West v. Aurora City

Decision Date01 December 1867
Citation6 Wall. 139,73 U.S. 139,18 L.Ed. 819
PartiesWEST v. AURORA CITY
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

ERROR to the Circuit Court for Indiana.

The twelfth section of the Judiciary Act provides:

'That if a suit be commenced in any State court against an alien, or by a citizen of the State in which the suit is brought, against a citizen of another State, . . . and the defendant shall, at the time of entering his appearance, file his petition for the removal of the cause for trial in the next Circuit Court, . . . and offer good and sufficient surety for his entering appearance in such State court, on the first day of its session, and file copies of said process against him, . . . it shall be the duty of the State court to accept the surety and proceed no further in the cause, . . . and such copies being entered as aforesaid in such court of the United States, the cause shall proceed there in the same manner as if it had been brought by original process.'

The code of Indiana also provides that in suits brought in that State——

'The defendant may set forth in his answer as many grounds of defence, counter-claim, and set-off, whether legal or equitable, as he shall have. Each shall be distinctly stated in a separate paragraph, and numbered, and clearly refer to the cause of action intended to be answered.'

With these statutory provisions in existence, West and Torrance, citizens of Ohio, brought suit in one of the State courts of Indiana against the City of Aurora, Indiana. The nature of their action did not clearly appear from the record, but it seemed to have been a suit, by petition, under the State code, against the city just named, for the recovery of the amount of the matured interest coupons of certain bonds.

To this suit the defendants seemed to have made defences by answer under the code, and subsequently to have filed, by leave of the court, as an additional answer, three paragraphs setting up new defensive matter, in each of which the defendant prayed an injunction to restrain the plaintiffs from further proceeding in any suit on the coupons or bonds, and from transferring them to any third parties, and for a decree that the bonds be delivered up to be cancelled.

Upon the filing of these additional paragraphs the plaintiffs entered a discontinuance of their suit, and, assuming that under the code the new paragraphs of the answer would remain, in substance, a new suit against them for the cause and object set forth in them, filed their petition for the removal of the cause into the Circuit Court of the United States. The petition was allowed by the State court, and the new paragraphs, without any other portion of the record of the suit in that court, except enough to show its title and the entry of discontinuance, were sent into the Circuit Court. By that court they were remanded to the State court as not constituting a suit that could be removed under the twelfth s...

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57 cases
  • Soper v. Kahn
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of Maryland
    • July 22, 1983
    ...interpretation that a third-party defendant constitutes a "defendant" under § 1441(a): "The rationale of West v. Aurora City, 73 U.S. (6 Wall.) 139, 18 L.Ed. 819 (1867) and Shamrock Oil supra, indicate that Ford the third-party defendant qualifies as a `defendant.' Unlike the party seeking ......
  • Barnette v. Wells Fargo Nevada Nat Bank of San Francisco
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • March 15, 1926
    ...the lower federal courts were also. Hegler v. Faulkner, 8 S. Ct. 1203, 127 U. S. 482, 32 L. Ed. 210. As stated in West v. Aurora City, 6 Wall. 139, 142 (18 L. Ed. 819): 'It is equally fatal to the supposed right of removal that the record presents only a fragment of a cause, unintelligible ......
  • Ford Motor Credit Co. v. Aaron-Lincoln Mercury
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois
    • April 29, 1983
    ...Island & Pacific Railroad Co. v. Stude, 346 U.S. 574, 579-80, 74 S.Ct. 290, 294-295, 98 L.Ed. 317 (1954), is West v. Aurora City, 73 U.S. (6 Wall.) 139, 18 L.Ed. 819 (1867). There, the plaintiff filed a non-federal claim in state court. The defendant responded with a counterclaim which coul......
  • Scott v. Communications Services, Inc.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Southern District of Texas
    • April 5, 1991
    ...to the defendant. Shamrock Oil & Gas Corp. v. Sheets, 313 U.S. 100, 61 S.Ct. 868, 871-72, 85 L.Ed. 1214 (1941); West v. Aurora City, 6 Wall. 139, 18 L.Ed. 819 (1867); American International Underwriters, Inc. v. Continental Ins. Co., 843 F.2d 1253 (9th Cir.1988); Estate of Spragins v. Citiz......
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