Source: https://www.legalcrystal.com/case/94620/seaboard-rice-milling-co-vs-chicago-pac
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 04:54:55+00:00

Document:
Appellant Seaboard Rice Milling Co.
Respondent Chicago, R.i. and Pac. Ry. Co.
1. Under § 51, Judicial Code, a suit brought by a nonresident in the district court upon the basis of diverse citizenship, or because it arises under the laws of the United States, must be dismissed or want of jurisdiction over the person of the defendant if the defendant be not a resident of the district and seasonably assert his privilege. P. 270 U. S. 365 .
2. A corporation (within the meaning of the jurisdictional statutes) is a resident of the state in which it is incorporated, and not a resident or inhabitant of any other state, even of one within which it is engaged in business. P. 270 U. S. 366 .
3. Section 28, Judicial Code, allowing removal of suit of which the district courts "are given original jurisdiction," relates to the general jurisdiction of those courts, and not to their local jurisdiction over the defendant's person, dealt with in § 51, so that the fact that a suit between nonresidents might have been brought in the state court and removed to the district court does not show that, if brought originally in the district court, it could have been retained there over the defendant's objection. P. 270 U. S. 366 .
Error to a judgment of the district court dismissing a action for want of jurisdiction over the defendant.
This is an action at law brought by the milling company against the railway company, in the District Court of the Eastern District of Missouri, to recover the sum of $3,035.73 for damages alleged to have been sustained through the negligence of the railway company, the initial carrier, and its connecting carriers, in the interstate transportation of rice shipped from Arkansas to New York. The railway company, appearing specially, filed a plea to the jurisdiction on the ground that neither it nor the milling company was a resident or inhabitant of the district. This plea was sustained without opinion, and the suit was dismissed for want of jurisdiction. This direct writ of error was allowed, and the jurisdictional question certified, in February, 1925, under § 238 of the Judicial Code.
upon which the decision depends is so unsubstantial as not to need further argument. Hodges v. Snyder, 261 U. S. 600 , 261 U. S. 601 . This motion must be granted.
The declaration and the testimony heard upon the plea show that the milling company is a corporation organized under the laws or Texas, and that the railway company is a corporation organized under the laws of Illinois and Iowa, having its principal office in Chicago, but maintaining a branch office and operating a branch line within the Eastern District of Missouri.
"no civil suit shall be brought in any district court against any person by any original process of proceeding in any other district than that, whereof he is an inhabitant; but where the jurisdiction is founded only on the fact that the action is between citizens of different states, suit shall be brought only in the district of the residence of either the plaintiff or the defendant."
That is to say, the suit must be brought within the district of which the defendant is an inhabitant, unless the general federal jurisdiction is founded upon diversity of citizenship alone, in which case it must be brought either in that district or in the district in which the plaintiff resides.
While this provision does not limit the general jurisdiction of the district courts, it confers a personal privilege on the defendant, which he may assert, or may waive at his election, if sued in some other district. Lee v. Chesapeake Railway, 260 U. S. 653 , 260 U. S. 655 , and cases cited. If this privilege is seasonably asserted, the suit must be dismissed for want of jurisdiction over the person of the defendant. Macon Grocery Co. v. Atlantic Coast Line, 215 U. S. 501 , 215 U. S. 510 , and cases cited.
It is immaterial whether the general federal jurisdiction in the present suit is founded upon diversity of citizenship alone or whether the suit is also one arising under the laws of the United States, since neither the milling company nor the railway company is a resident of the Eastern District of Missouri, a corporation being, within the meaning of the jurisdictional statutes, a resident of the state in which it is incorporated, and not a resident or inhabitant of any other state, although it may be engaged in business within such other state. In re Keasbey & Mattison Co., 160 U. S. 221 , 160 U. S. 229 ; Macon Grocery Co. v. Atlantic Coast Line, supra, 215 U. S. 509 , and cases cited.
"original jurisdiction," as used in § 28, refers only to the general jurisdiction conferred on the district courts, and does not relate to the venue provision in § 51, there being "no purpose in extending to removals the personal privilege accorded to defendants by § 51, since removals are had only at the instance of defendants." This was approved and followed in Lee v. Chesapeake Railway, supra, 260 U. S. 657 .
Whether the suit be originally brought in the district court or removed from a state court, the general federal jurisdiction is the same, and the venue or local jurisdiction of the district court over the person of the defendant is dependent, in the one case as in the other, upon the voluntary action of the nonresident defendant, being acquired in an original suit by his waiver of objection to the venue, and in a removed suit by his application for the removal to the district court.
* 25 Stat. 433, 434, c. 866.

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