Saunders v. Adams Exp. Co.

• Decision Date: 14 November 1904
• Parties: SAUNDERS v. ADAMS EXP. CO.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

58 A. 1101

71 N.J.L. 520

SAUNDERS

v. ADAMS EXP. CO.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Nov. 14, 1904.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Action by Bertram H. Saunders against the Adams Express Company. Motion to vacate an order of the Supreme Court Justice overruling a motion to set aside summons and declaration. 57 Atl. 899. Affirmed.

The facts appear in the opinion of Mr. Justice Swayze when ordering the order now under review (57 Atl. 899).

Argued June term. 1904, before FORT and REED, JJ.

McCarter, Williamson & McCarter. for the motion.

Preston Stevenson, opposed.

REED, J. We think that, even if the defendant was possessed of enough of the faculties or powers of a corporation to subject it to a suit in this state (Edgeworth v. Wood, 58 N. J. Law, 463, 33 Atl. 940), it has also enough of the qualities of a partnership (People ex rel. Winchester v. Coleman, 133 N. Y. 279, 31 N. E. 96, 16 L. R. A. 183) to subject it to liability in a suit in this state as an unincorporated association. If it is suable as a corporation, it can be sued by its name or in the manner provided for by the New York statutes. If it can be sued as an association, it can be sued by its name under our statute. The method of service of process upon a foreign corporation through service upon an agent does not differ from service upon an unincorporated corporation through its agent. Service upon a foreign corporation may be made upon an officer, director, agent, clerk, or engineer of a company. P. L. 1896. pp. 277, 305. Service upon an unincorporated association may be made upon the president or any other officer for the time being, or the agent, manager, or the person in charge of the business of such organization. P. L. 1903, pp. 545, 546. Service upon an agent of a corporation must be made upon agents whose relations to the company are such as to give the agent a representative character respecting the litigation contemplated. Litigation arising out of a business under the control of an agent may be instituted by service upon the agent in charge of that particular business. Norton v. Berlin Iron Bridge Co., 51 N. J. Law, 442, 17 Atl. 1079. But servants who have no such representative character respecting the subject-matter of the litigation are not such as the statute intended. Mulhearn v. Press Publishing Co., 53 N. J. Law, 153, 21 Atl. 186, 11 L. R. A. 101. In Carroll v. New York, etc., R. R. Co., 65 N., T. Law, 124, 46 Atl. 708, a service had been made upon an engineer of a...