Kaufman v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company
| Decision Date | 03 July 1957 |
| Docket Number | No. 12166.,12166. |
| Citation | 245 F.2d 918 |
| Parties | Ben KAUFMAN, Trading and Doing Business as The Prince Distributing Company, and Continental Casualty Company, a corporation, v. LIBERTY MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, a corporation, Continental Casualty Company, a corporation, Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
Robert E. Wayman, Pittsburgh, Pa. (Hamilton A. Robinson, Joseph B. Bagley, Dickie, McCamey, Chilcote & Robinson, Pittsburgh, Pa., on the brief), for appellant, Continental Casualty Co.
V. C. Short, Pittsburgh, Pa., for appellee.
Before BIGGS, Chief Judge, and GOODRICH and KALODNER, Circuit Judges.
In this declaratory judgment action we are asked to construe the provisions of a general liability insurance policy excluding liability incurred in the "loading or unloading" of vehicles. The case is one in federal court by diversity of citizenship and involves Pennsylvania law. The Pennsylvania decisions involved are Wheeler v. London Guarantee & Accident Co., 1928, 292 Pa. 156, 140 A. 855; Ferry v. Protective Indemnity Co., 1944, 155 Pa.Super. 266, 38 A.2d 493; and Washington Assur. Corp. v. Maher, 1942, 31 Del.Co.R., Pa., 575. Before we get into this interesting question, however, we are met at the outset with a jurisdictional problem. The parties have not mentioned this problem and no doubt would be glad to have federal court interpretation of their insurance contract. But it is a truism that the "inferior" federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction and have authority to act only where a statute confers it. In this diversity case the amount involved must be $3,000 and upwards. 28 U.S.C. § 1331; Canadian Indemnity Co. v. Republic Indemnity Co., 9 Cir., 1955, 222 F.2d 601.
Our difficulty in this case is to see how that requirement is met. The first reaction of the chain in this series involved a suit started in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. There a plaintiff named Florence McClester sued Ben Kaufman for injuries alleged to be sustained when the defendant's employee lifted a cellar door set in a sidewalk causing the plaintiff to fall. Her claim, in the last paragraph of the complaint, was "to recover a sum in excess of Twenty-five Hundred ($2500.00) Dollars." Obviously, we have not yet reached a $3,000 qualification.
In the meantime, while the McClester suit was still pending, Kaufman, the original state court defendant, brought this suit in the Western District of Pennsylvania against Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., his general liability insurer. The suit was for the construction and application to the accident involved of a clause excluding coverage for liability incurred while "loading or unloading" a vehicle. Later, pursuant to motion, Kaufman added as a party plaintiff Continental Casualty Co., an automobile liability insurer whose policy did cover loading and unloading operations. The two insurance companies have agreed that one of the two policies covers the accident here involved.
Kaufman, the original plaintiff in this action, alleged in his complaint that the amount in controversy exceeded the sum of $3,000. The defendant, Liberty Mutual through its attorney, V. C. Short, Esquire, filed an answer denying "that the matter in controversy in this action exceeds the sum of $3,000.00 exclusive of interest and costs."
The district court found, as a conclusion of law, that it had jurisdiction of the subject matter and the parties. But in checking through to see what happened to the denial of the required amount for federal jurisdiction we find no evidence whatever to support the allegation. There was a pre-trial colloquy between counsel and court. The learned judge was fully aware that federal jurisdiction could not be stipulated and Mr. Short, representing Liberty Mutual, said that he "couldn't very well admit that the other case over in the Common Pleas is worth $3,000.00," since such an answer may have amounted to an admission against interest. Cf. Giannone v. United States Steel Corp., 3 Cir., 1956, 238 F.2d 544. As the colloquy continued, with the court endeavoring to shorten ...
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