Source: http://openjurist.org/130/us/301
Timestamp: 2015-09-04 23:39:26
Document Index: 719412485

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 914', '§ 3', '§ 2', '§ 3', '§ 1', '§ 2', '§ 8']

130 US 301 Amy v. City of Watertown | OpenJurist
130 U.S. 301 - Amy v. City of Watertown Home
130 US 301 Amy v. City of Watertown 130 U.S. 301
9 S.Ct. 530
32 L.Ed. 946
AMY et al.v.CITY OF WATERTOWN.
George P. Miller, for plaintiffs in error.
The principal question in this case is whether the defendant, the city of Watertown, was served with process in the suit so as to give the court below jurisdiction over it. In order to understand the bearing of the facts of the case, it will be necessary to give a brief abstract of the laws of Wisconsin which relate to it, and these are mostly to be found in the charter of the city of Watertown, and the acts supplementary thereto. The state laws are referred to because they govern the practice of the federal courts in the matter under consideration. By the fifth section of the act of June 1, 1872, (Rev. St. § 914,) it is declared that 'the practice, pleadings, and forms and modes of proceeding in civil causes, other than equity and admiralty causes, in the circuit and district courts, shall conform, as near as may be, to the practice, pleadings, and forms and modes of proceeding existing at the time in like causes in the courts of record of the state within which such circuit or district courts are held.' Were it not for this statute, the circuit courts themselves could prescribe by general rule the mode of serving process on corporations as well as on other persons. By the temporary process act of September 29, 1789, (1 St. 93,) if not otherwise provided, the forms of writs and executions (except their style) and modes of process in the circuit and district courts in suits at common law were directed to be the same as in the supreme courts of the states respectively. By the permanent process act of May 8, 1792, (1 St. 275,) it was enacted that the forms of writs, executions, and other process, and the forms and modes of proceeding, in suits at common law, should be the same as directed by the act of 1789, subject to such alterations and additions as the said courts should deem expedient, or to such regulations as the supreme court of the United States should think proper by rule to prescribe to any circuit or district court. So that the practice in United States courts in the old states was made to conform to the state practice, as it was in 1789, subject to alteration by rule of court. In 1828 a law was passed adopting for the federal courts in the new states, admitted since 1789, the forms of process, and forms and modes of proceeding, of the highest courts of those states respectively, as then existing, subject to alteration by the courts themselves or the supreme court of the United States. 4 St. 278. By the act of August 1, 1842, the provisions of the act of 1828 were extended to the states admitted in the intermediate time. This review of the statutes shows that after 1792 it was always in the power of the courts by general rules to adapt their practice to the exigencies and conditions of the times. But the statute of 1872 is peremptory, and whatever belongs to the three categories of practice, pleading, and forms and modes of proceeding, must conform to the state law and the practice of the state courts, except where congress itself has legislated upon a particular subject, and prescribed a rule; then, of course, the act of congress is to be followed in preference to the laws of the state. With regard to the mode of serving mesne process upon corporations and other persons, congress has not laid down any rule; and hence the state law and practice must be followed. There can be no doubt, we think, that the mode of service of process is within the categories named in the act. It is part of the practice and mode of proceeding in a suit.
Assuming, therefore, that the question is one to be governed by the local or state law, we proceed to give an abstract of the charter of Watertown, and such other laws of Wisconsin as bear upon the subject. We find this mostly made to our hand in the brief of the plaintiffs in error, taken from the consolidated charter of 1865, and it is as follows: 'Chapter 1, § 3. The said city shall be divided into seven wards. Sec. 4. The corporate authority of said city shall be vested in one principal officer, styled the 'mayor;' in one board of aldermen, consisting of two members from each ward, who, with the mayor, shall be denominated the common council. * * * Sec. 5. The annual election for ward and city officers shall be held on the first Tuesday of April of each year. * * * Sec. 6. * * * All elective officers, except * * * aldermen, shall, unless otherwise provided, hold their respective offices for one year, and until their successors are elected and qualified. Sec. 7. In the event of a vacancy in the office of mayor, alderman, * * * the common council shall order a new election. * * *' 'Chapter 2, § 2. The mayor, when present, shall preside over the meetings of the common council, and shall take care that the laws of the state and the ordinances of the city, within the corporation, are duly enforced and observed, and that all officers of the city discharge their respective duties. He shall appoint the police force. * * * He shall have a vote in case of a tie only. * * * Sec. 3. At the first meeting of the common council in each year, or as soon thereafter as may be, they shall proceed to elect, by ballot, one of their number president; and in the absence of the mayor the said president shall preside over the meetings of the common council; and during the absence of the mayor from the city, or his inability from any cause to discharge the duties of his office, the president shall execute all the powers and discharge all the duties of mayor. In case the mayor and president shall be absent from any meeting of the common council, they shall proceed to elect a temporary presiding officer, who, for the time being, shall discharge the duties of mayor. The president, or temporary presiding officer, while presiding over the council or performing the duties of mayor, shall be styled 'acting mayor,' and acts performed by them shall have the same force and validity as if performed by the mayor.' 'Chapter 3, § 3. The common council shall have the management and control of the finances and of all the property of the city, and shall likewise, in addition to the powers herein vested in them, have full power to make, enact, ordain, establish, publish, enforce, alter, modify, amend, and repeal all such ordinances, rules, and by-laws for the government and good order of the city, for the suppression of vice and immorality, for the prevention of crime, and for the benefit of trade, commerce, and health. * * *' The common council is then given, in 26 sections, the usual powers which are commonly vested in the common councils of cities. 'Chapter 5, § 1. * * * All funds in the treasury * * * shall be under the control of the common council, and shall be drawn out upon the order of mayor and clerk, duly authorized by a vote of the common council. * * *' 'Chapter 7, § 2. The common council shall by resolution levy such sum or sums of money as may be sufficient for the several purposes for which taxes are herein authorized to be levied. * * *' 'Chapter 9, § 8. When any suit or action shall be commenced against said city the service thereof may be made by leaving a copy of the process with the mayor.'
Chapter 61 of the Private and Local Laws of Wisconsin for 1867 provides: 'Section 1. Section seven of the first chapter of said act (an act to incorporate the city of Watertown, and the several acts amendatory thereof, chapter 233 of the General Laws of 1865) is hereby amended so that it shall read as follows: 'In the event of a vacancy in the office of mayor * * * by death, removal, or other disability, the common council shall order a new election. * * *' In case of a vacancy in the office of alderman, the mayor may order a new election. * * * Any city officer who shall resign his office shall file with the city clerk his resignation in writing, directed to the mayor, and such resignation shall take effect from the time of filing the same.'
Chapter 204 of the Private and Local Laws of Wisconsin for 1871 provides: 'Section 1. The senior alderman of each ward of the city of Watertown shall constitute a board of street commissioners, who are hereby authorized, subject to the regulation and control of the common council, to audit and allow accounts against the city; * * * and, when allowed, orders on the treasury shall issue therefor; and in case of vacancy in the office of mayor, and there is no president of the common council to act, said orders may be signed by the chairman of said board and the city clerk. The city clerk shall be the clerk of said board, and shall keep record of its proceedings. The mayor may preside at the meetings of said board, and they may elect a chairman, who shall preside in his absence. * * * Said board shall have all the powers conferred upon the common council by the city charter in relation to streets and bridges and sidewalks. * * * Said board are also authorized to canvass the returns of all votes polled at the election for city or ward officers, and determine and declare the result of such election. Sec. 2. In case of vacancy in the office of alderman in any of the wards, the aldermen remaining in office shall have and exercise all the powers of street commissioners of the ward. The resignation of the mayor shall be in writing, directed to the common council or city clerk, and filed with the city clerk, and shall take effect at the time of filing the same.' Chapter 2, P. & L. Laws 1872, amended said chapter as follows: 'Section 1. The board of street commissioners of the city of Watertown shall have all the powers conferred by law upon the common council of said city, in relation to public schools, the police, fire department, nuisances, the regulation of slaughter-houses, and the public health, subject to the regulation and control of said common council: provided that said board of street commissioners shall have no power of levying taxes for any purpose whatever.'
Chapter 46, Laws Wis. 1879, provides: 'Sec. 2. The board of street commissioners of said city, and the chairman of said board, shall have concurrent power with the mayor and common council of said city in t