Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/142/459/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 01:22:05+00:00

Document:
The Act of March 3, 1887, 24 Stat. 552, c. 373, with regard to the removal of causes from state courts, corrected by the Act of August 13, 1888, 25 Stat. 433, c. 866, repealed subdivision 3 of Rev.Stat. § 639.
The words in that act "at any time before the trial thereof," used in regard to removals "from prejudice or local influence," were used by Congress with reference to the construction put on similar language in the Act of March 3, 1875, 18 Stat. 470, c. 137, by this Court, and are to receive the same construction, which required the petition to be filed before or at the term at which the cause could first be tried, and before the trial thereof.
the venue was changed to Multnomah County, where the plaintiff and the Oregon defendants resided when the action was commenced, none of the parties residing in Wasco County. The case was afterwards tried before a jury in the Circuit Court for Multnomah County, who, on April 15, 1885, found a verdict under the direction of the court for the defendants, on which there was a judgment for costs in their favor, which judgment was on January 11, 1886, reversed by the supreme court, 13 Or. 156, and a new trial ordered, which, being had, resulted May 21, 1886, in a verdict for the plaintiff for the sum of $60,000. On the 18th of May, before the jury was impaneled, the death of Peter Donahue was suggested, and his executors, James M. Donahue, Annie Donahue, and Mary Ellen Von Schroeder, citizens of California, were substituted as defendants. The case was afterwards heard on the motion of plaintiff for judgment, and two motions of the defendants for a new trial, and for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict. On June 30, 1886, plaintiff's motion was denied and defendants' for judgment non obstante allowed on the ground that the complaint did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, and thereupon judgment was entered for costs in favor of the defendants, which judgment was on October 20, 1886, on writ of error, reversed by the supreme court, 14 Or. 29, and the cause remanded for further proceedings according to law. On December 18, 1886, the circuit court allowed the motion for a new trial and set aside the verdict, from which order the plaintiff appealed to the supreme court, and the appeal was on April 18, 1887, dismissed. 15 Or. 89. Thereafterwards the cause was again tried, and the jury, being unable to agree, were discharged without finding a verdict. July 30, 1887, the defendants Henarie, Eleanor Martin, and the executors of Peter Donahue, deceased, applied to the state court for the removal of the cause to the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Oregon, and on the first day of August, 1887, an order removing was entered by the judge of the state court.
"That said action has not been tried and is now pending in the above-entitled court; that from prejudice and local influence, your petitioners will not be able to obtain justice in this Court or in any other state court to which the said defendants may, under the laws of this state, remove said cause; that the other defendants in said action, Thos. S. Martin, Edward Martin, and John D. Wilcox, now and at all times since the commencement of said action have been citizens and residents of the State of Oregon, residing in Portland, therein; that your petitioners desire to remove said cause to the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Oregon under the provisions of the Act of Congress approved March 3, 1887. Your petitioners further say that they have filed the affidavit required by the statute in such cases, and they herewith offer their bond, with surety, in the penal sum of one thousand dollars, conditioned as by the statutes of the United States required. Your petitioners therefore pray that said bond may be accepted and approved, and that said cause may be removed into the next Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Oregon, and that no further proceedings may be had therein in this Court."
Henarie, one of the petitioners, verified the petition upon belief, and it was accompanied by the affidavit of Henarie and Eleanor Martin to the effect that they had reason to believe, and did believe, and so stated, that, from prejudice and local influence, the defendants, to-wit, the affiants and the executors of Peter Donahue, would not be able to obtain justice in said state court or in any other state court to which said defendants, under the laws of the State of Oregon, had the right to remove the same on account of such prejudice and local influence. The state court ordered the removal under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1887.
The transcript was filed in the circuit court of the United States September 30, 1887, and on October 8th following, a motion was made to remand upon the grounds that the application for the removal of the cause was not made in time, or before trial of the cause in the state court; that the petition and affidavit were insufficient in that they did not set forth the facts and reasons showing the alleged prejudice or local influence; that the removal papers were not served on the plaintiff in accordance with the rules of practice in the state courts, and that the petition and accompanying papers did not show a cause for removal, and the motion concluded with a denial of the existence of any prejudice or local influence which would prevent the defendants, or any of them, from obtaining justice in the state courts or at all, and asked the court to examine into the truth of the affidavits alleging prejudice and local influence, and the grounds thereof, and thereupon to direct the action to be remanded to the court from whence it was removed. This motion referred to the record and certain affidavits filed in its support. The motion was denied by the circuit court October 26, 1887, (the opinion will be found reported in 32 F. 417), and on December 17, the cause was tried by a jury, and a verdict rendered for the defendants. Judgment was thereupon entered against the plaintiff and in favor of the defendants for costs. A motion for a new trial was filed assigning, among other grounds, that the court had no jurisdiction of the parties or of the subject matter of the action, and erred in denying the motion to remand. This motion was overruled, 35 F. 230, and a writ of error sued out from this Court.
"An act to amend the act of Congress approved March third, eighteen hundred and seventy-five, entitled 'An act to determine the jurisdiction of circuit courts of the United States, and to regulate the removal of causes from state courts, and for other purposes,' and to further regulate the jurisdiction of circuit courts of the United States, and for other purposes,"
proceeded with therein. At any time before the trial of any suit which is now pending in any circuit court or may hereafter be entered therein, and which has been removed to said court from a state court on the affidavit of any party plaintiff that he had reason to believe and did believe that, from prejudice or local influence, he was unable to obtain justice in said state court, the circuit court shall, on application of the other party, examine into the truth of said affidavit and the grounds thereof, and, unless it shall appear to the satisfaction of said court that said party will not be able to obtain justice in such state court, it shall cause the same to be remanded thereto. Whenever any cause shall be removed from any state court into any circuit court of the United States and the circuit court shall decide that the cause was improperly removed, and order the same to be remanded to the state court from whence it came, such remand shall be immediately carried into execution, and no appeal or writ of error from the decision of the circuit court so remanding such cause shall be allowed. "
After this case had been pending in the state courts from November 13, 1883, to August 1, 1887, had been tried three times before a jury in the circuit court, there being one verdict for defendants, one for plaintiff, and one disagreement, and been heard in various phases three times in the supreme court of the state, the application was made for removal. Was this application in time? This question is to be determined upon a proper construction of section 2 of the Act of Congress of March 3, 1887, for it is not, and could not be, contended that the right of removal could then have been invoked on the ground of diverse citizenship. The application was filed July 30, 1887, and by its terms purported to be made under the act of 1887, to which act the order of the state court referred. Indeed, if subdivision 3 of section 639 of the Revised Statutes were repealed by the act of 1887, or, since some of the defendants were then and at the commencement of the suit citizens of the same state as the plaintiff, if a removal could be had at all, it could only be under the act of 1887.
The Judiciary Act of 1789. 1 Stat. c. 20, § 12, pp. 73, 79, provided that a party entitled to remove a cause should file his petition for such removal "at the time of entering his appearance in such state court." 1 Stat. 79.
"the defendant, who is a citizen of a state other than that in which the suit is brought, may at any time before the trial or final hearing of the cause, file a petition for the removal of the cause,"
etc. 14 Stat. 306, c. 388.
of the suit, file a petition in such state court for the removal of the suit," etc. 14 Stat. 558, c. 196.
The first subdivision of section 639 of the Revised Statutes was a reenactment of the twelfth section of the Judiciary Act, the second subdivision, of the Act of July 27, 1866, and the third subdivision of the Act of March 2, 1867, and this subdivision adopted the phraseology of the Act of July 27, 1866, namely, "At any time before the trial or final hearing" of the suit.
The Act of March 3, 1875, said nothing about prejudice or local influence, but provided, in the case of diverse citizenship, that the party desiring to remove a cause should make and file his petition in the state court "before or at the term at which said cause could be first tried, and before the trial thereof." 18 Stat. 470, 471, c. 137.
it does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. Gregory v. Hartley, 113 U. S. 742, 113 U. S. 746; Alley v. Nott, 111 U. S. 472; Laidly v. Huntington, 121 U. S. 179.
"Any defendant, being such citizen of another state, may remove such suit into the circuit court of the United States for the proper district at any time before the trial thereof, when it shall be made to appear to said circuit court that from prejudice or local influence he will not be able to obtain justice in such state court, or in any other state court to which the said defendant may, under the laws of the state, have the right, on account of such prejudice or local influence, to remove said cause."
In view of the repeated decisions of this Court in exposition of the acts of 1866, 1867, and 1875, it is not to be doubted that Congress, recognizing the interpretation placed on the word "final," in the connection in which it was used in the prior acts, and the settled construction of the act of 1875, deliberately changed the language, "at any time before the final hearing or trial of the suit," or "at any time before the trial or final hearing of the cause," to read, "at any time before the trial thereof," as in the act of 1875, which required the petition to be filed before or at the term at which the cause could first be tried, and before the trial thereof. The attempt was manifestly to restrain the volume of litigation pouring into the federal courts, and to return to the standard of the Judiciary Act, and to effect this in part by resorting to the language used in the act of 1875, as its meaning had been determined by judicial interpretation. This is the more obvious in view of the fact that the Act of March 3, 1887, was evidently intended to restrict the jurisdiction of the circuit courts, as we have heretofore held. Smith v. Lyon, 133 U. S. 315; In re Pennsylvania Company, 137 U. S. 451.
by the latter, and the differences are such as to render the intention of Congress in this regard entirely clear. Under the previous acts, the right of removal might be exercised by plaintiff as well as defendant; the application was addressed to the state court; there was no provision for the separation of the suit; the ground of removal was based upon what the affiant asserted he had reason to believe and believed, and action on the motion to remand could be reviewed on appeal or writ of error or by mandamus; while under the latter act the right is confined to the defendant; the application is made to the circuit court; the suit may be divided and remanded in part; the prejudice or local influence must be made to appear to the circuit court -- that is, the circuit court must be legally satisfied, by proof suitable to the nature of the case, of the truth of the allegation that, by reason of those causes, the defendant will not be able to obtain justice in the state courts, and review on writ of error or appeal or by mandamus is taken away. In re Pennsylvania Company, 137 U. S. 451; Malone v. Richmond & Danville Railroad Co., 35 F. 625. The repealing clause in the act of 1887 does not specifically refer to these prior acts, but declares that "all laws and parts of laws in conflict with the provisions of this act be, and the same are hereby, repealed." The provisions relating to the subject matter under consideration are, however, so comprehensive, as well as so variant from those of the former acts, that we think the intention to substitute the one for the other is necessarily to be inferred, and must prevail.
"While repeals by implication are not favored, it is well settled that where two acts are not in all respects repugnant, if the later act covers the whole subject of the earlier and embraces new provisions which plainly show that it was intended as a substitute for the first, it will operate as a repeal."
The rule thus expressed is applicable, and is decisive.
Reversed, and the cause remanded to the circuit court, with a direction to remand it to the state court.
MR. JUSTICE HARLAN, with whom concurred MR. JUSTICE FIELD, dissenting.
MR. JUSTICE FIELD and myself do not concur in the construction which the court places upon the act of 1887.
"at the time, or at any time before, the defendant is required by the laws of the state, or the rule of the state court in which such suit is brought, to answer or plead to the declaration or complaint of the plaintiff,"
a trial is in progress, the cause may be removed before its termination, even upon the ground of prejudice or local influence. But if at the time the application is made the cause is not on trial, and is undetermined -- that is, has not been effectively tried -- the act of 1887, in our judgment, authorizes a removal, on proper showing, upon the ground of prejudice or local influence, although there may have been a trial, resulting in a verdict which has been set aside.
fixing the rights of the parties in the suit. If a case is open for trial on the merits, an application for its removal before that trial commences is made "before the trial thereof." In our opinion, the interpretation adopted by the Court defeats the purpose which Congress had in view for the protection of persons sued elsewhere than in the state of which they are citizens.

References: § 639
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