Burks v. Texas Co.

• Decision Date: 31 March 1954
• Docket Number: No. 14671.,14671.
• Citation: 211 F.2d 443
• Parties: BURKS v. TEXAS CO.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

211 F.2d 443 (1954)

BURKS v. TEXAS CO.

No. 14671.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

March 31, 1954.

Gordon M. White, Baton Rouge, La., for appellant.

D. Douglas Howard, Richard S. Lake, New Orleans, La., for appellee.

Before HUTCHESON, Chief Judge, and HOLMES and BORAH, Circuit Judges.

HOLMES, Circuit Judge.

This is an action for damages to land in Louisiana, allegedly resulting from a geophysical trespass thereon by the appellee. The case went to trial on the merits and, at the conclusion thereof, the court below was of the opinion that the amount involved was not sufficient to confer jurisdiction on the federal district court in a controversy wholly between citizens of different states. Consequently, the suit was dismissed for want of federal jurisdiction. The appellant attacks the judgment of dismissal on the ground that it was not proper for the judge to dispose of a jurisdictional issue on a motion for a directed verdict for the defendant as to the merits. The appellant further claims that the amount in controversy exceeded the jurisdictional requirement.

A question of federal jurisdiction may be raised at any time either by the court sua sponte or by motion of any interested party. There was no issue raised in the court below as to whether the plaintiff's allegation as to the amount in controversy was made in good faith. It was averred that the information illegally gained by the trespass was worth $12,000, and that the value of the land was reduced $28,000 by the survey wrongfully made by the defendant. In addition, it was alleged that the amount in controversy, exclusive of interest and costs, exceeded the sum of $3000.

In the case of Olan Mills, Inc., v. Enterprise Publishing Company, 5 Cir., 210 F.2d 895, where the allegation of the complaint was that the matter in controversy exceeded the sum of $3000, exclusive of interest and costs, the court held that this was sufficient unless it appeared to a legal certainty elsewhere in the complaint or by proof aliunde that the sum of over $3000, exclusive of interest and costs, was not involved. In the just-cited case the court found nothing in the record or proof to indicate a lack of good faith on the part of the plaintiff in seeking to recover damages in excess of three thousand dollars. In St. Paul Mercury Indemnity Co. v. Red Cab Company, 303 U.S. 283, 289, 58 S.Ct. 586, 590, 82 L.Ed. 845, the court said: "It must appear to a legal certainty that the claim is really for less than the jurisdictional amount to justify dismissal." Dobie's Federal Procedure says that the amount in controversy is always to be determined by the value to the plaintiff of the right that he in good faith asserts in his pleading, alleging the operative facts constituting his cause of action; and only the value of the right directly in issue in the particular suit, not the collateral effect of the judgment, may be considered in making up the necessary jurisdictional amount. Sec. 56, p. 133, 1928 Edition. See also 38 Harvard Law Review, p. 733.

This is an action at law for a money judgment by an integral plaintiff against an integral defendant, and the amount in controversy is the amount of money sought in good faith to be recovered by the plaintiff. This is also an action for unliquidated damages, where the amount in controversy is ordinarily the sum claimed by the plaintiff in good faith; it is not the amount that he ultimately recovers. Wiley v. Sinkler, 179 U.S. 59, 65, 21 S.Ct. 17, 45 L.Ed. 84; Chesbrough v. North Trust Co., 252 U.S. 83, 40 S.Ct. 237, 64 L.Ed. 470. See also Barry v. Edmunds, 116 U.S. 550, 6 S.Ct. 501, 29 L.Ed. 729, where plaintiff's property had been levied upon and carried away for a tax of $56.34; and the court said: "The plaintiff is not limited in his recovery to the mere value of the property taken. That would not necessarily cover his actual, direct, and immediate pecuniary loss." A valid defense to a cause of action, apparent on the face of the complaint, does not diminish the amount that is claimed, nor determine what is the matter in dispute. Schunk v. Moline, Milburn & Stoddart Co., 147 U.S. 500, 505, 13 S.Ct. 416, 37 L.Ed. 255; Smithers v. Smith, 204 U.S. 632, 642, 27 S.Ct. 297, 51 L.Ed. 656, 659. The amount recovered or the failure of the plaintiff to recover anything does not determine jurisdiction. Scott v. Donald, 165 U.S. 58, 17 S.Ct. 265, 41 L.Ed. 632.

The motion for a directed verdict in the court below was based on two grounds: first, that no proof of trespass had been shown; second, that no proof of damage had been shown up to the jurisdictional amount. The court ruled that the first ground of the defendant's motion was not well taken, and that there was sufficient evidence on this point to warrant submission of the case to the jury. We concur in this ruling; but the court sustained the motion on the second ground...