St Clair v. Cox

• Decision Date: 18 December 1882
• Citation: 1 S.Ct. 354,106 U.S. 350,27 L.Ed. 222
• Parties: ST. CLAIR and others v. COX
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

106 U.S. 350

1 S.Ct. 354

27 L.Ed. 222

ST. CLAIR and others v. COX.

December 18, 1882.

C. J. Walker, for plaintiff in error.

Don M. Dickinson and Levi T. Griffin, for defendant in error.

FIELD, J.

This action was brought by the plaintiff in the court below to recover the amount due on two promissory notes of the defendants, each for the sum of $2,500, bearing date on the second of August, 1877, and payable five months after date, to the order of the Winthrop Mining Company, at the German National Bank, in Chicago, with interest at the rate of 7 per cent. per annum. To the action the defendants set up various defenses, and, among others, substantially these: That the consideration of the notes had failed; that they were given with two others of like tenor and amount to the Winthrop Mining Company, a corporation created under the laws of Illinois, in part payment for ore and other property sold to the defendants upon a representation as to its quantity, which proved to be incorrect; that only a portion of the quantity sold was ever delivered, and that the value of the deficiency exceeded the amount of the notes in suit; that at the commencement of the action, and before the transfer of the notes to the plaintiff, the Winthrop Mining Company was indebted to the defendants in a large sum, viz., $10,000, upon a judgment recovered by them in the circuit court of Marquette county, in the state of Michigan, and that the notes were transferred to him after their maturity and dishonor, and after he had notice of the defenses to them. On the trial, evidence was given by the defendants tending to show that the plaintiff was not a bona fide holder of the notes for value. A certified copy of that judgment was also produced by them and offered in evidence, but on his objection that it had not been shown that the court had obtained jurisdiction of the parties, it was excluded, and to the exclusion an exception was taken. The jury found for him for the full amount claimed, and judgment having been entered thereon, the defendants brought the case here for review. The ruling of the court below in excluding the record constitutes the only error assigned.

The judgment of the circuit court in Michigan was rendered in an action commenced by attachment. If the plaintiffs in that action were, at its commencement, residents of the state, of which some doubt is expressed by counsel, the jurisdiction of the court, under the writ, to dispose of the property attached cannot be doubted, so far as was necessary to satisfy their demand. No question was raised as to the validity of the judgment to that extent. The objection to it was as to evi- dence that the amount rendered was an existing obligation or debt against the company. If the court had not acquired jurisdiction over the company, the judgment established nothing as to its liability, beyond the amount which the proceeds of the property discharged. There was no appearance of the company in the action, and judgment against it was rendered for $6,450 by default. The officer, to whom the writ of attachment was issued, returned that, by virtue of it, he had seized and attached certain specified personal property of the defendant, and had also served a copy of the writ, with a copy of the inventory of the property attached, on the defendant, 'by delivering the same to Henry J. Colwell, Esq., agent of the said Winthrop Mining Company, personally, in said county.'

The laws of Michigan provide for attaching property of absconding, fraudulent, and non-resident debtors and of foreign corporations. They require that the writ issued to the sheriff, or other officer by whom it is to be served, shall direct him to attach the property of the defendant, and to summon him if he be found within the county, and also to serve on him a copy of the attachment and of the inventory of the property attached. They also declare that where a copy of the writ of attachment has been personally served on the defendant the same proceedings may be had thereon in the suit in all respects as upon the return of an original writ of summons personally served where suit is commenced by such summons. 2 Comp. Laws 1871, §§ 6397, 6413. They also provide, in the chapter regulating proceedings by and against corporations, that 'suits against corporations may be commenced by original writ of summons, or by declaration, in the same manner that personal actions may be commenced against individuals, and such writ, or a copy of such declaration, in any suit against a corporation, may be served on the presiding officer, the cashier, the secretary, or the treasurer thereof; or, if there be no such officer, or none can be found, such service may be made on such other officer or member of such corporation, or in such other manner as the court in which such suit is brought may direct;' and that 'in suits commenced by attachment in favor of a resident of this state against any corporation created by or under the laws of any other state government, or country, if a copy of such attachment, and of the inventory of property attached, shall have been personally served on any officer, member, clerk, or agent of such corporation within this state, the same proceedings shall be thereupon had, and with like effect, as in case of an attachment against a natural person, which shall have been returned served in like manner upon the defendant.' 2 Comp. Laws 1871, §§ 6544, 6550.

The courts of the United States only regard judgments of the state courts establishing personal demands as having validity or as importing verity where they have been rendered upon personal citation of the party, or, what is the same thing, of those empowered to receive process for him, or upon his voluntary appearance.

In Pennoyer v. Neff we had occasion to consider at length the manner in which the state courts can acquire jurisdiction to render a personal judgment against non-residents which would be received as evidence in the federal courts; and we held that personal service of citation on the party or his voluntary appearance was, with some exceptions, essential to the jurisdiction of the court. The exceptions related to those cases where proceedings are taken in a state to determine the status of one of its citizens towards a non-resident, or where a party has agreed to accept a notification to others or service on them as citation to himself. 95 U. S. 714. The doctrine of that case applies, in all its force, to personal judgments of state courts against foreign corporations. The courts rendering them must have acquired jurisdiction over the party by personal service or voluntary appearance, whether the party be a corporation or a natural person. There is only this difference: A corporation, being an artificial being, can act only through agents, and only through them can be reached, and process must, therefore, be served upon them. In the state where a corporation is formed it is not difficult to ascertain who are authorized to represent and act for it. Its charter or the statutes of the state will indicate in whose hands the control and management of its affairs are placed. Directors are readily found, as also the officers appointed by them to manage its business. But the moment the boundary of the state is passed difficulties arise; it is not so easy to determine who represent the corporation there and under what circumstances service on them will bind it. Formerly it was held that a foreign corporation could not be sued in an action for the recovery of a personal demand outside of the state by which it was chartered. The principle that a corporation must dwell in the place of its creation, and cannot, as said by Chief Justice TANEY, migrate to another sovereignty, coupled with the doctrine that an officer of the corporation does not carry his functions with him when he leaves his state, prevented the maintenance of personal actions against it. There was no mode of compelling its appearance in the foreign jurisdiction. Legal proceedings there against it were, therefore, necessarily confined to the disposition of such property belonging to it as could be there found; and to authorize them legislation was necessary.

In McQueen v. Middleton Manuf'g Co., decided in 1819, the supreme court of New York, in considering the question whether the law of that state authorized an attachment against the property of a foreign corporation, expressed the opinion that a foreign corporation could not be sued in the state, and gave as a reason that the process must be served on the head or principal officer within the jurisdiction of the sovereignty where the artificial body existed; observing that if the president of a bank went to New York from another...