Atchison, T. & SF Ry. Co. v. Ross, 6082.

• Court: United States District Courts. 8th Circuit. Western District of Missouri
• Writing for the Court: Robert E. Coleberd, Liberty, Mo., for defendants
• Citation: 88 F. Supp. 451
• Decision Date: 06 February 1950
• Docket Number: No. 6082.,6082.
• Parties: ATCHISON, T. & S. F. RY. CO. v. ROSS et al.

88 F. Supp. 451

ATCHISON, T. & S. F. RY. CO.
v.
ROSS et al.

No. 6082.

United States District Court W. D. Missouri, W. D.

February 6, 1950.

88 F. Supp. 452

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

88 F. Supp. 453

Donald H. Sharp, Lathrop, Crane, Sawyer, Woodson & Righter, Kansas City, Mo., for plaintiff

Robert E. Coleberd, Liberty, Mo., for defendants.

RIDGE, District Judge.

Plaintiff brings this declaratory judgment action alleging that it is threatened with a multiplicity of suits on identical claims, involving the same issues and same evidence, except in respect of the amount of damages claimed by the separate defendants. Defendants are farmers, owning land in Ray County, Missouri, located adjacent to plaintiff's railroad right-of-way. Defendants Ross and Dugan, owners of one such tract of land, have filed three separate actions against plaintiff in a court of the State of Missouri, claiming damages to crops by reason of surface and overflow water being held upon their land in the years 1945, 1946 and 1948, because of the construction and maintenance of a bridge and embankment constituting a part of plaintiff's right-of-way in violation of Section 5222, R.S.Mo.1939, Mo.R.S.A. The defendants Remley are the owners of an adjacent tract of land to that of Ross and Dugan, and have instituted three similar suits now pending in the same court, claiming damages for crops destroyed, because of surface, or overflow water being held upon their lands in the same years, of which the defendants Ross and Dugan complain.

The only pretense to vest jurisdiction in this Court, over the instant declaratory judgment action, is that of multiplicity of suits and hardship and expense incident to the defense of the same. Diversity of citizenship between the parties is here present. Only the accumulated sum involved in the multiple suits in question, is within the jurisdiction of this Court. Assuming, without laboring the point, that plaintiff may aggregate the claims for damages so made against it, and we, therefore, have jurisdiction, First State Bank v. Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co., 8 Cir., 63 F.2d 585, 90 A.L.R. 544, the question arises whether, in sound judicial discretion, this is a declaratory judgment action, over which this Court should assume jurisdiction, and make a declaration of rights as prayed. Under the Declaratory Judgments Act, 28 U.S. C.A. §§ 2201, 2202, the federal courts have a certain amount of discretion in that respect. Brillhart v. Excess Ins. Co. of America, 316 U.S. 491, 62 S.Ct. 1173, 86 L.Ed. 1620. In the exercise of the discretion thus entrusted to such courts, it should be exercised cautiously, and with due regard to the circumstances of each case. Generally, the courts refuse to grant declaratory judgments unless it appears that

88 F. Supp. 454

such a judgment will fulfill the purpose of the Declaratory Judgments Act by being of some practical help in ending a controversy or stabilizing disputed legal relations. 16 Am.Jur., p. 288. In considering whether the Court should, in sound judicial discretion, assume jurisdiction of such actions, a federal court may well consider whether another court in which proceedings are already pending could handle the matter more expeditiously and appropriately and whether the action so instituted in the federal court is nothing more than an attempt to bring into federal court a non-removable cause that should be determined by a state tribunal. Brillhart v. Excess Ins. Co. of America, supra; Meeker v. Baxter, 2 Cir., 83 F.2d 183; Maryland Casualty Co. v. Boyle Const. Co., 4 Cir., 123 F.2d 558; Connecticut Indemnity Co. v. Oliver, 8 Cir., 172 F.2d 68

In the case at bar, the complaint reveals that the amount of crop damage claimed by defendants in each of the years involved is less than the requisite jurisdictional amount of this Court; and, that the damages claimed by defendants Ross and Dugan are wholly separate from those claimed by the defendants Remley. The gravamen of the declaratory relief plaintiff seeks is that it is not liable in damages to defendants, or any of them, for damages sustained by reason of surface and overflow water being accumulated and held on the defendants' lands in the years in question; first, because plaintiff has complied with the statutes of the State of Missouri, and particularly Section 5222, supra; second, that plaintiff's railroad embankment does not obstruct and retard the flow of surface water over said defendants' lands; and, third, because damages, if any, claimed by defendants were caused by circumstances not under plaintiff's control, but the result of acts committed by third persons, not parties to this, or the state court actions. Thus, this is an instance where one group of the defendants has three statutory causes of action pending against plaintiff in a state court of Missouri, arising from a single source, and another group has three like actions so pending. The statute of the State of Missouri under which said actions have been brought is penal in character. Chicago & A. R. Co. v. Tranbarger, 238 U.S. 67, 35 S.Ct. 678, 59 L.Ed. 204. The legislative purpose of such law is to require a railroad company, operating in the State of Missouri, to so construct and maintain its road and drain it as to prevent injury to adjoining land. Grant v. St....