Opinion ID: 91697
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The transcript and record on file in said Circuit Court in said cause.

Text: 2. Answer of the plaintiff to the petition of the corporation defendant for a removal, herewith served. 3. Affidavits of J.H. McKune, W.F. George, and Jennie B. Ritter, herewith served; and 4. Also offer oral evidence. None of the affidavits here referred to are found in the transcript, and there is no statement of any oral evidence that was produced. The court heard the motion on the 27th of July and remanded the suit. From this order an appeal was taken and writ of error brought, and these have been docketed here as separate causes. It was not necessary to docket the cause twice because it was brought here both by appeal and writ of error. Hurst v. Hollingsworth, 94 U.S. 111. There was but one action in the court below, and there is but one record. The appeal and writ of error bring up but one order or judgment for review, and there is, therefore, but one case here. Upon the face of the complaint there is in the suit but a single cause of action, and that is the wrongful pollution of the water of the plaintiff's canal by the united action of all the defendants working together. Such being the case, the controversy was not separable for the purposes of a removal, even though the defendants answered separately, setting up separate defences. Pirie v. Tvedt, 115 U.S. 41; Sloane v. Anderson, 117 U.S. 275, 278. It is claimed, however, that, as the answers show that the Plymouth Company is the real defendant, and the petition alleges that the others are nominal parties only, and joined with that company as sham defendants to prevent a removal, the suit must be treated as in legal effect against the New York corporation alone, and, therefore, removable. So far as the complaint goes, all the defendants are necessary and proper parties. A judgment is asked against them all, both for an injunction and for money. Hayward and Hudson are admitted by the answer to be officers of the corporation, and Montgomery its superintendent. These persons are all citizens of California, and amenable to process in that State. It is not denied that they are all actively engaged in the operations of the company; and Montgomery, as the superintendent of its mines and mills, must necessarily be himself personally connected with the alleged wrongful acts for which the suit was brought. It is undoubtedly true that if the company has a good defence to the action, that defence will inure to the benefit of all the other defendants; but it by no means follows that, if the company is liable, the other defendants may not be equally so, and jointly with the company. It is possible, also, that the company may be guilty and the other defendants not guilty, but the plaintiff in its complaint says they are all guilty, and that presents the cause of action to be tried. Each party defends for himself, but until his defence is made out the case stands against him, and the rights of all must be governed accordingly. Under these circumstances, the averments in the petition, that the defendants were wrongfully made to avoid a removal can be of no avail in the Circuit Court upon a motion to remand, until they are proven, and that, so far as the present record discloses, was not attempted. The affirmative of this issue was on the petitioning defendant. That corporation was the moving party, and was bound to make out its case. The order remanding the cause is Affirmed.