Louisville Co v. Chatters Southern Ry Co v. Same

• Decision Date: 15 April 1929
• Docket Number: Nos. 414 and 415,s. 414 and 415
• Citation: 73 L.Ed. 711,49 S.Ct. 329,279 U.S. 320
• Parties: LOUISVILLE & N. R. CO. v. CHATTERS. SOUTHERN RY. CO. et al. v. SAME
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

279 U.S. 320

49 S.Ct. 329

73 L.Ed. 711

LOUISVILLE & N. R. CO.

v CHATTERS.

SOUTHERN RY. CO. et al.

v. SAME.

Nos. 414 and 415.

Argued March 7, 1929.

Decided April 15, 1929.

Messrs. Harry McCall, of New Orleans, La., and Ashby M. Warren, of Louisville, Ky., for petitioner Louisville & N. R. Co.

[Argument of Counsel from page 321 intentionally omitted] Messrs. J. Blanc Monroe, of New Orleans. La., and H. O'B. Cooper, of Washington, D. C., for petitioner Southern Ry. Co.

Mr. George Piazza, of New Orleans, La., for respondent.

Mr. Justice STONE delivered the opinion of the Court.

Respondent, a citizen of Louisiana, brought suit in the District Court for Eastern Louisiana against the Southern Railway Company, a Virginia corporation, and the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, a Kentucky corporation, to recover for personal injuries suffered while traveling in a car of the Southern Railway in a through train from New Orleans, La., to Washington, D. C. At the time of the accident, the train was being operated by the Southern over its tracks in Virginia.

Respondent purchased a through coupon ticket for the journey at the office of the Louisville & Nashville in New Orleans, which entitled him to passage over the line of the Louisville & Nashville from Atlanta & West Montgomery, Ala., over the Atlanta & West Point Railroad from Montgomery to Atlanta, Ga., and thence to Washington over the line of the Southern. He took passage in New Orleans on a car of the Southern, and proceeded in it on his journey until, while on the line of the Southern in Virginia, a window screen, attached to the outside of the car, became loosened and swung backward on its hinges, so as to strike and break the car window behind it and injure respondent with pieces of flying glass. The train was made up by the Louisville & Nashville in New Orleans, and was operated under an agreement among the three carriers concerned, which was not offered in evidence. But it appeared that the cars composing the train were furnished by the three carriers on the basis of their respective mileage; that each furnished locomotive power and train crews over its own line; and that each, while in possession of the train, was in exclusive control of it.

Process against both petitioners was served on their respective agents in Louisiana, designated by them to receive service of process as required by a state law exacting formal consent by the corporation that any 'lawful process' served on the designated agent should be 'valid service' upon the corporation. Act No. 184 of 1924.¹ The Southern, appearing specially before answer, excepted to the jurisdiction on the ground that the cause of action, which was transitory, arose outside Louisiana and not out of any business done by the Southern within that state. After a hearing, in which evidence was introduced, the exception was overruled. (D. C.) 17 F.(2d) 305. On the trial the District Court gave judgment on a verdict for respondent against both petitioners, which was affirmed by the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. 26 F.(2d) 403. This court granted certiorari October 15, 1928. 278 U. S. 590, 49 S. Ct. 26, 73 L. Ed. —.

The Southern alone seeks a review of the order overruling its exception to the jurisdiction. The Louisville & Nashville assigns as error the refusal of the trial court to give a requested instruction to the jury. Both petitioners raise for consideration here exceptions to the charge of the court to the jury and to the admission of certain testimony.

1. The Southern insists that the case as to it should have been dismissed on its exception for want of jurisdiction of the person of the corporation upon a suit in Louisiana on a cause of action arising outside that state. A foreign corporation is amenable to suit to enforce a personal liability if it is doing business within the juris diction in such manner and to such extent as to warrant the inference that it is present there. Lafayette Insurance Co. v. French, 18 How. 404, 15 L. Ed. 451; Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Spratley, 172 U. S. 602, 19 S. Ct. 308, 43 L. Ed. 569; St. Louis Southwestern Ry. v. Alexander, 227 U. S. 218, 33 S. Ct. 245, 57 L. Ed. 486. Even when present and amenable to suit it may not, unless it has consented (Pennsylvania Fire Ins. Co. v. Gold Issue Mining Co., 243 U. S. 93, 37 S. Ct. 344, 61 L. Ed. 610; Smolik v. Phila. & Reading Coal Co. (D. C.) 222 F. 148), be sued on transitory causes of action arising elsewhere which are unconnected with any corporate action by it within the jurisdiction (Old Wayne Mut Life Ass'n v. McDonough, 204 U. S. 8, 27 S. Ct. 236, 51 L. Ed. 345; Simon v. Southern Ry. Co., 236 U. S. 115, 35 S. Ct. 255, 59 L. Ed. 492).

It is urged by the Southern that compliance with the Louisiana statute requiring a foreign corporation doing business within the state to designate an agent to receive service of process is, under the state decisions, a consent to suit only upon causes of action arising out of business conducted within the state (State ex rel. Watkins v. North American Land & Timber Co., 106 La. 621, 31 So. 172, 87 Am. St. Rep. 309; Delatour & Marmouget v. Southern Ry. Co., 4 La. App. 658; Buscher v. Southern Ry. Co., 4 La. App. 653; see Missouri Pac. R. R. Co. v. Clarendon Boat Oar Co., 257 U. S. 533, 42 S. Ct. 210, 66 L. Ed. 354), which it is insisted this is not, and that in any case, in the absence of an authoritative decision by the state court, this court will give a like effect to the designation under the statute (Mitchell Furniture Co. v. Selden Breck Const. Co., 257 U. S. 213, 42 S. Ct. 84, 66 L. Ed. 201). For present purposes we may assume that the effect of the designation of the statutory agent by the Southern is, as the state decisions cited seem to show, that a cause of action arising wholly outside and wholly unconnected with any act or business of the corporation within the state may not be sued upon there, and we address ourselves to the question, decisive of this branch of the case, whether the Southern, being present within the state of Louisiana, is amenable to suit, on this cause of action as one arising out of business done within the state, or from such action of the corporation within the state as to subject it to liability there.

The Southern does not deny that it is carrying on some business within Louisiana or that it is subject to suit there on some causes of action. Its relation to the through train service originating in New Orleans, so far as disclosed, has already been detailed. It carries on in the state, through an office and agents of its own there located, continuous solicitation of freight and passenger traffic. See International Harvester Co. v. Kentucky, 234 U. S. 579, 34 S. Ct. 944, 58 L. Ed. 1479; International Textbook Co. v. Pigg, 217 U. S. 91, 103, 30 S. Ct. 481, 54 L. Ed. 678, 24 L. R. A. (N. S.) 493, 18 Ann. Cas. 1103; Block v. Atchison, Topeka & S. F. R. Co. (C. C.) 21 F. 529; Walsh v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. (D. C.) 256 F. 47. But see Green v. C. B. & Q. Ry., 205 U. S. 530, 27 S. Ct. 595, 51 L. Ed. 916; People's Tobacco Co. v. American Tobacco Co., 246 U. S. 79, 38 S. Ct. 233, 62 L. Ed. 587, Ann. Cas. 1918C, 537. It maintains its own office there for the sale of tickets for passage over its own and connecting lines. Cf. International Harvester Co. v. Kentucky, supra, at page 585 of 234 U. S. (34 S. Ct. 944). It has designated an agent there to receive service of 'lawful process,' which fact, being of significance in determining the extent of the jurisdiction when the corporation is doing business within the state (Pennsylvania Fire Ins. Co. v. Gold Issue Mining Co., supra), is, we think, also of decisive weight in determining its presence for purposes of suit when coupled with its other corporate activities within the state. It is, therefore, as petitioner concedes, so far present in the state as to be amenable to suit there for some purposes. St. Louis Southwestern Ry. v. Alexander, supra. We disregard the fact that the Southern owns the stock, or most of it, of the New Orleans Railroad Company and the New Orleans Terminal Company, Louisiana corporations owning real estate and railroad equipment there, and that its officers and theirs are the same. Peterson v. Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co., 205 U. S. 364, 27 S. Ct. 513, 51 L. Ed. 841; Philadelphia & Reading Ry. Co. v. McKibbin, 243 U. S. 264, 37 S. Ct. 280, 611 L. Ed. 710.

The cause of action here asserted is one arising out of a contract for transportation, evidenced by the through ticket sold to respondent in New Orleans and accepted by the Southern for transportation over its line. It purported on its face to be sold by the Louisville & Nashville as agent and was sold under a joint tariff agreed to by the carriers concerned and filed by them with the Interstate Commerce Commission providing that the carrier selling the ticket acted as agent of the others. Had the ticket been sold to respondent by the Southern at its own ticket office in New Orleans, we may assume that it would not have been seriously contended that the cause of action did not arise out of the business of the Southern in Louisiana, or that the present suit could not have been maintained there, even though the wrongful act complained of took place elsewhere. But it is said that as the ticket was sold by the Louisville & Nashville, that transaction alone, under the decisions of this court, would not constitute doing business within the jurisdiction so as to make the Southern amenable to suit there. Peterson v. Chicago, R. I. & Pac. Ry. Co., supra; Philadelphia & Reading Ry. Co. v. McKibbin, supra; General Inv. Co. v. Lake Shore & M. S. Ry. Co. (C. C. A.) 250 F. 160. From this it is argued that the sale of the ticket cannot be considered any part of the business carried on within the state by the Southern and that the present cause of action is therefore not within the consent to suit given by its designation of an agent, or...