Patterson v. American Nat. Red Cross, Civ. A. No. 4019-M.

• Decision Date: 19 December 1951
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 4019-M.
• Citation: 101 F. Supp. 655
• Parties: PATTERSON et al. v. AMERICAN NAT. RED CROSS.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Florida

101 F. Supp. 655

PATTERSON et al. v. AMERICAN NAT. RED CROSS.

Civ. A. No. 4019-M.

United States District Court S. D. Florida, Miami Division.

December 19, 1951.

Hogsten, Levin & Knuck, Miami, Fla., for plaintiffs.

Dixon, DeJarnette & Bradford, Miami, Fla., for defendant.

HOLLAND, Chief Judge.

The complaint in this cause was filed by Robert F. Patterson and Delores H. Patterson, citizens of Florida, in the Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit in and for Dade County, Florida, against The American National Red Cross. Petition for removal was filed by defendant, The American National Red Cross. The cause now comes on to be heard on the plaintiffs' motion to remand on the following grounds:

"1. This cause does not involve a controversy between parties of different States for the purposes of diversity of citizenship to give the District Court of the United States jurisdiction.

"2. The defendant corporation is a National Corporation formed under an Act of Congress, Title 36, Section 1 et seq. U.S. C.A. The defendant's activities and operation were not to be confined to a single State, but were to be carried on in all of the states of the United States, and the defendant having carried on its work and business within the State of Florida is not a foreign corporation or a non-resident citizen for the purposes of giving right to a diversity of citizenship."

The American National Red Cross was created a corporation by Act of Congress.

Title 36 U.S.C.A. § 1 provides, after naming the incorporators: "* * * are created a body corporate and politic in the District of Columbia."

Title 36 U.S.C.A. § 1a, in part reads as follows: "The corporation now existing as The American National Red Cross under sections 1 and 2-16 of this title, shall continue as a body corporate and politic in the District of Columbia."

Title 36 U.S.C.A. § 2, as amended May 8, 1947, now reads in part as follows: "The name of this corporation shall be `The American National Red Cross', and by that name it shall have perpetual succession, with the power to sue and be sued in courts of law and equity, State or Federal, within the jurisdiction of the United States." (Italics the Court's.) It is to be noted that the portion above italicized was amended and changed from the previous provision which read as follows: "* * * with the power to sue and be sued in courts of law and equity within the jurisdiction of the United States." Certainly Congress contemplated suits by or against the defendant in the Federal Courts when enacting the amendment.

Section 1332 of Title 28 U.S.C.A., as it presently reads, expressly provides: "(b) The word `States', as used in this section, includes the Territories and the District of Columbia."

It is true that the defendant has the right to operate and carry on its activities in Florida and all of the States of the United States. However, it is established without question that, for the purpose of jurisdiction in the courts of the United States, a corporation is to be deemed a citizen of the state creating it,...