Southern Ry. Co. v. Jordan

• Decision Date: 22 April 1915
• Docket Number: 717
• Citation: 192 Ala. 528,68 So. 418
• Parties: SOUTHERN RY. CO. v. JORDAN.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

68 So. 418

192 Ala. 528

SOUTHERN RY. CO. v. JORDAN.

No. 717

Supreme Court of Alabama

April 22, 1915

Appeal from Circuit Court, Cherokee County; W.W. Haralson, Judge.

Action by Luther C. Jordan against the Southern Railway Company. There was a judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appealed to the Court of Appeals, and it transferred the cause to the Supreme Court. Affirmed.

Hood &amp Murphree, of Gadsden, for appellant.

R.F Conner, of Centre, and Hunt & Wolfes, of Ft. Payne, for appellee.

THOMAS J.

Appellee was a passenger on one of appellant's trains from Bluffton, Ala., to Cave Springs, Ga. At Cave Springs he attempted to alight from the train, that started before he could get off, and as he was coming down the steps the conductor threw the step box in front of him, causing him to fall from the train and to receive personal injuries. For damages for the injuries sustained appellee brought suit in the circuit court of Cherokee, the county of his residence.

Appellant appeared specially, and filed a plea in abatement, stating that appellant was a foreign corporation, and that the injury was not inflicted in the state of Alabama, but in the state of Georgia, and consequently the circuit court of Cherokee county, Ala., did not have jurisdiction to try the cause. The court below sustained demurrer to the plea, and this ruling is assigned as error.

Before the approval of the act of August 26, 1909 (Gen.Acts Sp.Sess.1909, p. 174), a foreign corporation could not be sued in this state "upon a contract, or in tort," for an injury done in another state. Dozier Lumber Co. v Smith-Isb. Lumber Co., 145 Ala. 317, 39 So. 714. It is a general rule that no person or corporation has a vested right to any particular remedy or form of procedure. The venue in civil actions against foreign or domestic corporations belongs to the procedure or remedy, and is no part of the right itself. Drennen Motor Car Co. v. Evans, 68 So. 303; Home Protect. of N. Ala. v. Richards & Sons, 74 Ala. 466, 470; Code 1907, §§ 6110, 6112.

The rule declared in the several authorities collected in Dozier Lumber Co. v. Smith-I. Lumber Co., supra, that a foreign corporation cannot be sued in this state for damages resulting from an injury done in another state, has been changed by subsequent statutory enactment. The act conferring jurisdiction "of any cause of action arising in another state, which is enforceable in such other state," is as follows:

"That whenever, either by common law or the statutes of another state, a cause of action, either upon contract, or in tort, has arisen in such other state against any person or corporation, such cause of action shall be enforceable in the courts of this state, in any county in which jurisdiction of the defendant can legally be obtained in the same manner in which jurisdiction could have been obtained if the cause of action had arisen in this state. *** That all laws and parts of laws in conflict or inconsistent with the provisions of this act be, and the same are hereby, repealed." Gen.Acts Sp.Sess.1907, p. 67.

This act was passed by both houses of the Legislature on November 22, 1907 (Senate Jour. 308), and approved by the Governor November 23, 1907. The act adopting the Code of 1907 (Acts 1907, p. 499), by section 2 thereof, provided that no acts passed on or after July 9, 1907, should be repealed or affected in any manner by the adoption of the Code. Hence the act of the special session of 1907 (November 23, 1907) "authorizing the enforcement in the courts of this state, when jurisdiction of the defendant can be obtained in this state, of any cause of action arising in another state, which is enforceable in such other state," was not affected by the Code of 1907. Gen.Acts 1907, p. 499; Acts Sp.Sess.1909, p. 174, § 2; Farmers' Union Warehouse Co. v. McIntosh, 1 Ala.App. 407, 56 So. 102; N.A.R. Co. v. Lowery, 3 Ala.App. 513, 57 So. 260.

In State v. Lamar, 178 Ala. 77-81, 59 So. 473, 474 Justice...