MacGovern & Co., Inc. v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co.

• Decision Date: 20 October 1920
• Docket Number: 283.
• Citation: MacGovern & Co., Inc. v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 104 S.E. 534, 180 N.C. 219 (N.C. 1920)
• Parties: MACGOVERN & CO., INC., v. ATLANTIC COAST LINE R. CO. ET AL.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

104 S.E. 534

180 N.C. 219

MACGOVERN & CO., INC., v. ATLANTIC COAST LINE R. CO. ET AL.

No. 283.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

October 20, 1920

Appeal from Superior Court, New Hanover County; W. P. Stacy, Judge.

Action by MacGovern & Co., Incorporated, against the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company and Walker D. Hines, Director General of Railroads. From an order overruling a demurrer and denying a motion to dismiss, defendants appeal. Affirmed.

General Orders Nos. 18 and 18a of the Director General of Railroads pertain only to venue and do not deprive state courts of jurisdiction over a domestic railroad, joined with him as a defendant in a nonresident's suit for wrongs done by a foreign connecting carrier in the state of plaintiff's residence.

Rountree & Davis, of Wilmington, for appellants.

Carr Poisson & Dickson, of Wilmington, for appellee.

CLARK C.J.

The cause of action arose in Massachusetts by the wrongful act of the Boston & Albany Railroad Company, the initial carrier connecting with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company. The plaintiffs are residents of New York and the defendant Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company is a North Carolina corporation for the purposes of jurisdiction. Staton v Railroad, 144 N.C. 135, 56 S.E. 794; Railroad v. Spencer, 166 N.C. 522, 82 S.E. 851, reviewed and reaffirmed; Brown v. Jackson, 179 N.C. 363, 102 S.E. 739.

Certainly the superior court has jurisdiction of an action brought by a nonresident against a domestic corporation in the state of its domicile. The defendant, in his demurrer to the jurisdiction, relies upon Revisal, § 424 (C. S. 468, 469). But these sections, as well as Revisal,§ 423 (C. S. 467), are in the subchapter, "Venue," and have no application to jurisdiction, which is governed by Revisal, § 1500 (C. S. 1436), which provides that--

"The superior court has original jurisdiction of all civil actions whereof exclusive original jurisdiction is not given to some other court."

Revisal, § 432, was fully considered in Ledford v. Telegraph Co., 179 N.C. 63, 101 S.E. 535, in a well-reasoned opinion by Allen, J., which held that an action to recover damages for an injury negligently inflicted is transitory, and the party injured may maintain such action in our state, though he may be a nonresident and the cause of action arose in another state, regardless of the defendant's nonresidence here or whether it be a corporation, if valid service of summons can be made here. The same ruling applies to Revisal, § 424. The decisions cited in Ledford v. Telegraph Co., supra, are numerous, and are selected from many states, and are conclusive.

If the defendant's reasoning was correct, action could not be brought in New York, where ...