceptions to the jurisdiction. A bond, as required by law, was duly given, which was approved, and an order of removal was duly made. The copy of the record was duly filed in the district court of the United States. The defendant then filed in the latter court a plea to the jurisdiction over the person of defendant, appearing specially for that purpose. The plea alleged that the state court had not acquired jurisdiction of the defendant, because (a) it was a corporation of the state of Tennessee, and that it had never taken out a license to do business in Mississippi, nor, at the time of the service of the summons, did it have an agent, office, or place of business in Hinds county, state of Mississippi; (b) the persons upon whom service was made were neither agents nor officers of, nor in any relation to, defendant, for the reason that defendant was not doing business in the state of Mississippi.
Plaintiff demurred to the plea, stating as grounds (1) that it was directed to the service of process, and not to the declaration, as required under § 29 of the Judicial Code [36 Stat. at L. 1095, chap. 231, U. S. Comp. Stat. Supp. 1911, p. 142]; (2) no right exists to enter a special appearance in the Hinds county circuit court under the laws of the state of Mississippi, all appearances being general, even though process be invalidly served.
The demurrer was overruled and issue joined on the plea to the jurisdiction, and the court, having heard the evidence, decided that neither of the persons upon whom summons was served was such an agent of defendant that service upon him would give jurisdiction over the person of defendant, and thereupon found the issue for defendant.
In Wabash Western R. Co. v. Brow, 164 U. S. 271, 279, 41 L. ed. 431, 434, 17 Sup. Ct. Rep. 126, it is said: 'By the exercise of the right or removal, the petitioner refuses to permit the state court to deal with the case in any way, because he prefers another forum to which the law gives him the right to resort. This may be said the to challenge the jurisdiction of the state court, in the sense of declining to submit to it, and not necessarily otherwise.
Subsequent cases have applied this ruling. Mechanical Appliance Co. v. Castleman, 215 U. S. 437, 54 L. ed. 272, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 125, and cases cited therein.
It may be conceded that the purpose of the amendment was to secure expedition in the disposition of the case, but a revolution in the practice and efficacy of the right of removal is not lightly to be inferred. And a revolution it would be. It would take from the Federal courts the power they have possessed under the cases cited,—a power not only to pass upon the merits of the case, but upon the validity of the service of process; that is, upon the question of jurisdiction over the person of the defendant. How essential this power is to the right of removal is obvious. Without it a state could prescribe any process or notice, or a plaintiff, as in the pending case, serve process on a person having no relation with a defendant, and compel him to submit to it and to a jurisdiction not of his residence, or give up his right to take the case to what, in contemplation of law, may be a more impartial tribunal for the determination of the action instituted against him, and which it is the purpose of the removal proceedings to secure to him; and, it must be assumed, completely, not by surrender of any of his rights, but in protection and security of all of them.
The weakness of plaintiff's contention is demonstrated not only when we consider all of the language of § 29, but the language of § 38, which provides that in all suits removed the district court shall proceed therein as if the suit had been originally commenced in the district court, 'and the same proceedings had been taken in such suit in said district court as shall have been had therein in said state court prior to its removal.' In other words, the cause is transferred to the district court as it stands in the state court and the defendant is enabled to avail himself in the latter court of any defenses, and, within the time designated, plead to the action 'in the same manner as if it had been originally commenced in said district court.' And these words, we have seen, were explicitly given such effect in the cited cases.
It is clear, therefore, that plaintiff gives too restrictive a meaning to the word 'plead' in § 29. It must be construed to include a plea to the jurisdiction, and, so construing it, all of the provisions for removal of causes become accordant and their purposes fulfilled,—the right of a speedy disposition of the suit to the plaintiff, and the right of the defendant to have all questions determined by the Federal tribunal.
The contention is untenable. Goldey v. Morning News, and Mechanical Appliance Co. v. Castleman, supra.

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