Copeland v. Memphis & C. R.

6 F. Cas. 501, 3 Woods 651
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Northern Alabama
DecidedOctober 15, 1878
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 6 F. Cas. 501 (Copeland v. Memphis & C. R.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Northern Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Copeland v. Memphis & C. R., 6 F. Cas. 501, 3 Woods 651 (circtndal 1878).

Opinion

WOODS, Circuit Judge.

The contention of counsel who move to remand is, that the act of the legislature of Alabama of January 7, 1850, entitled “An act to incorporate the Memphis & Charleston Railroad Company,” created a body corporate, separate and distinct from the corporation of the same name created by the legislature of Tennessee, February 2, 1S40, and that such body corporate was. of course, a citizen of the state of Alabama. by which it was created. On the other side, it is claimed that the purpose and effect of the legislation of Alabama was, either simply to confer new powers and privileges, within the state of Alabama, on a Tennessee corporation; in other words, that the act of January 7, 1850, was merely an enabling act, or that it was to confer a charter on the Tennessee company without creating a new corporation. There is no principle of public law which prohibits a state from authorizing a foreign corporation to extend a railroad into its own territory, and for that purpose to buy or take laud, and after its construction, to maintain and use its road. The corporation still remains one corporation — a domestic corporation, in the state which created, and a foreign corporation in the other, enjoying the franchises conferred by the charter in the one, and the powers derived from the enabling act in the other. There is certainly no reason for treating it as two corporations. Railroad Co. v. Harris, 12 Wall. [79 U. S.] 65. The question is not so simple when two states, by common legislation, create the same corporation. In such a case, it is not merely the corporation of one state, with enlarged powers derived from the other, but it is as much the corporation of one state as of the other, and is a citizen of both. If, however, the legislatures of both states were to make one corporation only, there is no legal or constitutional necessity for treating it as two corporations in any suits or proceedings by or against it It was, at one time, held by the supreme court of the United States, that a railroad corporation created by the legislature of two states, with the same capacities and powers, and for the same objects, and referred to in the laws of the states as one corporate body, although composed of the same persons and represented by one name, was nevertheless, on a legal and constitutional necessity, two distinct and separate corporations, upon the ground that the corporation was the creation of the sovereignty which brought it into being, and could have no legal existence beyond its jurisdiction. Ohio & M. R. Co. v. Wheeler, 1 Black [66 U. S.] 286. This, however, is no longer the holding of the supreme court of the United States. According to the recent and better view, as it seems to me, of that court, the question, whether there is a unity in the corporation, and in the proprietorship of the corporate property, is one of legislative intent, and not of legislative power. Several stat:s may, by competent legislation, unite in creating the same corporation, or in combining several pre-existing corporations into a single one. One state may make a corporation of another state, as then organized and conducted, a corporation of its own, as to any property within its territorial jurisdiction. A state may, by an enabling act, authorize a corporation created in ano.her state to build and use a railroad within its own limits without creating a new corporation. Railroad Co. v. Harris, supra. See, also, [504]*504Bishop v. Brainerd, 28 Conn. 289; Connty of Allegheny v. Cleveland & P. R. Co., 51 Pa. St. 228.

The question to be decided, therefore, is resolved into this: Did the legislature of Alabama, by the act of January 7, 1850, intend to create a new corporate body to be known as the Memphis & Charleston Railroad Company, to be a corporation and citizen ,of Alabama, or merely to recognize the existence of a Tennessee corporation of the same name, and confer upon it the certain powers and privileges, and subject it to certain conditions and restrictions in the state of Alabama? I have had much difficulty in arriving at the object of the legislature in the passage of this act. I have, however, finally reached a conclusion, satisfactory to my own mind, that the design of the law was to create a body corporate in the state of Alabama, having the same powers and franchises as the Memphis & Charleston Railroad Company, incorporated by the legislature of Tennessee. The burden of proof is upon the defendant, to show that the Memphis & Charleston Railroad Company, defendant in this case, is not a citizen of the state of Alabama, but a citizen of Tennessee. The defendant, on this hearing, affirms the jurisdiction of this court, and the plaintiff denies it In a suit brought by or against a corporation, it is necessary that it be made to appear that the artificial being was brought into existence by the law of some state other than that of which the adverse party is a citizen. Muller v. Dows, 94 U. S. 444.

The facts necessary to jurisdiction of the courts of the United States must be affirmatively averred, and if denied, proved. The defendant must, on this hearing, satisfy the court of its jurisdiction, and this can be done only by showing that the corpo.a.e boJy sued in this case is not a citizen of the state of Alabama. If this proposition is not made reasonably clear, the court ought not to take jurisdiction, but the motion to remand the cause to the state court should prevail. The controversy turns, mainly, on the construction of the act of January 7, 1850, to incorporate the Memphis & Charleston Railroad Company. The proper construction of a statute requires an examination of the body of the act, the preamble, where there is one, and in certain caseá, and for certain purposes. the title may be considered. The true meaning of a statute is generally to be sought in the purview, enacting part, or body of the act. Sedg. Const. 45.

It is an established rule in the' exposition of statutes, that the intention of the lawgiver is to be deduced from a view of the whole and of every part of the statute, taken and compared together. 1 Kent, Comm. 462; Dwar. St. 194. The preamble to a statute usually contains the motives and inducements to the making of it, but it has been held to be no pari of it, or rather it is not an essential part, and is frequently omitted. The preamble is properly referred to when doubts and ambiguities arise upon the words of the enacting part The preamble can never enlarge it, can not confer any powers per se. Its true office is to expound powers conferred, not substantially to create them. A preamble is not only not essential, and is often omitted, but it is, strictly speaking, without force in a legislative sense, being but a guide to and not the intent of the statute. And to what is it properly a guide? To the meaning of the enactment? No, but the intentions of the framer, which is only the first stage on the road in the construction of statutes. Dwar. St. 107, citing King v. Athos, 8 Mod. 144; Mills v. Wilkins, 6 Mod. 62; Story, Com. Rules Interp. Const. The preamble of an act may be resorted to to aid in the construction of the enacting clause when any ambiguity exists. Beard v. Rowan, 9 Pet [34 U. S.] 301.

The use of a title in expounding a statute is shown by the following citations: By the English decisions, the title of a statute has been frequently held to be no part of a statute, for it has usually been framed only by the clerk of the house in which the bill first passes, and is seldom read more than once. In Mills v. Wilkins, 6 Mod.

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Related

Colglazier v. Louisville, N. A. & C. Ry. Co.
22 F. 568 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Indiana, 1884)
Memphis & Charleston Railroad v. Alabama
107 U.S. 581 (Supreme Court, 1883)

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Bluebook (online)
6 F. Cas. 501, 3 Woods 651, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/copeland-v-memphis-c-r-circtndal-1878.