Ex parte Pennsylvania Co

• Court: United States Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: BRADLEY
• Citation: 137 U.S. 451,34 L.Ed. 738,11 S.Ct. 141
• Decision Date: 22 December 1890
• Parties: Ex parte PENNSYLVANIA CO

137 U.S. 451 11 S.Ct. 141 34 L.Ed. 738 Ex parte PENNSYLVANIA CO. December 22, 1890.

Danl, Davenport and William H. O'Hara, for petitioner.

Lewis E. Stanton, for respondent.

BRADLEY, J.

This is a petition of the Pennsylvania Company, a corporation and a citizen of Pennsylvania, for a mandamus to be directed to the judges of the circuit court of the United States for the district of Connecticut, commanding them to

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reinstate, take jurisdiction of, and try and adjudge a certain suit of one Alberto T. Roraback, a citizen of Connecticut, against the said Pennsylvania Company. The suit had been commenced on the 4th of June, 1889, by writ returnable the first Monday of July, 1889, in the court of common pleas for Litchfield county, in the state of Connecticut. The demand in said suit was for the sum of $500. In the term of March, 1890, of said court of common pleas the company filed a petition for the removal of the suit to the United States circuit court for the district of Connecticut, on the ground of prejudice and local influence, filing therewith proper affidavit and bond, and the said court accepted said petition and bond, and granted the spplication, and ordered the suit to be removed. On the opening of the circuit court of the United States in April, the company entered in said circuit court a copy of the record, and also filed a petition to the same court reciting the steps already taken, realleging the ground of removal, and praying the court to take jurisdiction of the suit; and filed an additional affidavit setting forth all the facts as to the existence of the alleged prejudice and local influence in the state court, and that the petitioner would not be able to obtain justice therein. But, afterwards, the plaintiff in the suit moved to remand the same to the state court, on the ground that the amount in dispute did not exceed the sum of $2,000, exclusive of interest and costs. The circuit judge granted the application, and made an order for remanding the cause, and the circuit court refuses to take jurisdiction of the same. 42 Fed. Rep. 420. Wherefore the present mandamus is prayed.

The first question to be decided is, whether this court has power to grant the writ applied for. The general power of the court to issue a writ of mandamus to an inferior court, to take jurisdiction of a cause when it refuses to do so, is settled by a long train of decisions. Ex parte Bradstreet, 7 Pet. 634; Insurance Co. v. Wilson, 8 Pet. 291; U. S. v. Gomez, 3 Wall. 752; Ex parte Roberts, 15 Wall. 384; Ex parte United States, 16 Wall. 699, 702; Insurance Co. v. Comstock, Id. 258, 271; Railroad Co. v. Wiswall, 23 Wall. 507; Ex

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parte Scol lenberger, 96 U. S. 369; Harrington v. Haller, 111 U. S. 796, 4 Sup. Ct. Rep. 697; Ex parte Brown, 116 U. S. 401, 6 Sup. Ct. Rep. 387; Ex parte Parker, 120 U. S. 737, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 767; Id., 131 U. S. 221, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 708. It is true that after a case has proceeded to the filing of a declaration and a plea to the jurisdiction, or its equivalent, and a judgment is rendered in favor of the plea, and a consequent dismissal of the action, this court had held that the plaintiff is confined to his remedy by writ of error, and cannot have a mandamus, which only lies, as a general rule, where there is no other adequate remedy. Ex parte Baltimore & O. R. Co., 108 U. S. 566, 2 Sup. Ct. Rep. 876; Ex parte Railway Co., 103 U. S. 794. But it was expressly held in Railroad Co. v. Wiswall, 23 Wall. 507, that a mandamus would lie to compel a circuit court to take jurisdiction of and proceed with a case which it had wrongfully remanded to the state court. The reason was that an order to remand was not a final judgment, and no writ of error would lie. This case is supported by the rule laid down by Chief Justice MARSHALL in Ex parte Bradstreet, 7 Pet. 634; and, if the decision of the present case depended only on the general rule, the power of the court to issue the mandamus would be undoubted. But, in our opinion, the matter is governed by statute. This will be manifest by reference to previous legislation on the subject. The fifth section of the act of March 3, 1875, (determining the jurisdiction of the circuit courts,) provided that the order of the circuit court dismissing or remanding a cause to the state court should be reviewable by the supreme court on writ of error or appeal, as the case might be. 18 St. 470, 472. This act remained in force until the passage of the act of March 3, 1887, by which it was superseded, and the writ of error or appeal upon orders to...