Rosenberg Bros Co v. Curtis Brown Co

• Decision Date: 02 January 1923
• Docket Number: No. 102,102
• Citation: Rosenberg Bros Co v. Curtis Brown Co, 260 U.S. 516, 43 S.Ct. 170, 67 L.Ed. 372 (1923)
• Parties: ROSENBERG BROS. & CO., Inc., v. CURTIS BROWN CO
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

260 U.S. 516

43 S.Ct. 170

67 L.Ed. 372

ROSENBERG BROS. & CO., Inc.,

v CURTIS BROWN CO.

No. 102.

Argued Nov. 16, 1922.

Decided Jan. 2, 1923.

Messrs. G. H. Harris, of Rochester, N. Y., and Manton M. Wyvell, of Washington, D. C., for plaintiff in error.

Mr. J. H. Corn, of New York City, for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice BRANDEIS delivered the opinion of the Court.

Rosenberg Bros. & Co., Inc., a New York corporation, brought this suit in the Supreme Court of that state against Curtis Brown Company, an Oklahoma corporation. The only service of process made was by delivery of a summons to defendant's president while he was temporarily in New York. Defendant appeared specially; moved to quash the summons on the ground that the corporation was not found within the state, and, after evidence was taken but before hearing on the motion, removed the case to the federal court for the Western District of New York. There the motion to quash was granted, upon the ground that the defendant was not amenable to the process of the state court at the time of the service of the summons. A writ of error was sued out under section 238 of the Judicial Code (Comp. St. § 1215), and the question of jurisdiction was duly certified. The order entered below, although in form an order to quash the summons, and not a dismissal of the suit, is a final judgment, and the case is properly here. Goldey v. Morning News, 156 U. S. 518, 15 Sup. Ct. 559, 39 L. Ed. 517; Conley v. Mathieson Alkali Works, 190 U. S. 406, 23 Sup. Ct. 728, 47 L. Ed. 1113. Compare The Pesaro, 255 U. S. 216, 217, 41 Sup. Ct. 308, 65 L. Ed. 592.

The sole question for decision is whether, at the time of the service of process, defendant was doing business within the state of New York in such manner and to such extent as to warrant the inference that it was present there. Philadelphia & Reading Ry. Co. v. McKibbin, 243 U. S. 264, 265, 37 Sup. Ct. 280, 61 L. Ed. 710. The District Court found that it was not. That decision was clearly correct. The Curtis Brown Company is a small retail dealer in men's clothing and furnishings at Tulsa, Okl. It never applied, under the foreign corporation laws, for a license to do business in New York; nor did it at any time authorize suit to be brought against it there. It never had an established place of business in New York; nor did it, without having such established place, regularly carry on business there. It had no property in New York, and had no officer, agent, or stockholder resident there. Its...