Source: http://www.chanrobles.com/usa/us_supremecourt/155/58/case.php
Timestamp: 2017-10-18 09:34:02
Document Index: 272704244

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 740', '§ 5', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 5', '§ 1', '§ 5', '§ 738', '§ 8']

This bill appears to have been dismissed by the court below upon the ground that inhabitants of other districts than the Northern District of Florida were made defendants. The question really is whether, under the Act of August 13, 1888, c. 866, 25 Stat. 433, requiring, in actions between citizens of chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Court, referring to several prior cases in this Court in which it was held that the word "citizen," as used in the Judiciary Act of 1789, is used collectively, and means all citizens upon one side of a suit, and if there are several co-plaintiffs the intention of the act is that each plaintiff chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Construing this act, it was held in @ 58 U. S. 141):
As no exception was made in that act of the cases provided for by §§ 740-742, it is at least open to some doubt as to whether suits will lie against nonresident defendants under those sections. So too, in the Act of August 13, 1888, § 5, there was an express reservation of any jurisdiction or right mentioned in § 8 of the act of Congress of which this act was an amendment (that is, the Act of March 3, 1875), which, as above stated, is the section permitting suits to enforce any legal or equitable lien upon or claim to real estate to be brought in the district where the property lies, and defendants, nonresidents of such district, to be brought in by publication or personal service made in their own districts. It is entirely true that § 8 of the act of 1875, authorizing publication, does not enlarge the jurisdiction of the circuit court. It does not purport to do so. Jurisdiction was conferred, by the first section of the act of 1888, of "all suits of a civil nature," exceeding $2,000 in amount, "in which there shall be a controversy between citizens of different states;" and this implies that no defendant shall be a citizen of the same state with the plaintiff, but otherwise there is no limitation upon such jurisdiction. Section 8 of the act of 1875, saved by § 5 of the act of 1888, does, however, confer a privilege upon the plaintiff of joining in local actions defendants who are nonresidents of the district in which the action is brought, and calling them in by publication, thus creating an exception to the clause of § 1 that no civil suit shall be brought in any other district than that of which defendant is an inhabitant. Hence it appears that the case of Smith v. Lyon really has no bearing, as that case involved only the rights of parties to personal actions residing in different districts to sue and be sued, and was entirely unaffected by the act of 1888 (§ 5), which deals with defendants only in local actions, and expressly reserves jurisdiction chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
if the suit be one to enforce a lien or claim upon real estate or personal property. The precise question here involved has never been passed upon by this Court, but in the only cases in the circuit courts to which our attention has been called the jurisdiction was upheld. American F.L.M. Co. v. Benson, 33 F.4d 6; Carpenter v. Talbot, 33 F.5d 7; Ames v. Holderbaum, 42 F.3d 1; McBee v. Marietta &c. Railway, 48 F.2d 3, and Wheelwright v. St. Louis, New Orleans &c. Transportation Co., 50 F.7d 9.
In line with these cases, and almost directly in point here, is the decision of this Court in Goodman v. Niblack, 102 U. S. 556, in which it was held that where a bill was filed to enforce a claim or lien upon a specific fund within reach of the court, and such of the defendants as were neither inhabitants of nor found within the district did no voluntarily appear, the circuit court had the power to adjudicate upon their right to or interest in the fund if they be notified of the pendency of the suit by service or publication in the mode prescribed by Rev.Stat. § 738. This is a distinct adjudication that defendants who are neither inhabitants of nor found within the district may be cited by publication to appear, and, if this be so, it is difficult to see how the omission of the words "found within the district" in the act of 1888 makes any difference whatever with regard to the right to call absent defendants in by publication. The act of 1875 gave the right to sue defendants wherever they were found. The act of 1888 requires that they shall be inhabitants of the district. But in both cases, an exception is created in local actions wherein any defendant interested in the res may be cited to appear and answer provided he be not a citizen of the same state with the plaintiff. So, too, in Mellen v. Moline Malleable Iron Works, 131 U. S. 352, a suit instituted by a creditor to set aside a conveyance of the real estate and a mortgage upon the personal property of his debtor, made to secure certain preferred creditors, was held to be a suit brought to remove an encumbrance or lien or cloud upon the property within the meaning of § 8 of the act of 1875, and that the circuit court chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The objections do not go to the jurisdiction of the federal court as such, but to the maintenance of such a bill in any court of equity in the State of Florida. They are questions proper to be considered on demurrer to the bill, and, as bearing upon such questions, the local practice of the state in that regard may become an important consideration. This Court has held in a multitude of cases that where the laws of a particular state gave a remedy in equity -- as, for instance, a bill by a party in or out of possession to quiet title to lands -- such remedy would be enforced in the federal courts if it did not infringe upon the constitutional rights of the parties to a trial by jury. 38 U. S. 157; United States v. Landram, 118 U. S. 81, 118 U. S. 89; More v. Steinbach,@ 127 U. S. 70.
(3) The objection that Eliza B. Anderson was alleged in the bill to be a resident and citizen of the District of Columbia was met by an amended allegation that Anderson was "a citizen of South Carolina, now residing in Washington City, District of Columbia," and, while this allegation was traversed, it must for the purpose of this hearing be taken as true. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary