Insurance Company v. Ritchie
| Citation | 72 U.S. 541,18 L.Ed. 540,5 Wall. 541 |
| Parties | INSURANCE COMPANY v. RITCHIE |
| Decision Date | 01 December 1866 |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
THIS was an appeal from a judgment of the Circuit Court for Massachusetts, dismissing a bill in equity, filed by the Merchants' Insurance Company, a corporation created by the laws of Massachusetts, and having its place of business in the city of Boston in that State, against James Ritchie, and E. L. Pierce, the assessor and collector of internal revenue for the third collection district of that same commonwealth, and both citizens of it, praying that they might be enjoined from the distraint and sale of the complainant's property for non-payment of a certain tax. The defendants demurred, for the reason that the bill disclosed no ground for equitable relief. The demurrer was sustained, and the bill dismissed.
Coming here, the case was elaborately argued by Mr. Stanbery, A. G., and Mr. Ashton, Assistant A. G., for the assessor and collector, and by Messrs. S. Bartlett and F. W. Palfrey (by brief) for the Insurance Company; the argument turning chiefly on the matter of public policy on the one hand, in allowing officers of the government to be embarrassed in the prompt collection of its revenues by the strong and summary process of injunction; and on the other hand, on the matter of private rights of the citizen in precluding him from adequate remedy against clearly illegal proceedings of government agents in the assessment and collection of these revenues.
But a preliminary question, the question namely, whether the suit as an internal revenue case could, under the statutes of the United States as now existing, be maintained at all,—the parties all being citizens of the same State,—cut off decision on these points, and renders a report of the principal argument irrelative.
The CHIEF JUSTICE delivered the opinion of the court.
We meet upon the threshold of this cause a question of jurisdiction.
The record discloses a suit in equity by the Merchants' Insurance Company, a corporation under the laws of Massachusetts, having its place of business in the city of Boston, against James Ritchie and E. L. Pierce, assessor and collector of internal revenue in the third collection district of that commonwealth. The corporation constructively,1 and Ritchie and Pierce actually, are citizens of Massachusetts. And the question is, Whether this suit, as a revenue case, can be maintained by a citizen of Massachusetts against citizens of the same State?
The Judiciary Act of 1789 limited the jurisdiction of National courts, so far as determined by citizenship, to 'suits between a citizen of the State in which the suit is brought and a citizen of another State.' And, except in relation to revenue cases, this limitation has remained unchanged.
In 1833 an attempted nullification of the laws for the collection of duties on imports led to the enactment of a law, one of the provisions of which conferred on the Circuit Courts jurisdiction of 'all cases in law or equity arising under the revenue laws of the United States for which other provisions had not been already made.'2
Until the passage of this act no original action by a citizen of any State against a citizen of the same State could be maintained in a National court, at law, or in equity, for injuries arising from the illegal exaction of duties by collectors of revenue. Redress of such injuries could be obtained only in the State courts, and the revisory jurisdiction of this court could be invoked only under the twenty-fifth section of the Judiciary Act.
The act of 1833 made the right of action to depend not altogether, as previously upon the character of the parties as citizens or aliens, but also on the nature of the controversy, without regard to citizenship or alienage. Under that act citizens of the same State might sue each other for causes arising under the revenue laws. A citizen injured by the proceedings of a collector might have an action against him for the injury, though a citizen of the same State with himself.
And the third section of the same act gave the right to collectors or others who might be sued in any State court, on account of any act done under the revenue laws, to remove the action by a proper proceeding into a National court.
The right to remove causes from State into National courts had been long before given by the Judiciary Act, but it was limited to certain classes of cases, which did not include those arising under the laws for the collection of duties.
After the act of 1833 many suits, brought in the State courts against collectors, were removed into the Circuit Courts. The cases of Elliott v. Swartwout3 and Bend v. Hoyt,4 were of this...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Miller v. Howe Sound Min. Co.
...but was left undisturbed in the State Courts (Assessors v. Osbornes, 9 Wall. 567, 76 U.S. 567, 19 L.Ed. 748; Insurance Co. v. Ritchie, 5 Wall. 541, 72 U.S. 541, 18 L.Ed. 540; Levering & Garrigues Co. v. Morrin, 2 Cir., 71 F.2d 284; Id., 293 U.S. 595, 55 S.Ct. 110, 79 L.Ed. 688) or in the Co......
-
Samuel Downes v. George Bidwell
...subjects. United States v. Mooney, 116 U. S. 104, 107, 29 L. ed. 550, 552, 6 Sup. Ct. Rep. 304, 306. See also Merchants' Ins. Co. v. Ritchie, 5 Wall. 541, 18 L. ed. 540; Philadelphia v. The Collector, 5 Wall. 720, sub nom. Philadelphia v. Diehl, 18 L. ed. 614; Hornthall v. The Collector, 9 ......
-
Seese v. Bethlehem Steel Co.
...if the jurisdiction is withdrawn without a saving clause, pending cases, though valid when instituted, must fall. Merchants Ins. Co. v. Ritchie, 5 Wall. 541, 18 L.Ed. 540; Assessors v. Osbornes, 9 Wall. 567, 19 L. Ed. 748; In re Hall, 167 U.S. 38, 42, 17 S. Ct. 723, 42 L.Ed. 69; Kline v. Bu......
-
Holland v. General Motors Corporation
...of the Constitution, are these: Marshall v. Baltimore & Ohio R. Co., 16 How. 314, 57 U.S. 314, 14 L.Ed. 953; Insurance Co. v. Ritchie, 5 Wall. 541, 72 U.S. 541, 18 L.Ed. 540, Ex parte McCardle, 7 Wall. 506, 74 U.S. 506, 19 L.Ed. 264; Veazie Bank v. Fenno, 8 Wall. 533, 75 U.S. 533, 19 L.Ed. ......
-
For all intents and purposes: what collective intention tells us about Congress and statutory interpretation.
...Hibbs, 542 U.S. at 108. (12) Id. at 115 (Kennedy, J., dissenting). (13) Id. at 114. (14) Id. at 126 (quoting Merchs'. Ins. Co. v. Ritchie, 72 U.S. 541,545 (15) 125 S. Ct. 2611 (2005). (16) Id. at 2625. (17) Id. at 2626. (18) See id. at 2632 (Ginsburg, J., dissenting) (advocating a "narrower......