Ex parte Grimball

61 Ala. 598
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedDecember 15, 1878
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 61 Ala. 598 (Ex parte Grimball) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ex parte Grimball, 61 Ala. 598 (Ala. 1878).

Opinion

MANNING, J.

The acts of Congress for the removal of causes from the courts of the States to those of the United States, require on the part of the judges of either government who may have to consider and act under them, candor and good temper. A jealousy of jurisdiction too susceptible of alarm and resentment, is apt to hurry those under its influence into error. The institutions of both governments are-established for the good of all: and it is the right of all to have them preserved and upheld in the performance of their respective proper functions. When, therefore, cases arise in which the question to be decided is, whether the cognizance of them belongs to the State courts or the Federal courts, it is the dictate of patriotism, as well as of law, that jurisdiction shall be cheerfully declined by those to which it does not pertain, and exercised without offensive arbitrariness, by those to whom it does belong. According to the Su[601]*601preme Court of the United States, through the late Chief-Justice Chase, — “ It may be not unreasonably said that the preservation of the States and the maintenance of their governments, are as much within the design and care of the constitution, as the preservation of the Union and the maintenance of the national government.” — Texas v. White, 7 Wallace, 700. To the high tribunal which takes this enlarged view of our complex political system, it belongs— ultimately to determine the meaning and proper operation of the statutes under consideration; and its interpretations will probably be as satisfactory as they will certainly be binding on all judges.

The present case does not come under that portion of section 12 of the judiciary act of 1789, which relates to the removal of causes, or under the act of 1867 on the same subject. It is settled that a suit that may be removed under either of these, must be one in which all the parties on one side of it must be residents, and all those on the other side, non-residents of the State in which the suit is brought. Such is not the situation of the parties in this cause.

The only other two statutes on the subject are those of July 27th, 1866, and March 3d, 1875. In the opinion of some judges and lawyers of eminence, the former of these was repealed by the latter. But a contrary conclusion was expressed on the circuit, in the summer of 1877, by Jutices Beadiea and Milleb of the Supreme Court of the United States; by the former in the case of Girardey v. Moore et al., in Georgia, and by the latter in Ihe Board of County Commissioners v. Kansas Pacific R’y Co. et al., in Colorado. See 5 Cen’l Law, J. 78 and 102. And we shall consider the concurrent opinions of these distinguished judges as establishing that Lae act of 1866 was not repealed.

According to this act, when a suit is brought by a citizen of one State in a court of that State, against a citizen of the same and a citizen of another State,” the suit may be removed by the latter, “ if, so far as it relates to him, it is brought for the purpose of restraining or enjoining him, or is a suit in which there can be a final determination of the controversy, so far as concerns him, without the presence of other defendants as parties to the cause.” — Rev. Stat. of U. S., § 639. In Girardey v. Moore et al., the suit was brought to restrain Moore, a mortgagee, who resided in another State, from foreclosing his mortgage of the property involved; and in the opinion of the presiding justice, his co-defendants were not necessary parties so far as the controversy with him [602]*602was concerned: Wherefore the cause was relained in the Federal court, under the authority of the act of 1866. But in the present suit, there was no purpose to restrain or enjoin Grimball, the non-resident party : And it is obvious from the bill, and results from his own averments in his petition, that the controversy he claims the right to wage, is a controversy against some of his co-defendants, and not against the plaintiff. The act of 1866 may, therefore, be dismissed from further consideration.

The act of 1875, in section 2, provides that, when, in the suit to be removed, “ there shall be, a controversy which is wholly between citizens of different States, and which can be fully determined as between them, then either one or more of the plaintiffs or defendants, actually interested in such controversy, may remove said suit into the Circuit Court of the United States for the proper district.” — Acts of 1874-75, 471, § 2.

In reference to the first section of this act, defining the cases of which “ the Circuit Courts of the United States shall have original cognizance, concurrent with the courts of the several States,” Justice Bradley’s opinion, expressed in the case above mentioned, is, that “ the jurisdiction given to the Circuit Court is as broad as the judicial power” vested by the constitution in the general government: And to that, he gives the largest extent ever conceded to it by any other judge, and a larger one than some others consider consistent with the constitution. But in regard to the second section of the act of 1875, the same learned justice ruled, that if in a suit brought in a State court, there be a controversy between citizens of different States, but “ some of the plaintiffs and defendants are citizens of the same State, the removal must be sought by all the defendants,” and that it is only when “all the plaintiffs on one hand, and all the defendants on the other are citizens of different States,” that any one or more of either less than all, can effect the removal. Only in the-latter case, would there be in the language above quoted from the second section, “ a controversy which is wholly between citizens of different States, and which can be fully determined between them.” “But in either case ” (says Justice-Bradley) “ it is the suit that is removed, and not a part off the suit.”

With this, the opinion of MILLER, J., in The Board of Co. Comm’rs v. Kansas & Pac. R’y Co. et al., (supra), appears to agree. And he refused to remand that cause to the State court, for the reason that, in his opinion, the real contro[603]*603versy, when unnecessary parties to the suit were set aside, was wholly between persons who resided in different States, and the real litigation was between them, notwithstanding the plaintiffs were compelled to place the corporation in whose favor the bill prayed relief, and of which they were only stockholders, in the position of a defendant in the suit, because, (as was alleged) the faithless and fraudulent directors who had charge of it, would not allow it to appear as plaintiff.

We have referred to these cases especially, because they go further than any others we have seen, in asserting and exercising authority to remove causes pending in State courts into the courts of the United States. Do the rulings and reasonings in them embrace a case like the present ? Let us examine it, only so far as to understand the object of the suit and the relation of the parties.

Cruse, the complainant, had been appointed trustee, in 1874, (after the death of a former trustee,) of the property involved. It consisted of realty and personalty valued, in Grimball’s petition, at about fl0Q,000. The trust was created by the will of Moore, the testator, and covered the respective shares of all his daughters in his estate. But Cruse was trustee of his daughter Catherine’s portion only.

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Bluebook (online)
61 Ala. 598, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ex-parte-grimball-ala-1878.