Dzema v. Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Rd.

165 N.E. 376, 31 Ohio App. 288, 1928 Ohio App. LEXIS 356
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 5, 1928
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 165 N.E. 376 (Dzema v. Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Rd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dzema v. Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Rd., 165 N.E. 376, 31 Ohio App. 288, 1928 Ohio App. LEXIS 356 (Ohio Ct. App. 1928).

Opinions

Levine, J.

In the trial court, after the case proceeded to a hearing on the merits, various defendants named in the action were dismissed from the case, and, at the close of all the plaintiff’s testimony, other defendants having been dismissed from the case, it stood as an action by plaintiff against one defendant only, namely, the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Company. The remaining defendant thereupon moved to dismiss the action as to it, by reason of the court’s lack of jurisdiction over defendant.

The defendant relied upon Section 11282, General Code, which permits service of summons against a nonresident of the county, if the action is rightfully brought against another of the joint defendants named in the petition, and it was argued that, since no cause of action was proven against any of the other resident defendants, the trial court is therefore without jurisdiction to proceed with the action against such nonresident defendant. The trial court sustained the motion and dismissed the case against the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Company for lack of jurisdiction over its person. Error is prosecuted to this ruling of the common pleas court. It is contended in behalf of the plaintiff in error that, when an action is brought in good faith against joint defendants, some of whom are *290 residents of Cuyahoga county, and others of whom are nonresidents of the county, certain acts and steps taken by the nonresident defendants will be construed under the law as a waiver and a submission to the jurisdiction of the common pleas court of Cuyahoga county.

It is conceded in this case that the allegations of the petition set forth a cause of action in which all the defendants, resident and nonresident, are rightfully joined, that, in so far as it appears from the face of the petition, there is no lack of jurisdiction in the common pleas court of Cuyahoga county to proceed against all the defendants, including the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Company, nonresident of this county.

In the case of Drea v. Carrington, 32 Ohio St., 595, this matter is under discussion, and it is therein held:

“1. An action to recover damages under an act requiring compensation for causing death by wrongful act, neglect, or default (2 S. & C. 1139), may be brought in any county in the state where the defendant, or any one of the defendants, resides or may be served.
“2. In such case, where there are several defendants, against all of whom good cause of action is alleged, some of whom are served in the county, and others reside and are served in another county than that where the suit is brought, the validity of the service of summons in such other county, and the jurisdiction of the court over the persons of the nonresident defendants, depends upon the truth of the allegations of the petition.
“3. "Where the allegations of the petition upon *291 its face make a case in which all the defendants are rightfully joined, and service is made on one or more in the county where the suit is brought, and on the others in another county, the question of the jurisdiction of the court over the persons of the defendants served in such other county, must be raised by answer, under Sections 87 and 89 of the civil code.
“4. Where the nonresident defendants file a motion to dismiss for want of jurisdiction over them, and support it by a verified answer, as provided by Section 89 of the civil code, traversing the allegations of the petition, by showing that such nonresidents are not rightfully joined as defendants, the issue of fact thus presented, in an action for the recovery of a money judgment, is one which either party has a right to have tried by a jury.
“5. In such a case, it is error for the court, without the assent of the parties, to hear and determine this issue.”

In the opinion, on page 603, the court said:

“Where a resident and a nonresident of the county are sued as joint contractors, and service is made on the latter in his own county, and on the trial it turns out that the resident defendant is not liable, judgment can not be rendered against the nonresident, because the jurisdiction of the court over his person depended on his being rightly joined with the resident defendant, and as the verdict found he was not liable, there was no authority to summon the nonresident to answer out of the county where he was served.
“In the last two cases, like the one at bar, the jurisdiction of the court over the nonresident de *292 fendants depended upon the facts in issue, which could only be determined in the usual way. ’ ’

In that case the jurisdiction of the court is challenged by a specific allegation in the answer, and it is therein held that in such event the question of jurisdiction becomes an issue of fact to be determined by the jury and not by the court.

It is quite clear from the above statement of the law that the defendant, the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Company, nonresident of this county, was in no position to legally object to the jurisdiction of the court until it had been determined that there was no cause of action against any of the resident defendants.

The latest pronouncement of the Supreme Court of Ohio relating to this subject is the case of Bucurenciu v. Ramba, 117 Ohio St., 546, 159 N. E., 565. We quote from the syllabus as follows:

“1. Where the question of the jurisdiction of the court over the person of the defendant is one of fact, not appearing upon the face of the record, objection made thereto by answer of the objecting defendant as his first act in the case is objection at the first opportunity, and saves an exception to the jurisdiction.
“2. Where the jurisdiction of the court to acquire jurisdiction over the person of the defendant by service of summons in a foreign county appears only by the allegations of the petition, a general denial filed by such defendant challenges such jurisdiction, and under such general denial such defendant may at the same time and throughout the trial question both the jurisdiction and the merits of the canse. ’ ’

*293 In the opinion of the court, at page 549 (159 N. E., 586), the following pertinent language appears:

“The general rule seems to be that when the defendant becomes an actor in the case, without objecting to the jurisdiction, he enters his appearance in the ease and may not thereafter object to the jurisdiction over his person.

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Related

Scott v. Davis
91 Ohio Law. Abs. 276 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1961)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
165 N.E. 376, 31 Ohio App. 288, 1928 Ohio App. LEXIS 356, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dzema-v-pittsburgh-lake-erie-rd-ohioctapp-1928.