John Mackay v. Unita Development Company
| Citation | 33 S.Ct. 638,229 U.S. 173,57 L.Ed. 1138 |
| Decision Date | 26 May 1913 |
| Docket Number | No. 190,190 |
| Parties | JOHN C. MACKAY v. UNITA DEVELOPMENT COMPANY |
| Court | United States Supreme Court |
Messrs. Barnard J. Stewart, Samuel W. Stewart, Daniel Alexander, and Charles B. Stewart for John C. Mackay.
Mr. John W. Lacey for the Uinta Development Company.
On December 8, 1908, the Uinta Development Company, a corporation of the state of Wyoming, brought an action in a Wyoming court against John C. Mackay, a resident and citizen of Utah, to recover $1,950 damages for a trespass upon land of the Development Company, situated in Wyoming.
On January 8, 1909, Mackay duly filed his answer. On March 2 the plaintiff, by leave of court, filed an amended petition, which Mackay answered. On May 3 he filed an amended answer, which, in addition to denying many of the allegations of the amended petition, set up a counterclaim for $3,000 damages.
The claims of the parties were so related that either could have been interposed as a counterclaim to the other; or they could have been determined in different suits,—subject to the provision that, under the Wyoming statute, defendant who failed to set up his counterclaim, and subsequently made it the subject of a separate action, could not recover costs if he prevailed therein. No Federal question was presented in the plaintiff's suit or defendant's original answer, but Mackay's amended answer and counterclaim were grounded upon certain statutes of the United States. This counterclaim for $3,000 was filed after the expiration of the time in which he was required to plead to the original petition.
But, notwithstanding the delay, Mackay, the nonresident, without objection on the part of the Development Company, filed in the state court a petition to removed the case to the United States circuit court for the district of Wyoming. An order removing the case was granted on the theory that the parties were citizens of different states; that the construction of the Federal statutes was necessarily involved, and that the amount in dispute, as disclosed by the counterclaim, exceeded $2,000. The transcript was duly filed in the United States court. Both parties appeared. The plaintiff filed in the United States court a reply to Mackay's counterclaim, and the case, which was docketed as 'Uinta Development Company v. John C. Mackay,' was submitted to the court for determination without a jury Judgment was entered in favor of the Development Company, and thereupon Mackay took the case to the circuit court of appeals, assigning errors relating to rulings made in the course of the trial, but neither party raised any question as to its power to determine the cause. On these facts the circuit court of appeals certified to this court various questions as to whether Mackay could remove the case to the United States court; among them the following:
4. 'Assuming that the removal at the instance of Mackay was not in conformity with the removal statute, and assuming that, as respects his claim against the Development Company, all the jurisdictional elements were present which were essential to enable the...
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