Coal Company v. Blatchford

CourtUnited States Supreme Court
Citation20 L.Ed. 179,78 U.S. 172,11 Wall. 172
PartiesCOAL COMPANY v. BLATCHFORD
Decision Date01 December 1870

APPEAL from the Circuit Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. The case was this:

The eleventh section of the Judiciary Act enacts:

'That the Circuit Courts shall have original cognizance . . . of all suits of a civil nature, &c., where an alien is a party, or the suit is between a citizen of the State where the suit is brought and a citizen of another State.'

With this provision in force, R. M. Blatchford and J. B. Newman filed their bill for the foreclosure of a mortgage executed by the Susquehanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad and Coal Company to them as trustees, to secure the payment of the company's bonds and for the sale of the mortgaged property. The mortgage conferred upon the plaintiffs the usual rights and powers of mortgagees, and contained stipulations authorizing them to use different remedies in case default was made in the payments provided.

The bill stated that the defendant was a corporation created and organized under the laws of the State of Pennsylvania; that the plaintiff, Blatchford, was a citizen of the State of New York; that the plaintiff, Newman, was a citizen of the State of Pennsylvania, and that they as trustees sued solely for the use of Henry Beckett, an alien and a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, and Joseph Loyd, a citizen of New Jersey, both residing in New Jersey. The defendant demurred to the bill on the ground that the plaintiff Newman and the defendant corporation, being citizens of the same State, the court had not jurisdiction of the cause. The court overruled the demurrer, and an answer and replication having been filed, the case was heard on the pleadings; and a decree rendered for the plaintiffs. From this decree the appeal was taken; and the question presented for consideration here was whether the jurisdiction of the Federal court depended upon the citizenship of the trustees, who were the plaintiffs, or of the parties for whose benefit the suit was averred to have been brought.

Mr. Theodore Cuyler, in support of the jurisdiction:

The jurisdiction of the Circuit Courts, when it is founded upon the citizenship of the parties, rests upon that of the real and not of the nominal parties to the suit. This is decided in Browne v. Strode,1 where this court says that the courts of the United States have jurisdiction in a case between the citizens of the same State, if the plaintiffs are only nominal plaintiffs, for the use of an alien. By a law of the State of Mississippi sheriffs were required to give bond to the governor for the faithful performance of their duty. 'The fact that the governor and the party sued are citizens of the same State, will not,' say this court, in McNutt v. Bland,2 'oust the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court of the United States, provided the party for whose use the suit is brought is a citizen of another State.' So again the court declares in Wormley v. Wormley,3 that the court will not suffer its jurisdiction in an equity cause to be ousted by the circumstances of the joinder or non-joinder of merely formal parties, who are not entitled to sue or liable to be sued in the United States courts. In Irvine v. Lowry,4 the doctrine of Brown v. Strode is strongly affirmed.

In this case nothing can be actually decreed in favor of Newman, the party referred to in the demurrer. Both he and Blatchford, his co-trustee, are, in the language of Judge Baldwin, in Irvine v. Lowry, 'the mere instruments or conduits through whom the legal right of the real plaintiff could be asserted.'

At all events, the objection should have been taken by plea in abatement. It is too late when coming on demurrer.

Mr. E. F. Hodges, for the appellant, contra.

Mr. Justice FIELD delivered the opinion of the court.

The eleventh section of the Judiciary Act of 1789 vests in the Circuit Courts original jurisdiction of suits of a civil nature, at law and in equity, when the matter involved exceeds, exclusive of costs, the sum or value of five hundred dollars, in three classes of cases: 1st, when the United States are plaintiffs or petitioners; 2d, when an alien is a party; and, 3d, when the suit is between a citizen of the State where the suit is brought and a citizen of another State.

In the last two classes the designation of the party, plaintiff or defendant, is in the singular number, but the designation is intended to embrace all the persons who are on one side, however numerous, so that each distinct interest must be represented by persons, all of whom are entitled to sue, or are liable to be sued, in the Federal courts.5 In other words, if there are several co-plaintiffs, the intention of the act is that each plaintiff must be competent to sue and, if there are several co-defendants, each defendant must be liable to be sued, or the jurisdiction cannot be entertained. Executors and trustees suing for others' benefit form no exception to this rule. If they are personally qualified by their citizenship to bring suit in the Federal courts, the jurisdiction is not defeated by the fact that the parties whom they represent may be disqualified. This has been repeatedly adjudged. It was so adjudged as early as 1808, in Chappedelaine v. Dechenaux,6 where the complainants, though citizens of France, brought suit, one as residuary legatee and the other as administrator de bonis non of a testator, who had been a citizen of Georgia, against the defendant, who was a citizen of that State. Counsel, on opening the question of jurisdiction, was stopped by the court, Mr. Chief Justice Marshall observing that the impression of the court was that the case was clearly within the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States; that the plaintiffs were aliens; and, although they sued as trustees, they were entitled to sue in the Circuit Court. This ruling was followed in Childress v. Emory,7 and in Osborn v. The Bank of the United States, the Chief Justice laid it down as a universal rule that, in controversies between citizens of different States, the jurisdiction of the Federal courts depended not upon the relative situation of the parties concerned in interest, but upon the relative situation of the parties named in the record.

These authorities are conclusive of the present case. The defendant is a corporation created under the laws of Pennsylvania. One of the plaintiffs, Blatchford, describes himself in the bill as a citizen of...

To continue reading

Request your trial
150 cases
  • Rose v. Giamatti
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Southern District of Ohio
    • 31 Julio 1989
    ...9, 15 11 L.Ed. 159 (1844); see Marshall v. Baltimore & Ohio R. Co., 16 How. 314, 328-329 14 L.Ed. 953 (1854); Coal Co. v. Blatchford, 11 Wall. 172, 177 20 L.Ed. 179 (1871). Thus a federal court must disregard nominal or formal parties and rest jurisdiction only upon the citizenship of real ......
  • Smith v. Sperling
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Southern District of California
    • 16 Diciembre 1953
    ...of a party, see Steigleder v. McQuesten, 1905, 198 U.S. 141, 25 S.Ct. 616, 49 L.Ed. 986; Susquehanna & Wyoming Valley R. R. & Coal Co. v. Blatchford, 1870, 11 Wall. 172, 78 U.S. 172, 178, 20 L.Ed. 179; Smith v. Kernochen, 1849, 7 How. 198, 48 U.S. 198, 12 L.Ed. 666, the burden of proof alwa......
  • Stone v. Union Pac. R. Co.
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Utah
    • 11 Abril 1907
    ...40 F. 375.) The same rule is held to apply to a trustee. (Mass. Co. v. Twp., 115 U.S. 283; Dodge v. Tulleys, 114 U.S. 451; Railroad v. Blatchford, 11 Wall. 172; Pepper v. Fordyce, 119 U.S. 469; Pennington Smith, 78 F. 399; Griswold v. Bacheller, 75 F. 470; Ship v. Williams, 62 F. 4; Rush v.......
  • McEldowney v. Card
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Tennessee
    • 21 Septiembre 1911
    ... ... trustee in bankruptcy of the estate of the Clairfield Lumber ... Company to recover the sum of $9,000, alleged to be due him ... by two of the defendants as principals and ... 942; Wolf v. Insurance Co., 148 ... U.S. 389, 13 Sup.Ct. 602, 37 L.Ed. 493; Empire Coal Co ... v. Coal Co., 150 U.S. 159, 14 Sup.Ct. 66, 37 L.Ed. 1037; ... In re Moore, 209 U.S. 490, ... trustee, as the plaintiff of record and the defendants ... (Coal Co. v. Blatchford, 11 Wall. 172, 175, 20 L.Ed ... 179; Amory v. Amory, 95 U.S. 186, 24 L.Ed. 428; ... Continental ... ...
  • Request a trial to view additional results
1 books & journal articles
  • DIVERSITY JURISDICTION AND THE COMMON-LAW SCOPE OF THE CIVIL ACTION.
    • United States
    • Washington University Law Review Vol. 99 No. 2, October 2021
    • 1 Octubre 2021
    ...Justice John Marshall [1801-1835), 1998 J. SUP. CT. HIST. 3, 17 (noting the death of Marshall in 1835). (165.) Coal Co. v. Blatchford, 78 U.S. 172 (166.) Blatchford, 78 U.S. at 174-75. Cf. Strawbridgc v. Curtiss, 7 U.S. 267,267 (1806) ("[W]here the interest is joint, each of the persons con......

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT