Cranney v. Trustees of Boston University, Civ. A. No. 56-17.

• Decision Date: 14 February 1956
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 56-17.
• Citation: 139 F. Supp. 130
• Parties: Mary Frances Keefe CRANNEY, Plaintiff, v. TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY, James M. Faulkner, Arthur M. Lassek, Bardwell H. Flower, Richard W. Nelson, and George H. Longstreet, Joint and Several Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

139 F. Supp. 130

Mary Frances Keefe CRANNEY, Plaintiff, v. TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY, James M. Faulkner, Arthur M. Lassek, Bardwell H. Flower, Richard W. Nelson, and George H. Longstreet, Joint and Several Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 56-17.

United States District Court D. Massachusetts.

February 14, 1956.

James A. Murphy, Beverly, Mass., for plaintiff.

Hale & Dorr, Carl H. Amon, Jr., Boston, Mass., Joseph H. Elcock, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., and Warren C. Lane, Jr., Worcester, Mass., for defendants.

WYZANSKI, District Judge. (opinion dictated from bench).

This case comes before me upon written and oral motions made on behalf of all defendants to dismiss the plaintiffs' complaint on the ground that it does not state a cause of action within the jurisdiction of the United States District Court. I shall dispose of the case by extemporaneous opinion from the bench.

On January 4th, plaintiff, Mrs. Mary Frances Keefe Cranney, a citizen of Massachusetts, filed a complaint, which covers eight pages of long legal paper, most of which carries typing single-spaced. Before saying anything else, it is appropriate for the Court to remark that this complaint is plainly in violation of the rule of federal procedure which requires that pleadings shall be simple, direct, and concise. If there were no other reason to dismiss the complaint, this by itself would be a sufficient ground. But since other defects of a more fundamental nature are also apparent, this first ground is relied upon merely as supplementary.

The complaint joins as defendants the Trustees of Boston University, a Massachusetts corporation, the Dean of that University's School of Medicine (Dr. James M. Faulkner), a Professor in that Medical School (Dr. Arthur M. Lassek), Dr. Bardwell H. Flower, who, in addition to being a lecturer at that school also lived in Worcester, where he had other authority, Richard W. Nelson, a doctor in Worcester, and George H. Longstreet, a funeral director having an office in Worcester.

While it is difficult for any one who merely reads the complaint to know what it is that the plaintiff relies upon, it is abundantly clear from the answers repeatedly given by plaintiff's counsel to questions put by the Court that the plaintiff relies solely upon the alleged jurisdiction of this Court under 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3), and upon the substantive rights alleged to be conferred by 42 U.S. C.A. § 1983. The earlier of the two statutes just cited provides that:

"The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action authorized by law to be commenced by any person: * * * "(3) To redress the deprivation, under color of any State law, statute, ordinance, regulation, custom or usage, of any right, privilege or immunity secured by the Constitution of the United States or by any Act of Congress providing for equal rights of citizens or of all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States."

The substantive or latter statute just cited provides that "every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, or any State or Territory, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress."

Stated summarily, the plaintiff, Mrs. Cranney, claims that she, as the sister and one of the next of kin of the late Thomas J. Keefe, has been deprived by action that the defendants took under the purported authority of Massachusetts General Laws (Tercentenary Edition), Chapter 113, Section 1 (governing disposition of bodies of certain deceased persons) of what she regards as her Constitutional right seasonably to perform at the deathbed of Keefe appropriate religious services and sacraments, assuring the decedent of immortal salvation and his next of kin of peace of mind, and also has been deprived of her own right seasonably to worship God at the deathbed, coffin and tomb of the decedent Keefe. Put even more briefly, Mrs. Cranney's contention is that by the Constitution of the United States or by an Act of Congress providing for equal rights of citizens, she is given a right to timely worship in prayer at the deathbed and at the burial place of her late brother.

It is plain from the complaint (as well as from explicit concession by plaintiff's counsel) that plaintiff, though she happens to be the administratrix of her brother, is not suing in that capacity. She sues strictly in her individual right, if any.

Digesting an unnecessarily prolix...