Range Oil Supply Co. v. Chicago, Rock Island & PR Co.

• Decision Date: 14 October 1957
• Docket Number: No. 15761.,15761.
• Citation: 248 F.2d 477
• Parties: RANGE OIL SUPPLY COMPANY, a Minnesota Corporation, Appellant, v. CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND AND PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

248 F.2d 477 (1957)

RANGE OIL SUPPLY COMPANY, a Minnesota Corporation, Appellant, v. CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND AND PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY, Appellee.

No. 15761.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

October 14, 1957.

A. Gordon Rosenmeier, Little Falls, Minn., for appellant.

Philip Stringer, St. Paul, Minn. (R. O. Sullivan, Arthur J. Donnelly and R. Paul Sharood, St. Paul, Minn., were with him on the brief), for appellee.

Before GARDNER, Chief Judge, and JOHNSEN and VOGEL, Circuit Judges.

GARDNER, Chief Judge.

This appeal is from an order of the trial court which affirmed the findings and order of the Minnesota Railroad and Warehouse Commission in a proceeding initiated before that Commission by appellant Range Oil Supply Company seeking an order setting aside certain right of way property, hereinafter described, owned by appellee Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company, for use by Range Oil Supply Company as a site for a public warehouse. In this proceeding the Commission dismissed the complaint holding among other things that:

"It does not appear that the plaintiff will make any different use of the site sought than it has in the past, and it appears that the past use has been for private purposes only. * * * The property is not being used * * * for public use."

Thereupon appellant, pursuant to statutes of the State of Minnesota, M.S.A. §§ 216.24 and 216.25, appealed to the state District Court for Hennepin County, Minnesota. Before any action had been taken by the state District Court, however, the action was removed by appellee to the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota on the ground of diversity of citizenship, the requisite jurisdictional amount being involved. Appellant filed a motion to remand the case to the state court, which motion was in due course denied. In the trial court appellant attacked the order, rulings and findings of the Commission as unlawful and unreasonable. The case was by stipulation of counsel for the respective parties submitted on the record made before the Minnesota Railroad and Warehouse Commission. On consideration of the record as so submitted the trial court concluded that the findings and order of the Commission were lawful and reasonable and thereupon entered an order affirming the findings and order of the Commission. From the final order so entered appellant seeks reversal on the following grounds: (1) the court erred in denying appellant's motion to remand to the state district court, (2) the court erred in failing and refusing to rule that the order of the Minnesota Railroad and Warehouse Commission was unlawful and unreasonable, (3) the court and Commission erred in excluding the evidence relating to Liquid Storage, Inc. and (4) the court erred in upholding the Commission's "finding" that the property would not be put to a public use.

As above noted, after the proceeding had, pursuant to Minnesota statutes, Minn.Stat.Annotated, Secs. 216.24 and 216.25, been appealed to the state District Court appellee removed the case to the Federal court on the ground that diversity of citizenship existed between the parties and the amount in controversy exceeded in value $3,000. Appellant on its motion to remand contended in the trial court, and it renews its contention here, that the action was not removable because it did not constitute a civil action within the meaning of the removal statute, Sec. 1441(a), Title 28 U.S.C.A., and that the amount in controversy did not exceed $3,000. Appellee was the prevailing party before the Commission and it did not seek to review the order as entered but sought only to sustain it. When the proceeding was appealed to the state court it became an action and as there was diversity of citizenship was removable if the value or amount in controversy exceeded $3,000. The trial court held that the test of the jurisdictional amount was the value of the use of the property of which the appellee might be deprived by the appellant's action and that "The value of the exclusive use of this land, for what may well be an indeterminable length of time, is well over the requisite jurisdictional amount, although such value may be incapable of precise measurement." Appellant does not seriously dispute this holding of the trial court but insists that the proceeding in the state court was not a civil action of which the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota had original jurisdiction. When appellant appealed to the state District Court it in effect began a civil suit in which it sought to have the court hold that the order under review was unlawful and unreasonable. Appellant was the aggressor and it alone sought relief from the order of the Commission. At this stage of the proceeding it became a civil action and as the jurisdictional requisites existed it was removable to the Federal court. In re Chicago, M., St. P. & P. R. Co., D.C.Minn., 50 F.2d 430; Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co. v. Stude, 346 U.S. 574, 74 S.Ct. 290, 98 L.Ed. 317. In re Chicago, M., St. P. & P. R. Co., supra, the text of the Minnesota statutes relating to appeals from orders of the Commission was identical with those involved in the instant case and the court had occasion to consider whether or not on appeal to the state court a civil action was initiated. In denying a motion to remand the court there said, inter alia:

"When the city appealed, it initiated a civil suit, and questioned the validity and reasonableness of the order of the commission, and required the railroads to defend that order. It sought to take away the rights which the order would have given them if left undisturbed. The city assumed the burden of establishing the invalidity of the order." 50 F.2d 434.

The procedure here involved is similar in many respects to that applicable in condemnation cases. In the latter class of cases the rule is succinctly stated by Lewis on Eminent Domain, Vol. 2, Sec. 513, as follows:

"It may also be regarded as settled that a condemnation proceeding pending in the State courts, whether by appeal from commissioners or otherwise, may be removed to the federal court of the proper district when a proper case is made out."

But it is said the case is not removable because the Federal court did not have original jurisdiction. Of course, prior to removal the Federal court does not have original jurisdiction in any action pending in a state court and manifestly, the reference in Sec. 1441(a), Title 28 U.S.C.A., is to the general jurisdiction of Federal courts. General Inv. Co. v. Lake Shore Ry., 260 U.S. 261, 43 S.Ct. 106, 67 L.Ed. 244; Enger v. Northern Finance Corporation, D.C.Minn., 31 F.2d 136. The phrase "original jurisdiction" as used in Sec. 1441(a), Title 28 U.S. C.A., is and can only be a direct reference to Sec. 1332(a) and Sec. 1331, Title 28 U.S.C.A. both of which are declarations that the United States District Courts shall have original jurisdiction in the cases enumerated. The three requisites which are applicable to the situation here under Sec. 1332(a), Title 28 U.S. C.A. are: (1) the controversy is a civil action, (2) diversity of citizenship and (3) the amount in controversy exceeding $3,000. All these requisites are present here. We conclude that the court properly retained jurisdiction of the case.

It is next urged that the court erred in not holding that the order of the Commission was unlawful and unreasonable.

The property here involved is a tract of land in downtown Minneapolis, 100 x 132½ feet in area and located in the appellee's freight house area adjacent to one of its tracks. The property is in a highly developed industrial and commercial area close to downtown Minneapolis. In 1940 appe...