Memphis Street Railway Company v. Moore

Citation243 U.S. 299,37 S.Ct. 273,61 L.Ed. 733
Decision Date06 March 1917
Docket NumberNo. 623,623
PartiesMEMPHIS STREET RAILWAY COMPANY, Petitioner, v. S. C. MOORE, Administrator of the Estate of Ivy B. Douglas, Deceased
CourtUnited States Supreme Court

Messrs. Roane Waring and Luke E. Wright for petitioner.

Messrs. Ike W. Crabtree and Milton J. Anderson for respondent.

Mr. Justice Clarke delivered the opinion of the court:

The respondent, S. C. Moore, a citizen of Arkansas, in his representative capacity as administrator of the estate of Ivy B. Douglas, deceased, under appointment by the probate court of Shelby county, Tennessee, sued the petitioner, the Memphis Street Railway Company, a corporation organized under the laws of Tennessee, in the United States district court for the western district of Tennessee, for wrongfully causing the death of his decedent. He recovered judgment, which was affirmed by the circuit court of appeals, and the case is here on certiorari for review of the holding of that court that the plaintiff had legal capacity to maintain the suit in a Federal court.

On the face of the declaration there was the requisite diversity of citizenship to give the Federal court jurisdiction, but the petitioner claims that the respondent, Moore, although a citizen of Arkansas, must be treated as a citizen of Tennessee under the statute of that state, entitled, 'An Act to Declare That, for the Purpose of Suing and Being Sued, a Nonresident of Tennessee, Who Qualifies as Executor or Administrator in Tennessee, Shall Be Considered a Citizen of Tennessee, and to Provide for the Service of Process upon Him' (Acts 1903, chap. 501, p. 1344), which provides:

'That whenever a nonresident of the state of Tennessee qualifies in this state as the executor or administrator of a person dying in or leaving assets or property in this state, for the purpose of suing and being sued, he shall be treated as a citizen of this state.'

The remainder of the act prescribes the method of service of summons upon such a nonresident executor or administrator.

Upon a full review of the legislation of the state in Southern R. Co. v. Maxwell, 113 Tenn. 464, 82 S. W. 1137, the supreme court of Tennessee decided that the sole purpose of this act is to extend to such nonresident executors and administrators as are described in it the privilege of suing in the state courts in forma pauperis, and that the effect of it, when read with the other statutes of the state on the subject, is to confine this...

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27 cases
  • Krier-Hawthorne v. Beam
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)
    • March 2, 1984
    ...being unquestionably a proper one."); cf. Memphis Street Railway Co. v. Bobo, 232 F. 708, 710 (6th Cir.1916), aff'd, 243 U.S. 299, 37 S.Ct. 273, 61 L.Ed. 733 (1917) (a nonresident administrator who qualified in Tennessee was not a Tennessee citizen for diversity purposes, even though a Tenn......
  • N. & G. Taylor Co. v. Anderson
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (7th Circuit)
    • June 4, 1926
    ...state should be final and binding upon this court. Elmendorf v. Taylor, 10 Wheat. 152, 158, 6 L. Ed. 289; Memphis Street Ry. v. Moore, 243 U. S. 299, 37 S. Ct. 273, 61 L. Ed. 733; Old Colony Trust Co. v. Omaha, 230 U. S. 100, 116, 33 S. Ct. 967, 57 L. Ed. 1410; Chicago v. Obermayer Co. (C. ......
  • Greenough v. Tax Assessors of City of Newport
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • June 9, 1947
    ...238. 24 Bullard v. City of Cisco, 290 U.S. 179, 190, 54 S.Ct. 177, 181, 78 L.Ed. 254, 93 A.L.R. 141. See Memphis Street R. Co. v. Moore, 243 U.S. 299, 37 S.Ct. 273, 61 L.Ed. 733. 25 The power of a state to tax the equitable interest of a beneficiary in such circumstances was not presented. ......
  • U.S. v. Jimenez-Beltre
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (1st Circuit)
    • March 9, 2006
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