Beck & Pauli Lith. Co. v. Wacker & Birk B. & M. Co.

76 F. 10, 22 C.C.A. 11, 1896 U.S. App. LEXIS 2094
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedOctober 5, 1896
DocketNo. 305
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 76 F. 10 (Beck & Pauli Lith. Co. v. Wacker & Birk B. & M. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Beck & Pauli Lith. Co. v. Wacker & Birk B. & M. Co., 76 F. 10, 22 C.C.A. 11, 1896 U.S. App. LEXIS 2094 (7th Cir. 1896).

Opinion

WOODS, Circuit Judge.

This action was commenced in the circuit court of Dane county, Wis., without complaint or declaration, by a summons, which did not disclose the cause of action, against “the Wacker & Birk Brewing & Malting Company, the Chicago Breweries, Limited, Charles H. Wacker, and others, names unknown, doing business as Chicago Breweries, Limited.” The summons was issued September 7,1895, and on the same day was served upon Charles H. Wacker, by reading, and by delivering a copy, which he bad refused to accept, to a third person at his place of abode. On that copy was the indorsement, “Served Sept. 7th, 1895,” signed by the sheriff of Milwaukee county, Wisconsin. On September 25, 1895, the defendants entered a special appearance in the action “for the purpose only of moving to set aside the service of summons and vacating the proceedings therein,” and, upon the affidavit of Charles H. Wacker to the effect that the defendants were all nonresidents and had never done business nor had any agents in Wisconsin for the purpose of doing business there, and that when the summons was served on him he was in tbe state only as a sojourner in search of health, obtained of the court an order that within two days the plaintiff should show cause why the service of summons ■ should not he set aside and the action dismissed, with costs, but, before the motion was heard, presented their petition, and on September 27th obtained an order, for the removal of the cause into the federal circuit court. The petition for removal in terms denied the jurisdiction of the state court, and restricted the appearance thereby made to “the sole and only purpose of presenting” the petition. The order of removal having been made, tbe defendants, by attorney, “moved to have the plaintiff directed to file the original summons with the clerk of this court, so as to have it incorporated in the minutes.” The motion was denied on the ground that the court had no power to grant it, but on October 10, 1895, the summons and the return thereon were ñled, and, with other papers, were certified by the clerk, and transmitted to the court below, where the defendants, having again entered a special appearance for the purpose, renewed the motion made in the state court to set aside the service of summons, and to dismiss the action for want of jurisdiction; and the court on December 28, 1895, or[12]*12dered "that tie service of summons, as to each and all of the defendants except the defendant Charles H. Wacker, be set aside, and the cause dismissed,” and that in respect to Wacker the motion be overruled. The affidavit of Wacker, after stating that he is, and for several .years last past has been, a resident of Chicago; that he is the president of the Wacker & Birk Brewing & Malting Company, one of the defendants; that that company and the Chicago Breweries, Limited, are corporations, the first existing in and under the laws of Illinois, and the latter under the laws of Great Britain and Ireland, and neither having or having had any office, property, business, or agency in Wisconsin; that he (Wacker), either alone, or in connection with others, is not, and never has been, doing business under the name Chicago Breweries, Limited, and has never had any personal or business dealings with the plaintiff; and that, as he is advised and believes, he is made a defendant in the action “in order to make parties thereto the persons purporting to act, or supposed to be acting, under the name of Chicago Breweries, Limited, had there been no such corporation, and for no other purpose,”— concludes as follows:

“That the original summons in said action, and the complaint therein, are not on file, and have not been filed, in the office of the elerli of this court at Madison, in said county of Dane, as required by law, and defendants and deponent have not been able to see the same, and one and all do not Isno-w, and cannot learn, their contents, the same presumably being in possession, of plaintiff’s attorneys, if, indeed, it be true that.they have been drafted and in fact exist, and that defendants in this action cannot demand service of copy of same without, by such general appearance, subjecting themselves to the jurisdiction of the court; that the copy summons so left, as appears by Exhibit A, hereto annexed, does not disclose the amount of damages claimed against the defendant, or, in any respect, the nature of the action; that as deponent is informed, believes, and avers, the only business transaction had between plaintiff, on the one side, and the defendants, or either of them, on the other, and hence the business transaction on which this action is based, relates to an asserted sale and purchase of certain printed labels, on which the claim of the plaintiff to damages greatly -exceeds the sum of two thousand dollars, but liability for which the defendants deny; and, as deponent is advised and believes, the cause of action, if any, did not arise in the state of Wisconsin.”

The sheriff afterwards made formal return that he had “personally served on the 7th day of September, 1895, the within summons, in the town of Linn, Walworth Co., Wis., by tendering to Charles H. Wacker a true and correct copy,” etc.; leaving it indefinite whether a service upon Wacker individually only, or upon him as the representative or agent of other defendants, was intended. These proceedings, the summons, the return, and the affidavit mentioned, are shown only by docket entries, and not by bill of exceptions. See Reid v. Case, 14 Wis. 464; Cord v. Southwell, 15 Wis. 211; Rev. St. Wis. § 2898.

The error assigned is upon the dismissing of the action against the corporations named, while retaining jurisdiction over the defendant Wacker. The defendants in error have moved to dismiss the writ of error on the grounds that the order of dismissal was not a. final order, and that this court has no jurisdiction, because the assignment of error puts in issue nothing but the jurisdiction of the [13]*13circuit court. It does not appear that the question of jurisdiction was certified by the court below to the supreme court, and, that not having been done, it was the privilege of the parly, as declared in McLish v. Roff, 141 U. S. 661, 12 Sup. Ct. 118, to bring the entire case here; but it has been held by this court that, when the question of jurisdiction alone is involved, a circuit court of appeals cannot entertain the writ. Manufacturing Co. v. Barber, 9 C. C. A. 79, 60 Fed. 465, and 18 U. S. App. 476; Railroad Co. v. Myers, 10 C. C. A. 485, 62 Fed. 367, and 18 U. S. App. 569; Cabot v. McMaster, 13 C. C. A. 39, 65 Fed. 533, and 24 U. S. App. 571. And that ruling has been followed by the courts of appeals for the Sixth and Ninth circuits (U. S. v. Severens, 18 C. C. A. 314, 71 Fed. 768; The Alliance, 17 C. C. A. 124, 70 Fed. 273), though the contrary had been decided in the Eighth circuit iu cases not referred to in the later opinions (Crabtree v. Madden, 4 C. C. A. 408, 54 Fed. 426; Crabtree v. Byrne, 4 C. C. A. 414, 54 Fed. 432; Bust v. Waterworks Co., 17 C. C. A. 16, 70 Fed. 129). See, also, King v. McLean Asylum, 12 C. C. A. 139, 64 Fed. 325, and Green v. Mills, 16 C. C. A. 516, 69 Fed. 852. The opinion in Crabtree v.

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Bluebook (online)
76 F. 10, 22 C.C.A. 11, 1896 U.S. App. LEXIS 2094, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beck-pauli-lith-co-v-wacker-birk-b-m-co-ca7-1896.