Stokes v. Adair, 7805.

• Decision Date: 08 April 1959
• Docket Number: No. 7805.,7805.
• Citation: 265 F.2d 662
• Parties: William M. STOKES, Jr., Appellant, v. Robert D. ADAIR, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

265 F.2d 662 (1959)

William M. STOKES, Jr., Appellant, v. Robert D. ADAIR, Appellee.

No. 7805.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued March 16, 1959.

Decided April 8, 1959.

George E. Allen, Richmond, Va. (Frank C. Maloney, III, and Allen, Allen, Allen & Allen, Richmond, Va., on brief), for appellant.

G. Kenneth Miller, Richmond, Va. (John G. May, Jr., Richmond, Va., on brief), for appellee.

Before SOPER and HAYNSWORTH, Circuit Judges, and STANLEY, District Judge.

SOPER, Circuit Judge.

This case raises the question whether the United States District Court in Richmond, Virginia, has jurisdiction of a suit brought by a citizen of the state to recover damages from another citizen of the state for injuries suffered by the plaintiff on the United States Military Reservation of Fort Leavenworth in the State of Kansas, when he was thrown violently against the windshield of an automobile driven by the defendant in what is alleged to have been a reckless and grossly negligent manner. Jurisdiction is claimed under 28 U.S.C. § 1331, which gives the district courts "original jurisdiction of all civil actions wherein the matter in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $3000, exclusive of interests and costs, and arises under the Constitution, laws or treaties of the United States."

The District Judge granted a motion of the defendant to dismiss the complaint for lack of jurisdiction on the grounds that there was no diversity of citizenship and no question arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States. He relied on the decisions of the Supreme Court in Fort Leavenworth R. Co. v. Lowe, 114 U.S. 525, 5 S.Ct. 995, 29 L.Ed. 264, and Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. McGlinn, 114 U.S. 542, 5 S.Ct. 1005, 29 L.Ed. 270, in which decisions of the Supreme Court of Kansas were affirmed. In the first case the Supreme Court of the United States held that the State of Kansas, in the act of the state legislature which granted exclusive jurisdiction over the Fort Leavenworth Reservation to the United States, had validly reserved the right to tax railroad property in the area; and in the second case the Supreme Court of the United States held that a state act of Kansas, which gave the owners of animals killed by railroad engines or cars the right to recover damages from the railroad company, remained in effect after the Act of Cession was passed. The District Judge being of the opinion that these cases established that the rights of the parties in the pending case were governed by laws of Kansas, dismissed the complaint.

We learn from these decisions of the Supreme Court that the land on which the Reservation is located was part of the territory acquired by the United States from France in 1803 and had been used by the United States for military purposes for many years before the State of Kansas was admitted into the Union in 1861; and that at the time of the admission Congress failed, as it might have done, to except the place from the jurisdiction of Kansas and to reserve jurisdiction over it. This defect was cured in 1875 by an act of the state legislature, wherein exclusive jurisdiction over the territory within the Reservation was ceded to the United States, saving however to the state the right to serve civil and criminal processes and the right to tax railroad property therein. Since the land was not purchased with the consent of Congress it was held in Fort Leavenworth R. Co. v. Lowe, supra, that the case did not fall within the purview of Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Federal Constitution, which provides that Congress shall have power to exercise exclusive jurisdiction over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be for the erection of forts and other needful buildings. Since the territory was acquired without consent of the state, the Court held that jurisdiction over the area was not determined by the Federal Constitution but by the state act of cession and that the limitations contained therein, having been accepted by the United States, were valid and enforceable. Later, in Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co. v. McGlinn, supra, the question arose as to what laws regulated the private rights of persons in the ceded area after the cession, and it was held that the laws of Kansas continued in force until abrogated by the new sovereign. It is because of this holding that it is now contended that the right of action which the plaintiff seeks to prosecute in the pending suit is founded on the laws of the State of Kansas and not the laws of the United States.

This conclusion is at variance with decisions rendered by the courts subsequent to the two Leavenworth decisions above discussed. By later opinions it has become clear that although the laws of the states governing the private rights of individuals persist in the ceded territories, they do not derive their authority from the state but from the Federal Government which has acquired exclusive legislative jurisdiction. In effect, the acceptance of jurisdiction over the ceded territory is tantamount to an adoption of the existing state laws by the Federal Government. Thus, in Stewart & Co. v. Sadrakula, 309 U.S. 94, 60 S.Ct. 431, 84 L.Ed. 596, the Court had under consideration an appeal from a judgment of a court of...