Ex parte Shaw

• Decision Date: 16 May 1892
• Parties: Ex parte SHAW
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

145 U.S. 444

12 S.Ct. 935

36 L.Ed. 768

Ex parte SHAW.

May 16, 1892.

STATEMENT BY MR. JUSTICE GRAY.

This was a petition for a writ of mandamus to the judges of the circuit court of the United States for the southern district of New York to command them to take jurisdiction against the Quincy Mining Company upon a bill in equity filed in that court on September 3, 1891, by the petitioner, described in the bill as a citizen of Massachusetts, in behalf of himself and other stockholders of the Quincy Mining Company, against 'the Quincy Mining Company, a corporation duly organized under the laws of the state of Michigan, and having a usual place of business in the city, county, and state of New York,' and against certain individuals described in the bill as citizens of the state of New York. Upon that bill a subpoena was issued, directed to the Quincy Mining Company, and, as appeared by the marshal's return thereon, was served upon it within the southern district of New York by exhibiting to its secretary the original subpoena and leaving with him a copy. The Quincy Mining Company appeared specially, and moved for an order to set aside the service.

At the hearing of the motion it appeared that the Quincy Mining Company was a corporation organized for the purpose of mining in the county of Houghton in the upper peninsula of the state of Michigan, under the statute of Michigan of May 11, 1877, c. 113, by section 30 of which 'it shall be lawful for any company associating under this act to provide in the articles of association for having the business office of such company out of this state, and to hold any meeting of the stockholders of board of directors of such company at such office so provided for, but every such company having its business office out of this state shall have an office for the transaction of business within this state, to be also designated in such articles of association;' and that this company, in its articles of association, did provide as follows: 'The business office of the company here by constituted and formed shall be in the city, county, and state of New York, and another business office is hereby established at the Quincy mine, in the county of Houghton and state of Michigan.'

The order to set aside the service was granted by the court, upon the ground (as stated in its return to the rule to show cause why the writ of mandamus should not issue) 'that said Quincy Mining Company is a corporation created and existing under the law of the state of Michigan, and is an inhabitant of the western district of Michigan, and not an inhabitant of the southern district of New York.'

Michael H. Cardozo, for petitioner.

Don M. Dickinson and Alfred Russell, for respondent.

John F. Dillon and J. Hubley Ashton filed a brief in behalf of interested parties on side of respondent, by leave.

Mr. Justice GRAY, after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

The single question in this case is whether under the act of March 3, 1887, c. 373, § 1, as corrected by the act of August 13, 1888, c. 866, (the material parts of which are copied in the margin,¹) a corporation incorporated in one state of the Union, and having a usual place of business in aother state in which it has not been incorporated, may be sued, in a circuity court of the United States held in the latter state, by a citizen of a different state.

This question, upon which there has been a diversity of opinion in the circuity courts, can be best determined by a review of the acts of congress, and of the decisions of this court, regarding the original jurisdiction of the circuit courts of the United States over suits between citizens of different states.

In carrying out the provision of the constitution which declares that the judicial power of the United States shall extend to controversies 'between citizens of different states,' congress, by the judiciary act of September 24, 1789, c. 20, § 11, conferred jurisdiction on the circuit court of suits of a civil nature, at common law or in equity, 'between a citizen of the state where the suit is brought and a citizen of another state,' and provided that 'no civil suit shall be brought' 'against an inhabitant of the United States,' 'in any other district than that whereof he is an inhabitant, or in which he shall be found at the time of serving the writ.' 1 St. pp. 78, 79.

The word 'inhabitant,' in that act, was apparently used, not in any larger meaning than 'citizen,' but to avoid the incongruity of speaking of a citizen of anything less than a state, when the intention was to cover not only a district which included a whole state, but also two districts in one state, like the districts of Maine and Massachusetts in the state of Massachusetts, and the districts of Virginia and Kentucky in the state of Virginia, established by section 2 of the same act. 1 St. p. 73. It was held by this court from the beginning that an averment that a party resided within the state or the district in which the suit was brought was not sufficient to support the jurisdiction, because in the common use of words a resident might not be a citizen, and therefore it was not stated expressly and beyond ambiguity that he was a citizen of the state, which was the fact on which the jurisdiction depended under the provisions of the constitution and of the judiciary act. Bingham v. Cabbot, 3 Dall. 382; Turner v. Bank, 4 Dall. 8; Abercrombie v. Dupuis, 1 Cranch, 343; Hodgson v. Bowerbank, 5 Cranch, 303; Brown v. Keene, 8 Pet. 112, 115. The same rule has been maintaine to the present day, and has been held to be unaffected by the fourteenth amendment of the constitution, declaring that 'all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.' Robertson v. Cease, 97 U. S. 646; Grace v. American Ins. Co., 109 U. S. 278, 3 Sup. Ct. Rep. 207; Timmons v. Land Co., 139 U. S. 378, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 585; Denny v. Pironi, 141 U. S. 121, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 966.

By the act of May 4, 1858, c. 27, § 1, it was enacted that, in a state containing more than one district, actions not local should 'be brought in the district in which the defendant resides,' or, 'if there be two or more defendants residing in different districts in the same state,' then in either district. 11 St. p. 272. The whole purport and effect of that act was not to enlarge, but to restrict and distribute, jurisdiction. It applied only to a state containing two or more districts, and directed suits against citizens of such a state to be brought in that district thereof in which they or either of them resided. It did not subject defendants to any new liability to be sued out of the state of which they were citizens, but simply prescribed in which district of that state they might be sued.

These provisions of the acts of 1789 and 1858 were substantially re-enacted in sections 739 and 740 of the Revised Statutes.

The act of March 3, 1875, c. 137, § 1, after giving the circuit courts jurisdiction of suits 'in which there shall be a controversy between citizens of different states,' and enlarging their jurisdiction in other respects, substantially re-enacted the corresponding provision of the act of 1789, by providing that no civil suit should be brought 'against any person' 'in any other district than that whereof he is an inhabitant, or in which he shall be found' at the time of service, with certain exceptions, not affecting the matter now under consideration. 18 St. p. 470.

The act of 1887, both in its original form and as corrected in 1888, re-enacts the rule that no civil suit shall be brought against any person in any other district than that whereof he is an inhabitant, but omits the clause allowing a defendant to be sued in the district where he is found, and adds this clause: '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 thed residence of either the plaintiff or the defendant.' 24 St. p. 552; 25 St. p. 434. As has been adjudged by this court, the last clause is by way of proviso to the next preceding clause, which forbids any suit to be brought in any other district than that whereof the defendant is an inhabitant; and the effect is that, 'where the jurisdiction is founded upon any of the causes mentioned in this section, except the citizenship of the parties, it must be brought in the district of which the defendant is an inhabitant; but where the jurisdiction is founded solely upon the fact that the parties are citizens of different states, the suit may be brought in the district in which either the plaintiff or the defendant resides.' McCormick Co. v. Walthers, 134 U. S. 41, 43, 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 485. And the general object of this act, as appears upon its face, and as has been often declared by this court, is to contract, not to enlarge, the jurisdiction of the circuit courts of the United States. Smith v. Lyon, 133 U. S. 315, 320, 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 303; In re Pennsylvania Co., 137 U. S. 451, 454, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 141; Fisk v. Henarie, 142 U. S. 459, 467, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep. 207.

As to natural persons, therefore, it cannot be doubted that the effect of this act, read in the light of earlier acts upon the same subject and of the judicial construction thereof, is that the phrase 'district of the residence of' a person is equivalent to 'district whereof he is an inhabitant,' and cannot be construed as giving jurisdiction, by reason of citizenship, to a circuit court held in a state of which neither party is a citizen, but, on the contrary, restricts the jurisdiction to the district in which one of the parties resides within the state of which he is a citizen; and that this act, therefore, having taken away the alternative, permitted in the earlier acts, of suing a person in the district 'in which he shall be found,'...