Cooke v. Seligman

7 F. 263, 17 Blatchf. 452, 1880 U.S. App. LEXIS 2725
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York
DecidedFebruary 5, 1880
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 7 F. 263 (Cooke v. Seligman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cooke v. Seligman, 7 F. 263, 17 Blatchf. 452, 1880 U.S. App. LEXIS 2725 (circtsdny 1880).

Opinion

Blatchford, C. J.

Although the complaint avers that Wostenholme owns a number of the bonds, it does not aver that he makes any claim in respect of them, on account of any matters alleged in the bill as matters on account of which the plaintiff makes a claim in respect of bonds. Nor does the plaintiff sue on behalf of Wostenholme, or claim to represent him as respects any claim made on the other defendants, or any of them. On the whole scope of the bill, the words “ similarly situated, ” in the preamble to the complaint, and in paragraphs 14 and 16, and in subdivisions 1, 2, and 3 of the prayer, mean the original allottees, called also takers in paragraph 14. Subdivisions 1 and 2, of the prayer, pray no relief for the benefit of Wostenholme, nor does subdivision 3. That subdivision only ptays that the moneys to be accounted for may be refunded for the benefit of the original allottees, of whom Wostenholme was not one. It does not pray that such moneys be refunded for the benefit of the original allot-tees, and holders not original allottees, leaving such moneys to be distributed afterwards. Therefore, the complaint makes no case on which persons not original allottees could put in any claim to any moneys refunded. So that part of the prayer of subdivision 3 which relates to the superior right of the original allottees is to be rejected as surplusage, and Wostenholme stands as an unnecessary and improper party to the suit, and no real and actual party. This being so, it follows that the suit was removable, under the first clause of section 2 of the act of 1875, as being a suit in which there is a controversy between citizens of various states of the United States and a foreign citizen or subject, and where all the parties defendant have applied for the removal, and where [265]*265such controversy is tlie only controversy there is in the suit. The petition for removal makes out a case under said first clause, although it may be framed so as to attempt to make out, also, a case under the second clause of the same section.

It is alleged that there are certain defects on the face of the petition and the bond which invalidate the removal. The petition in the body of it purports to be the petition of all of the defendants, except Wostenholme, by the same names and designations as set forth in the caption or title of the suit in the summons and in the complaint in the state court. In such caption or title, among the names of the defendants are these:

“Jamos M. Brown, Jolm Crosby Brown, Howard Potter, and John S. Schultze, as they are the qualified executors oi' the last will and testament of James Brown, deceased.”

An aggregation or list of the names of the defendants is not found in any place in the summons or complaint, except in such caption or title. The complaint states—

That James Brown, by his will, appointed “the defendants James M. Brown, John Crosby Brown, Howard Potter, and John S. Schultze,” with two other persons, “his executors,” and that letters testamentary wore issued “to the defendants James M. Brown, John Crosby Brown, Howard Potter, and John S. Schultze, as the qualified executors of the last will and testament of the said James Brown, deceased.”

. The petition is preceded by the title or caption of the suit, giving the name of the plaintiff and the names of all the defendants, and in it, among the latter—

“James M. Brown, John Crosby Brown, Howard Potter, and John S. Schultze, as they are the qualified executors of the last will and testament of James Brown, deceased.”

The petition states—

That the controversy in said suit is between foreign citizens or subjects, and citizens of different states of the United States;” that of the defendants, sundry ones named, and among them “John Crosby Brown, individually, |he being named by that designation as a defendant in the tille to the summons and in the title to the complaint and in the title to the petition, and as a petitioner in the list of petitioners in the beginning of the body of the petition,] and Jamos M. Brown, John Crosby Brown, and Howard Potter, as they are the qualified executors of the last will and testament of James Brown, deceased, were each and all at the time of tlie commencement of this suit, and still are, citizens of the state of [266]*266New York, and that the defendant John S. Schultze, also a qualified executor of the last will and testament of James Brown, deceased, was then and still is a citizen of the state of New Jersey.”

Among the signatures to the petition are these:

“James M. Brown, George H. Brown, John Crosby Brown, Howard Potter, by James M. Brown, attorney, John S. Schultze, as the qualified executors of the last will and testament of James Brown, deceased,”—the names being under each other, and included in a bracket at the left of said designation ; also “Trenor W. Park, by J. G. McCullough, his attorney;” also “ Isaac Seligman, by Joseph Seligman, attorney;” also “ Leopold Seligman, by Joseph Seligman, attorney;” also “Henry Seligman, by Joseph Seligman, attorney;” also “Abraham Seligman, by Joseph Seligman, attorney;” also “ William Seligman, by Joseph Seligman, attorney;” also “A. A. Selover, by Billings & Oardozo, attorneys;” also “ W. Watts Sherman, by Bristow, Peet, Burnett & Opdyke, attorneys ;” also “George H. Brown;” also “John Crosby Brown.” The petition was sworn to by the defendant Park.

The condition of the bond offered to the state court is—

'That the obligation shall be void “ if the said petitioners shall enter in the said circuit court of the United States, on the first day of its next session, a copy of the record in said suit, and shall well and truly pay all costs that may be awarded by said circuit court of the United States, if said court shall hold that said suit was wrongfully or improperly removed thereto, and do or cause to be done such other and appropriate acts as, by the acts of congress approved March 3, 1875, and other acts of congress, are required to be done upon the removal of a suit into the United States circuit court from a state court.”

The bond is not acknowledged or proved.

On the twenty-first of October, 1879, the state court made an order in the suit. The title of the suit in the order gives the names and designations of the defendants as in the title to the summons and the complaint. It says:

“A petition having been duly made and filed in this suit by the several defendants”—naming the petitioners by the same names and designations as in the body of the petition—“on this twenty-first day of October, A. D. 1879, praying for the removal thereof into the circuit court of the United States for the southern district of New York, and said defendants and petitioners having duly made and filed therewith a bond, with good and sufficient surety, for their entering in such circuit court, on the first day of its next session, a copy of the record in this suit, and for paying all costs that may be awarded by the said circuit court if said court shall hold that this suit was wrongfully or improperly removed thereto,' and for doing such other and appropriate acts as required pursuant to the statutes of the United States in such case made and provided, now, upon motion of John G. McCullough, Esq., of counsel for the petitioners, it is declared that it [267]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
7 F. 263, 17 Blatchf. 452, 1880 U.S. App. LEXIS 2725, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cooke-v-seligman-circtsdny-1880.