Lehigh Zinc & Iron Co. v. New Jersey Zinc & Iron Co.

• Citation: 43 F. 545
• Parties: LEHIGH ZINC & IRON CO. v. NEW JERSEY ZINC & IRON CO.
• Decision Date: 23 September 1890
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey

43 F. 545

LEHIGH ZINC & IRON CO. v. NEW JERSEY ZINC & IRON CO.

United States Circuit Court, D. New Jersey.

September 23, 1890

Charles D. Thompson, Richard Wayne Parker, and George Northrop, for complainant.

John R Emery and Thomas N. McCarter, for defendant.

GREEN J.

This matter comes before the court upon demurrer interposed by the defendant to the bill of complaint filed by the complainant. The demurrer is general, and the following causes were assigned as its justification:

'First. That the said bill is a bill filed in a circuit court of the United States, held in and for the district of New Jersey, and the complainant has not by its said bill shown the jurisdiction of the court, in that it has not averred or shown that the matter in dispute exceeds, exclusive of interest and costs, the sum or value of two thousand dollars. Second. That the complainant in and by its said bill claims under two distinct and inconsistent rights which cannot be joined in a single bill of complaint, and the discovery and relief sought by said bill relate to two several, distinct, and inconsistent rights, which cannot be joined in one bill; and especially that the complainant in and by one portion of its said bill alleges and claims that the title and rights of the complainant to the ores claimed by it in said bill have been finally settled and determined by the decrees, judgments, suits, proceedings, and acts mentioned in said bill, and that by virtue thereof the defendant is precluded and barred from setting up or asserting any right or claim to the said ores claimed by the complainant, and prays that the defendant may be perpetually restrained and enjoined from taking any action suit, or proceedings in law or equity to take from it said ores, or from disturbing complainant's title thereto, and may be restrained from attempting to obtain possession of the said premises, or removing the ores, metals, and minerals claimed by the complainant. And, by another portion of said bill, the said complainant relies upon and sets up another, and a different, distinct, and inconsistent, equitable right or title, under the statute of the state of New Jersey, entitled 'An act to compel the determination of claims to real estate, and to quiet title to the same,' approved March 2, 1870, under which the complainant claims the right to require the title or claim of the defendant to said ores, claimed by the complainant, to be now set up, tried, and finally determined under said act, in this suit, and prays such distinct and inconsistent relief. And this defendant says that complainant's supposed right, based on the allegations that its right and title to said ores claimed by it hath been already finally settled and determined by said deeds, proceedings and judgments, decrees and orders, set out in said bill, cannot be joined with the supposed statutory right to have the claim and title of the defendant to said ores, now set out, tried and determined in this suit. Third. That the said bill is multifarious, in that it joins two separate and distinct causes of suit or action which ought not to be joined in one bill of complainant. Fourth. That the said bill is uncertain, in that it does not sufficiently state and disclose the nature of the equitable right or interest upon which the complainant relies for relief; and, especially, it does not especially and clearly appear by the bill whether the complainant claims that defendant should be perpetually enjoined from setting up any right or title to said ores claimed by complainant, on the ground that the right and title to the ores claimed by complainant has been already settled and determined by the decrees, judgments, orders, and proceedings set out in said bill, and should not be retried in the present or any other suit, or whether it relies upon a supposed statutory right to require the defendant now, and in this suit, to set up its title and claim to said ores, and to have the same finally determined in this suit, under the said statute. Fifth. That the said bill is vague and uncertain, and the equitable right upon which the complainant relies for relief is not stated with sufficient clearness. Sixth. That the complainant has not in and by its said bill made or stated such a case as does or ought to entitle it to any such discovery or relief as is thereby sought and prayed for, from and against this defendant.'

When the matter was heard, the arguments of counsel took a very wide range, but I shall not attempt to judge of the merits of the case at this time. The only question now before the court is one of pleading, and to that I shall confine myself. I do this with the lesser hesitation, because very many of the statements and allegations made by counsel, and upon which very acute and learned arguments were founded, do not appear upon the record, in the condition it now is, and were in fact contradicted and denied, or affirmed and insisted upon, with equal tenacity by the respective counsel. The question then to be considered is, has the demurrer been well taken? The bill of complaint in its general aspect and tenor may be called a 'bill of peace.' The complainant avers that it is the rightful owner of certain ores, in a certain locality; that it is in full, peaceable, and quiet possession thereof; that its right and title to these ores have been derived from certain deeds of conveyance, leases, and agreements, and have been confirmed to it by formal adjudications of courts in actions in which they were the subject-matter of the litigation; that the defendant is threatening to disturb the complainant in the possession of this property by commencing suits in which the title of the complainants is to be attacked; that as the title of the complainant has been fully established and settled, especially by the judgments of courts of competent jurisdiction, any further litigation of the same title would be vexatious and oppressive, and should be restrained.

The first objection to this bill made by the defendant is that the matter in controversy does not exceed in value the sum of $2,000. It is well settled that the requisite value of the matters in controversy is a jurisdictional fact, and it must be properly averred in the bill, or the court will refuse to assume jurisdiction of the cause. There is in the complainant's bill in averment, in the language of the statute defining the jurisdictional limits of this court, that the matters in dispute exceed the sum of $2,000, exclusive of interest and costs; but counsel for defendant insists that, notwithstanding such averment, the objection taken is fatal, because, if the case made by the complainant's bill is true, no pecuniary damage can accrue to it, for the suit threatened by the defendant would fall as utterly groundless. Without stopping now to invoke, in answer to this objection, the effect of a demurrer to the well-pleaded averment of a jurisdictional fact, it is sufficient to say that I...