Cœur D'Alene Ry. & Nav. Co. v. Spalding

93 F. 280, 35 C.C.A. 295, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 2000
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 27, 1899
DocketNo. 451
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 93 F. 280 (Cœur D'Alene Ry. & Nav. Co. v. Spalding) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cœur D'Alene Ry. & Nav. Co. v. Spalding, 93 F. 280, 35 C.C.A. 295, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 2000 (9th Cir. 1899).

Opinion

MORROW, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts as above). The appeal is prosecuted, under the provisions of section 7 of the act of March 3, 1891, as amended by the act of February 18, 1895. It is assigned as error that the court erred in denying the motion of the appellants for a provisional injunction. Section 720 of the Revised Statutes provides that the writ of injunction shall not be granted by any court of the United States to stay proceedings in any court of a state, except in cases where such injunction may be- authorized by any law relating to proceedings in bankruptcy. This prohibition applies to injunctions directed to parties engaged in proceedings in the state court. Diggs v. Wolcott, 4 Cranch, 179; Peck v. Jenness, 7 How. 612; Haines v. Carpenter, 91 U. S. 254; Dial v. Reynolds, 96 U. S. 340; Ex parte Chetwood, 165 U. S. 443, 17 Sup. Ct. 385.

It is contended by appellants that this prohibition does not apply to a case removed from the state court to the United States court, where the injunction sought is against the party seeking to prosecute his case in the state court.

In the case of French v. Hay, 22 Wall. 250, cited as authority for this doctrine, the facts show that an injunction was necessary in that case ,to preserve the prior jurisdiction of the United States circuit court, and the decision of the supreme court was placed upon that ground. The facts of the case were these: French had obtained a decree against Hay in a state court of Virginia under very peculiar circumstances, and had sent a transcript of this decree to Philadelphia, where Hay resided, and had brought suit upon it there. [283]*283In the meantime Hay had removed the original case from the Virginia court to the United States circuit court, and had filed the record in that court. He had also filed a bill in the circuit court to set aside and annul the decree. In this situation of affairs, Hay obtained from the circuit: court an injunction restraining French from proceeding further in Pennsylvania or elsewhere, to enforce the decree obtained in the Virginia court, and at a later date the circuit court annulled and set: aside the Virginia decree, and dismissed the bill upon which it was founded. On appeal to the supreme court, the action of the circuit court was affirmed, both as to the injunction and the decree; the court holding that the prohibition of the statute against granting of injunctions by the courts of the United States touching proceedings in state courts had no application to such a case, for the reason that the prior jurisdiction of the court below took the case out of the operation of that provision. The enjoined party was seeking to execute in a state court of Pennsylvania a decree obtained iu a state court of Virginia, notwithstanding the fact that the case upon which the decree was founded had been transferred to the United States circuit court. The Virginia, court had been deprived of its jurisdiction over the case by the act of removal, but by taking a transcript of the. decree to the Pennsylvania court a new jurisdiction had been obtained for the case that would have defeated the jurisdiction of the circuit court. In speaking of the relief which the complainant was entitled to have in the circuit court under these circumstances, the supreme court said:

“If it could not be given in this case, the result would have shown the existence of a great defect in our federal jurisprudence, and have been a reproach upon the administra lion of justice. In that event, the payment of the annulled decree may be enforced In Pennsylvania, and Hay, notwithstanding the final decree in that case and in this case, would find himself in exactly the same situation lie would have been if those decrees had been against him Instead of being in his favor. They would be nullities as regards any protection they could have given him. Instead of terminating the strife between him and his adversary, they would leave him under the necessity of engaging in a new conflict elsewhere. This would be contrary, to the plainest principles of reason and justice.”

In the case of Wagner v. Drake, 31 Fed. 849, also cited by appellants, the cause had been duly and regularly transferred to the circuit court, and the record of the state court filed in that court. The coui't held that section 720 of the Revised Statutes does not apply to proceedings in a state court in a case that has been legally removed from the state court into the United States court, but the injunction was refused in that case on the grounds that the jurisdiction- of the circuit court was doubtful, and because it did not appear that the injury to the plaintiff would be irreparable, but, on the contrary, capable of being fully compensated by damages recoverable in an action at law, in the event of the removed case being decided in his favor.

A case more in point is that of Railroad Co. v. Scott, 13 Fed. 793. In that case proceedings had been instituted in the county court oí Tarrant county, in the state of Texas, for the condemnation of certain lands of the defendant’s railroad, and, under the laws of Texas, [284]*284the preliminary proceedings had been taken, up to the report of the commissioners as to the amount of damages the defendant was entitled to, and including the filing of objections to the report by the dissatisfied parties. Thereupon the complainant filed in said county court its petition and bond for removal of said cause to' the circuit court, but it does not appear that the record was in fact removed to the circuit court. Notwithstanding the filing of the petition and bond for removal in the state court, the defendant proceeded with the cause in that court, and the complainant petitioned the circuit court for an injunction to restrain the defendant and his attorneys from taking any further proceedings in the state-court. The petition was denied, on the ground that the state court had prior jurisdiction of the case, and the question whether that jurisdiction had ended was in dispute between the parties.

In the present case the appellants allege in their bill that they presented their petition to the state district court for the removal of the cause to the circuit court. The cause here referred to is the petition of Spalding to the state district court, in the form of a complaint against the Coeur d’Alene Railway & Navigation Company, the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and the Northern Pacific Railway Company for the apppintment of a receiver to take-possession and control of certain property described in the petition as having belonged originally to the Cceur d’Alene Railway & Navigation Company, and transferred by this corporation to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and by the latter corporation to the Northern Pacific Railway Company. The petition also asks that the pretended claims of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company and the Northern Pacific Railway Company be declared subsequent,, subject, and inferior to the judgment of the petitioner in the original case.

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Bluebook (online)
93 F. 280, 35 C.C.A. 295, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 2000, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cur-dalene-ry-nav-co-v-spalding-ca9-1899.