Kane v. Reserve Oil Corporation

• Decision Date: 12 October 1931
• Docket Number: No. 710,718.,710
• Citation: 52 F.2d 972
• Parties: KANE et al. v. RESERVE OIL CORPORATION (two cases).
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of New York

52 F.2d 972 (1931)

KANE et al. v. RESERVE OIL CORPORATION (two cases).

Nos. 710, 718.

District Court, W. D. New York.

October 12, 1931.

Wilbur F. Knapp, of Bath, N. Y., for plaintiffs.

Hinman, Howard & Kattell, of Binghamton, N. Y., for defendant.

KNIGHT, District Judge.

Two actions between the parties herein were commenced in the Supreme Court, Steuben county, N. Y. Action designated No. 710 herein was brought to have declared null and void a gas and oil lease purporting to have been given by the plaintiffs to the defendant on lands situate in said Steuben county. Action designated No. 718 herein was brought to have declared null and void a similar lease on another parcel of land in said county. The complaints in the two actions are identical in language, except as to descriptions of the land affected, and the damages claimed. The grounds for relief in each action are: That the lease was procured by fraud and misrepresentation; that the lease was never consummated; that the consideration is inadequate, inequitable, and unenforceable; and that such lease is void on the ground that the term and duration, and the terms and provisions of the lease are uncertain. Each of such grounds is set forth in a separate cause of action in each complaint. In the first-mentioned action, judgment declaring the lease void and for damages in the sum of $5,000 are asked, and, in the second action, a like judgment as to the lease in question and for damages in the sum of $2,500 are sought. In each action, the defendant filed a petition in the Supreme Court, state of New York, for removal of the cause into this court, and, together with each of said petitions, filed a bond as required by the statute. By order of such Supreme Court, on June 20, 1931, each cause was removed to the District Court of the United States, for the Western District of New York. The orders were based upon diversity of citizenship, and the sum or value of the matter in controversy. The plaintiff now moves to remand each action to the Supreme Court of the state of New York, upon the ground that the matter in controversy is less than the sum or value of $3,000, and therefore this court is without jurisdiction; and the defendant now moves to consolidate the two actions in this court, and for a bill of particulars.

The plaintiffs are residents of the state of New York. The defendant is a foreign corporation organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the state of Pennsylvania. In each action, it appears from the complaint and the petition for removal, that the matter in controversy does exceed the sum of $3,000, exclusive of interest and cost.

This court therefore obtained jurisdiction. In action herein designated as No. 710, plaintiffs ask to amend the complaint to make the demand for judgment $2,500. They ask that the motion be granted "if necessary." This court having obtained jurisdiction, an amendment such as is proposed would not affect or remove such jurisdiction. Turmine v. West Jersey & Seashore R. Co. (D. C.) 44 F.(2d) 614; Hayward v. Nordberg Mfg. Co. (C. C. A.) 85 F. 4; Johnson v. Computing Scale Co. (C. C.) 139 F. 339; Donovan v. Dixieland Amusement Co. (C. C.) 152 F. 661; Venner v. Pennsylvania Steel Co. (D. C.) 250 F. 292, 297; Kirby v. American Soda Fountain Co., 194 U. S. 141, 24 S. Ct. 619, 621, 48 L. Ed. 911, and cases cited.

In the attempt to bring the value of the matter in controversy under $3,000, affidavits are submitted by plaintiffs stating that the value of the lease in the action designated No. 710 does not exceed $850, and the value of the lease in the action designated No. 718 as $430. In the view I take, it is now too late to attack the court's jurisdiction in these cases in this manner.

But even accepting these affidavits at their face value under complaints demanding judgment for $2,500 and the cancellation of the leases, plaintiffs would not be precluded from recovering upwards of $3,000. Plaintiffs would not be limited as to the value of the lease by affidavits made by third parties. Such third parties might even not be called as witnesses upon the trial.

I am not unaware of the provisions of section 37, Judicial Code, title 28, USCA § 80, and the holdings of certain cases thereon. Torrence v. Shedd, 144 U. S. 527, 12 S. Ct. 726, 36 L. Ed. 528...