Iowa Central Railway Company v. Bacon

• Decision Date: 23 February 1915
• Docket Number: No. 130,130
• Citation: 35 S.Ct. 357,59 L.Ed. 591,236 U.S. 305
• Parties: IOWA CENTRAL RAILWAY COMPANY, Plff. in Err., v. L. M. BACON, Administrator of the Estate of Martin W. Lockhart, Deceased
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

236 U.S. 305

35 S.Ct. 357

59 L.Ed. 591

IOWA CENTRAL RAILWAY COMPANY, Plff. in Err.,

v L. M. BACON, Administrator of the Estate of Martin W. Lockhart, Deceased.

No. 130.

Submitted January 19, 1915.

Decided February 23, 1915.

Messrs. William H. Bremner and F. M. Miner for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 306-308 intentionally omitted] Messrs. E. Elmer Mitchell, L. T. Shangle, D. C. Waggoner, and J. N. McCoy for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice Day delivered the opinion of the court:

The defendant in error, as administrator of Martin W. Lockhart, deceased, brought an action on the 22d of September, 1905, in the district court of Iowa in and for the county of Mahaska, to recover damages for the alleged wrongful killing of his intestate. In the petition it was alleged that the estate had been damaged in the sum of $10,000, but judgment was asked only for the sum of $1,990. On September 30th, 1905, the railway company filed its answer, and on the 2d of October, 1905, within the time required by law, filed a petition for removal of the cause to the United States circuit court in and for the southern district of Iowa, on the ground of diversity of citizenship, alleging that the amount in controversy exceeded, with interest and costs, the sum of $2,000. The petition was accompanied by a bond.

The district court of Mahaska county did not enter any order directing the removal of the case, but, on the 29th of March, 1906, there was filed in the office of the clerk of the United States circuit court for the southern district of Iowa a transcript of the proceedings in the case. After the filing of the transcript in the Federal court, the case was continued from term to term, until, on the 5th day of December, 1908, an order to notice said case for trial at the next term, or show cause why it should not be dismissed, was entered, and the clerk was directed to mail and serve a copy of said order on the parties. On May 11, 1909, the circuit court of the United States entered an order dismissing the cause for want of prosecution, at the plaintiff's costs, and the defendant was given judgment for its costs.

Afterwards, on the 19th of September, 1910, the plaintiff filed in the office of the district court of Mahaska county an amended and substituted petition. On the 6th of October, 1910, the district court entered an order, denying the application of the defendant for a removal of the cause to the United States court on the ground that the amount in controversy, exclusive of interest and costs, was less than $2,000. The application for removal was the one filed on October 2, 1905. On February 28, 1911, the railway company filed a motion to dismiss the case and to strike from the files all pleadings filed subsequent to the 1st of September, 1905, on the ground that the case had been removed to the United States circuit court. Attached to the motion was a certified copy of the record in the United States court. This motion was denied, and afterwards the case went to trial in the state court, and upon verdict of the jury a judgment was rendered against the railway company. The case was taken to the supreme court of Iowa, and that court affirmed the judgment of the lower court. 157 Iowa, 493, 137 N. W. 1011. The case was brought here, and the Federal question presented is whether the state court had lost its jurisdiction by the attempted removal to the United States circuit court.

It was, of course, essential to the removal of the case that the amount in controversy should have been sufficient to give the Federal court jurisdiction; that is...