Federal Land Bank of St. Louis v. Priddy

Decision Date18 June 1934
Docket NumberNo. 4-3515.,4-3515.
PartiesFEDERAL LAND BANK OF ST. LOUIS, MO., v. PRIDDY, Circuit Judge.
CourtArkansas Supreme Court

A. B. Priddy, judge of the Circuit Court of Pope County, from proceeding with the trial of the case of S. M. Brisco against the Federal Land Bank of St. Louis, Mo.

Writ denied.

Guy V. Head, and J. R. Crocker, both of St. Louis, Mo., and L. F. Reeder, of Batesville, for petitioner.

C. C. Wait, of Russellville, for respondent.

HUMPHREYS, Justice.

This is an application to this court for a writ of prohibition to prevent the circuit court of Pope county, Ark., from proceeding with the trial of the case of S. M. Brisco v. Federal Land Bank of St. Louis, a Corporation, upon constructive service. Constructive service was obtained under the provisions of our statute (Crawford & Moses' Dig., §§ 1159, 1160) by suing out a general writ of attachment on the ground that the Federal Land Bank of St. Louis was a foreign corporation and by levying same upon land in Pope county belonging to said corporation and duly publishing a warning order notifying said corporation to appear in said court and defend the action.

The petitioner herein appeared in response to the warning order for the sole purpose of contesting the service and filed an unverified motion to quash the service on the grounds: First, that it was not a foreign corporation; and, second, that its property in the state of Arkansas is not subject to attachment because said corporation is an instrumentality of the government of the United States.

The motion was overruled, and this application for a writ of prohibition followed.

The basis of this suit was a claim for a commission of $300 alleged to have been earned by a duly licensed real estate broker for the sale of a farm valued at $6,000, acquired by the Federal Land Bank of St. Louis, Mo., through foreclosure proceedings to enforce the collection of money it had loaned.

Personal service could not be obtained because the Federal Land Bank of St. Louis, Mo., had not and was not required to maintain a branch office in the state of Arkansas nor to designate an agent in the state of Arkansas upon whom service of summons may be had before it could do business in the state.

The banking corporation was organized under the provisions of an Act of Congress of the United States, approved July 17, 1916 (39 Stat. 360 [see 12 USCA § 641 et seq.]), for the purpose of lending money upon mortgage securities in the states of Missouri, Illinois, and Arkansas, with its domicile or its principal place of business in the city of St. Louis, Mo.

The act authorizing the creation or organization of the corporation provides, in paragraph 6 of section 4 (12 USCA § 676), that such banking corporations, when organized, may "sue and be sued, complain, interplead, and defend, in any court of law or equity, as fully as natural persons."

1. The first contention of petitioners in support of their request for a writ of prohibition is that the Federal Land Bank of St. Louis cannot be sued anywhere except in a court of competent jurisdiction within the territorial limits of its domicile in St. Louis, Mo. This contention is without merit, as the act of Congress authorizing the creation of said banking corporation provides in the...

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2 cases
  • Warrener v. Federal Land Bank of Louisville
    • United States
    • Kentucky Court of Appeals
    • December 18, 1936
    ...and functions under the statutes of the United States. The Supreme Court of Arkansas denied the claim of sovereign immunity (189 Ark. 438, 74 S.W.2d 222), and case went to the Supreme Court of the United States. The court pointed out that section 4 of the Federal Farm Loan Act (12 U.S.C.A. ......
  • Federal Land Bank of St. Louis v. Priddy
    • United States
    • Arkansas Supreme Court
    • June 18, 1934

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