Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/198/95/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 04:44:18+00:00

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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 198 › Remington v. Central Pacific R. Co.
This Court has jurisdiction of a writ of error, upon a judgment dismissing the suit for want of jurisdiction, when it appears in due form that the ground of the judgment was want of service on defendant and that the plaintiff denied the validity of the removal of the case from a state court.
If a petition to remove is filed as soon as it appears in the case that the amount in controversy is sufficient to warrant removal, it is filed in season even if the time for answer has expired under the New York practice, notwithstanding failure to serve a complaint, as to which quaere.
Following up a motion to stay in the state court the day after notice of the amount in controversy, and obtaining an order relieving defendant from any technical default, which order took effect the same day that the petition for removal was filed, two days after such notice, does not estop defendant from removing the suit. The facts appearing of record, an allegation in a petition for removal that the time has not arrived at which defendant was required to answer or plead is sufficient.
Presenting the petition to a judge in chambers satisfies the statute.
Although the state court, before removal, has refused, subject to an appeal, to set aside a summons, the circuit court has power to reopen the question and to set the summons aside.
Semble, service on a director of a corporation which is doing no business and has no property in the state when he is casually in the state for a few days is bad.
24. On the same October 16, the plaintiff made an affidavit in which it appeared that the sum which he sought to recover was more than $2,000. This contained the first definite notice to defendant, as no declaration had been filed. An order to take plaintiff's deposition and this affidavit were served on the defendant on October 23. On October 26, a petition for removal to the United States circuit court was presented by the defendant to a judge of the state court in Chambers, and the bond was approved. Before the petition for removal was filed, the motion for a stay came up, on October 24, in the state court, and was argued, and a stay was ordered, the defendant at the same time being relieved from any default in appearing. The matter of the appeal was not passed upon. This order was entered on October 26. On November 4, the record was filed in the United States court.
In the circuit court, the defendant renewed its motion to set aside the service of the summons, the plaintiff objecting on various grounds, which will be dealt with, and moving to remand the case. On July 23, 1904, the court granted the defendant's motion and overruled the plaintiff's, and on August 30 a judgment was entered dismissing the action for want of jurisdiction of the defendant. See Wabash Western Ry. v. Brow, 164 U. S. 271. The plaintiff's rights were saved by a bill of exceptions, the form of the judgment, and a certificate of the judge, and the case now is brought here.
proper to be brought here, in Powers v. Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. Co., 169 U. S. 92. The jurisdiction of this Court must be sustained.
"that the defendant be relieved from any default in appearing herein, and that all proceedings on the part of the plaintiff be stayed, pending said appeal and until ten days after the decision thereof, except"
an order for the examination of the plaintiff. It did not estop the defendant from insisting on a substantial right, that it got rid of a purely formal objections, which still is pressed -- in our opinion, without ground. Dancel v. Goodyear Shoe Machinery Co., 106 F. 551. The order did not take effect until October 26, Wilcox v. National Shoe & Leather Bank, 67 App.Div. 466; Hastings v. Twenty-third Ward land Improvement Co., 46 App.Div. 609; Vilas v. Page, 106 N.Y. 439, 455.
import that the facts which justify them are true. Many such allegations are permitted, to avoid an intolerable prolixity on matters not likely to be controverted. Haskell v. Merrill, 179 Mass. 120, 123; Alton v. First National Bank of Webster, 157 Mass. 341, 343; Commonwealth v. Clancy, 154 Mass. 128, 132; Windram v. French, 151 Mass. 547, 551; Evans, Pleading, 1st ed. 48, 139, 143-146, 149-157, 164. The facts appeared of record. When the defendant expected the plaintiff to demand more than $2,000 is immaterial. The only material point is when the demand was stated in the case. Assuming the objection to be open here, if there was any defect, which we do not imply, it was but a defect of form. Powers v. Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. Co., 169 U. S. 92, 169 U. S. 98-101. The presenting of the petition to a judge in chambers, and the filing of it in the state court, satisfied the statute. See Noble v. Massachusetts Benefit Association, 48 F. 337. Loop v. Winters, 115 F. 362.
it had power to reopen the matter. It did so, and its action in that respect is not open to question here. However stringent gent may be the practice in refusing to reconsider what has been done, it still is but practice, not want of jurisdiction, that makes the rule.
The plaintiff in error does not argue the merits of the order of the circuit court. Assuming that they, as well as the jurisdiction of the court to make the order, are open here, we see no sufficient reason for disturbing the decision. The circuit court was warranted by the affidavits before it in finding that the defendant was doing no business and had no property in the State of New York, and that the service on a director casually within the state for a few days was bad. Conley v. Mathieson Alkali Works, 190 U. S. 406; Geer v. Mathieson Alkali Works, 190 U. S. 428. The arguments do not seem to us to need to be noticed in greater detail.

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