Cole Silver Min. Co. v. Virginia & Gold Hill Water Co.

6 F. Cas. 67, 1 Sawy. 470
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Nevada
DecidedFebruary 13, 1871
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 6 F. Cas. 67 (Cole Silver Min. Co. v. Virginia & Gold Hill Water Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Nevada primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cole Silver Min. Co. v. Virginia & Gold Hill Water Co., 6 F. Cas. 67, 1 Sawy. 470 (circtdnv 1871).

Opinion

SAWTEIt, Circuit Judge.

As to the question of jurisdiction, the defendant, Glauber, has never been served, and he has not appeared. The bill shows that he is a resident of California, so that he cannot be served, and the court cannot acquire jurisdiction of him in the action unless he voluntarily appears. Although named in the bill, with a prayer that process issue, and he be made a defendant, yet, he is, substantially, not a party to the action until he is served, or till he appears.

The twenty-second and forty-seventh equity rules do not seem to contemplate that a person can be a party, in fact, till service or appearance. At all events, under these rules, when the making of a person a party — unless he is an indispensable party — would oust the jurisdiction of the court as to other parties, he may be omitted for the purpose of exercising jurisdiction as to those other parties, whose rights can be determined without his presence. Shields v. Barrow, 17 How. [58 U. S.] 141.

Upon the omission of Glauber the court would have jurisdiction over all the other parties, and their rights as against the complainant, may be determined without his presence. The acts complained of are tor-tious, and the cause of action is several, as well as joint. I do not think Glauber an indispensable party to the action. While the decree will finally settle the rights of the parties before the court, it will not bind him, and he may still litigate his claim with the complainant in another action, or he may voluntarily appear in this; for it is not to be presumed that he is in fact ignorant of the pendency of the suit. If Glauber is an indispensable party, it will be impossible for the court to restrain the commission of waste; the working or destruction of a mine; the diversion of water; the flooding of an upper riparian proprietor, or the erection or continuation of any nuisance, however offensive, dangerous, or destructive to the rights of another, when the wrong-doer has an associate or confederate residing out of the jurisdiction of the court, or when the tort-feasor himself keeps beyond the jurisdiction of the court, and performs the tortious acts through his agents and servants. It is notorious, that in the mining regions of Nevada, Oregon and California, and all the mining territories, many trespasses and wrongs of the kind mentioned, requiring the almost daily inter[69]*69position of the courts, are perpetrated by parties having associates residing in other states. To deny relief against wrong-doers in such cases in this circuit, on account of the absence of one tort-feasor, would be to paralyze the right arm of the court in those cases wherein its effectual interposition is most imperatively demanded, and most frequently invoked. Let it be once established that the courts cannot interfere, or grant relief in the absence of one of the joint tort-feasors, and the mining interests of all the gold and silver producing states will, thereafter, be at the mercy of any bad men, who, relying upon a confederate beyond the jurisdiction of the court to enable them to evade all redress for injuries committed, may ■choose to combine for the purpose of wrongfully availing themselves of the labors and discoveries of others. In my judgment, in such cases it would be far more equitable to compel the absent tort-feasor to appear and defend his right, or submit to any inconvenience that may incidentally result from the execution of any decree entered against his co-trespassers, rather than deny all redress, no matter how grievous, to the injured party, because one of the wrong-doers withdraws and keeps himself beyond the jurisdiction of the court. In the one case the absent party may appear and have his rights adjudicated, if he so desires, and justice will be awarded to all; while in the other, the most grievous injuries must necessarily go wholly unredressed.

For example, can the courts of the United States properly refuse to redress clearly manifest injuries to its own citizens, by restraining the working of a gold or silver mine, waste, or the erection or continuance of a nuisance, because a citizen of Great Britain, residing in England, is interested in the profits of the wrong, or himself, safe in his retreat beyond the jurisdiction of the court, perpetrates it by means of his agents, servants and employees? The court, in such instances, must, from the necessity of the case, assume jurisdiction and proceed to a decree as to the parties before it, or sit helplessly by and permit an absolute failure of justice, by suffering our own citizens to be ruined with impunity by irresponsible, nonresident wrong-doers, or by parties in collusion with them.

On this principle of preventing a failure of justice, and even on grounds of convenience, courts of equity have often dispensed with parties interested in and affected by the suit, in cases calling far less loudly for such action, than the class of cases to which this belongs. Smith v. Hibernian Mine Co., 1 Schoales & L. 240, 241; Rogers v. Linton, Bunb. 200, 201; Attorney General v. Baliol College, 9 Mod. 409; Thompson v. Topham, 1 Younge & J. 556; Cockburn v. Thompson, 16 Ves. 820: Williams v. Whinyates, 2 Brown, Ch. 399; Wallworth v. Holt, 4 Mylne & C. 635, 636; Taylor v. Salmon, Id. 141, 142; Harvey v. Harvey, 4 Beav. 220-222; Reynoldson v. Perkins, 2 Amb. 565.

In my ajiprehension, it is no good answer to say, that the injured party may have his remedy in the state courts, where service may be had on non-resident defendants by publication of summons. The constitution and the laws entitle parties in certain cases to seek redress in the national courts, and the class of eases mentioned, is the very one in which the remedy in the national courts is most valued by litigants, and in this circuit most frequently sought. Besides, it is a mere accident if the state laws admit of acquiring jurisdiction in this mode. I doubt whether many of the states, if any, east of the Rocky Mountains, authorize a publication of summons at all, in that class of cases. If they do, when an action is commenced in a state court by a citizen of the state, and all the defendants are citizens of another state or foreigners, it is their absolute right to have a transfer to the national courts, and a transfer by the defendants served in the state would oust the jurisdiction, if any defendant should be a non-resident; for, in the national courts service by publication could not be recognized. Thus there would still be an evasion of the remedy and a failure of justice.

To my mind there is an obvious distinction between torts of the class to which this action belongs, wherein the injury and right of action are several as well as joint; and actions of partition, for the canceling of ■ contracts, settlement of partnership affairs, and the like, wherein the decree is not binding even on the parties before the court in the absence of a party in interest. Such were the cases of Shields v. Barrow, 17 How. [58 U. S.] 139, and Barney v. Baltimore City, 6 Wall. [73 U. S.) 280.

In Marker v. Marker, a tenant under a claim of right, had sold to a stranger a large quantity of timber still uncut and standing on the premises occupied by him. A bill was subsequently filed to restrain the vendor from cutting the timber, in order that he might fulfill his contract of sale, but without making the purchaser a party. On objection lor want of parties, the court held that the purchaser was not an indispensable party, 9 Hare, 1, 5, 12, 16. This case determines the principle, for the decree must necessarily have affected the rights of the purchaser of the timber.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
6 F. Cas. 67, 1 Sawy. 470, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cole-silver-min-co-v-virginia-gold-hill-water-co-circtdnv-1871.