Chicago Stadium Corporation v. State of Indiana, 11285.
| Decision Date | 14 April 1955 |
| Docket Number | No. 11285.,11285. |
| Citation | 220 F.2d 797 |
| Parties | CHICAGO STADIUM CORPORATION, a corporation, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The STATE OF INDIANA, as Trustee, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Paul T. Rochford, Indianapolis, Ind., Charles H. Watson, Leland P. Broehl, Lowell H. Jacobson, Chicago, Ill., Peabody, Westbrook, Watson & Stephenson, Chicago, Ill., Rochford & Rochford, Indianapolis, Ind., of counsel, for appellant.
Edwin K. Steers, Atty. Gen., Lloyd C. Hutchinson, Carl M. Franceschini, Deputy Attys. Gen., Indianapolis, Ind., for appellees.
Before DUFFY, Chief Judge, and FINNEGAN and SCHNACKENBERG, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiff filed a complaint in replevin alleging that it was the owner of certain personal property consisting of Four High Intensity Spot Lights with Rheostats and related electrical equipment; that plaintiff was entitled to the possession of said property but alleged that the possession thereof was withheld by the defendants. The complaint alleged the value of the property to be $8,000.00.
The caption of the complaint listed the first two defendants as "State of Indiana, as Trustee" and "Indiana State Fair Board". Thereafter were listed sixteen individuals as "Members of the Indiana State Fair Board". Then three other individuals were listed as "Ex officio members of the Indiana State Fair Board".
Defendants moved to dismiss the complaint on several grounds. The first was, "The Court lacks jurisdiction of the subject matter because the complaint does not allege that the matter in controversy is between citizens of different States; * * *." Second, "The Court lacks jurisdiction of the subject matter because this action is in substance and effect a suit against the sovereign State of Indiana, which has not consented to be sued in this Court; that the sovereign State of Indiana was granted immunity from suit in this Court by, under and pursuant to the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America; * * *." The Court sustained defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint giving as its reason that plaintiff's action was, in fact, against the sovereign State of Indiana which had not consented to be sued, and that the Indiana State Fair Board was an instrumentality of the State. The Court further held that the individual defendants were sued in their representative capacity and not as individuals.
At the oral argument before this Court plaintiff moved to amend the caption of the complaint as follows: (1) dismiss the State of Indiana as Trustee and the Indiana State Fair Board as defendants; (2) insert in the caption of the complaint the words "individually and" after the name "Trueman Rembusch" and again after the name "Dean Harry J. Reed". The caption then would read after the names of the first sixteen individuals: "individually and as members of the Indiana State Fair Board", and after the names of the last three individuals named: "individually and as ex officio members of the Indiana State Fair Board."
Plaintiff also moved to amend paragraph 4 by striking same and inserting in lieu thereof: "That said property has been wrongfully and unlawfully taken and detained by defendants and each of them
(a) in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and Article I, Section 21 of the Constitution of the State of Indiana, and
(b) by acting beyond the scope of their statutory authority * * * all to the plaintiff's damage in the sum of $100,000."
The jurisdictional allegation in the complaint is
Title 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a) gives jurisdiction to the District Court in civil matters where the amount in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $3,000.00, exclusive of interest and costs, when said controversy is between "citizens of different States". There is no allegation in the complaint that the controversy in the case at bar is between...
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...Federal District Court in Chicago Stadium Corp. v. State of Indiana (S.D.Ind.1954), 123 F.Supp. 783, modified on other grounds, 220 F.2d 797 (7th Cir. 1955). The court, applying state law in a diversity contract action, held '. . . that the Indiana State Fair Board is an inseparable agency ......
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...of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. 5 See original complaint filed February 28, 1979, 2nd paragraph. 6 Chicago Stadium Corp. v. State of Indiana, 7 Cir., 220 F.2d 797 (1955); Chemical Transp. Corp. v. Metropolitan Petroleum Corp., D.C., 246 F.Supp. 563 (1964); Smith v. Dealers Transit,......
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