Court Opinion

ID: 9883046
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 01:36:02.444222+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:19.277724
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Woods
and myself dissent from the opinion and *44judgment in this case. Although the action is, in form, against all of the defendants jointly, it is, practically, a separate one .against each defendant; for, it is conceded, that, by the laws of Minnesota, it would not be wholly defeated if the plaintiffs failed to establish a cause of action against all of the defendants. They would be entitled to judgment against the defendant or defendants against whom a case was made. Had- the suit been only against the defendants-who are citizens of Illinois, as it might have been, the right of the latter to remove it into the Circuit Court of the United States would not be questioned. But it seems by the present decision, that their right of removal has been defeated by the act of the plaintiffs in uniting with them; as defendants, citizens of Minnesota, against whom, as is conceded, it was not necessary to introduce any evidence whatever in order to entitle the plaintiffs to a judgment against the other defendants. As in most, if not in all, the States, the local statutes dispense with the verification of pleadings in actions of tort, this convenient device will be often employed. When, for instance, a citizen of New York has a cause of action, sounding in damages, against a citizen of New Jersey, who happens to go within the jurisdiction of the former State, the plaintiff can join a citizen of New York as a co-defendant, charging them jointly with liability to him for damages claimed. And when the citizen of New Jersey asks a removal of the suit to the Federal court, he is met with the suggestion that it is for the plaintiff, in his discretion, to sue him separately, or jointly with others. Upon his application to remove the cause, the State court may not institute a preliminary inquiry as to whether the plaintiff had, in fact, a cause of action against the defendant citizen of New York. It is not for that court, in advance, to determine thé good faith of the plaintiff in making a citizen of New York a cg-defendant with the citizen of New Jersey. The removal statutes make no provision for such an inquiry, and the State court, by the decision just rendered, must look alone to the cause of action as set out in the petition or complaint. When, in the case supposed, the evidence is concluded, and it- appears that there is, in fact, no cause of action ■ against the de*45fendant citizen of New York, it is too late for the removal to occur; for it must be had, if at all, before the suit could be tried in the State court. It seems to us that where the plaintiff, in a suit against several defendants in tort, is not required to prove a joint cause of action against all of them, but may have judgment as to those against whom he makes a case, there is, within the meaning of the act of Congress, a controversy in the suit, which is wholly between the plaintiff and each defendant, ' and finally determinable, as between them, without th. -, presence of the other defendants as parties in the cause. The suit, therefore, belongs to the class which, under the act of 1875, may "fie removed into the Federal court. The decision in this case, it seems to us, restricts the right of removal, under the act of 1875, by citizens of States, other than that in which the suit is brought, within much narrower limits than those established by previous legislation; and this, notwithstanding it was intended by that act to enlarge the right of removal, especially in respect to controversies between citizens of different States.