Falls City Const. Co. v. Monroe County

208 F. 482, 1913 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1239
District Court, E.D. Arkansas·Decided October 27, 1913·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

TRIEBER, District Judge

[1] (after stating the facts as above). Assuming for the present that the county courts of the state of A rkan-sas when calling in warrants for examination and reissuance under the provisions of the statutes of that state, as hereinbefore set out, are acting in a judicial capacity, and that the order calling in such warrants makes it an action pending in that court, the plea is bad, for it is well settled by all the authorities that the pendency of an action in a court of a foreign jurisdiction is no bar to maintaining an action in a domestic court of competent jurisdiction. For that purpose the national courts are deemed to be foreign to the state courts, although they are in the same state. It would serve no useful purpose to cite the numerous authorities sustaining this rule, as the late decision of the Supreme Court in McClellan v. Carland, 217 U. S. 268, 282, 30 Sup. Ct. 501, 505 (54 L. Ed. 762), is conclusive on this court. It was there held:

•‘Tlie rule is well recognized that the pendency of an action in the state court is no bar to proceedings concerning the same matter in the federal court having jurisdiction, for both the state and federal courts have certain concurrent jurisdiction over such controversies, and when they arise between citizens of different states the federal jurisdiction may be invoked, and the cause carried to judgment, notwithstanding a state court may also have taken jurisdiction of the same case.”

In that case the judge of the national court did not dismiss the action, but had stayed the hearing thereof until the state court, in which an action involving the same issues, and between the same parties, was pending, had disposed of it; the state court having first obtained jurisdiction. The Supreme Court granted a mandamus directing the judge to proceed with the case. The same rule has been recognized and followed by the Supreme Court of Arkansas in Grider v. Apperson, 32 Ark. 332, 335; Moore v. Emerick, 38 Ark. 203, 204. See, also, Barber Asphalt Co. v. Morris, 66 C. C. A. 55, 58, 132 Fed. 945, 948.

| 2] Is the proceeding in the county court of Monroe county, as set out iu the plea, a pending action or judicial proceeding?

The order of the county court calling in the warrants was made on July 7, 1913, calling in the warrants to be presented on the 9tli day of October, 1913. On September 8, 1913, the plaintiff in this cause, not having made itself a party to the proceeding in the county court by filing or presenting its warrants, or in any way submitting itself to the jurisdiction of that court, instituted this suit, more than a month before the holders of these warrants were required to present them to the county court under its order.

[484] Leaving out of consideration, for the present, the question whether there was any proceeding pending before the time the holders of the warrants were required to present .them (October 9, 1913), are these proceedings in the county court of a judicial nature so that it may be said there is a pending cause affecting all holders of warrants issued prior to May IS, 1913?

At the time the present Constitution of this state was framed and adopted (it was adopted October 30, 1874), there were no county courts in this state. The fiscal affairs of the counties were then-under the control of boards of supervisors,' and the judicial powers vested by the present Constitution in the county courts were then in the circuit courts of the state. . Chapter 17, Gantt’s Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas 1874, entitled “Boards of Supervisors,” and sections 1182 to 1184, c. 40, Gantt’s Digest, entitled “Courts-Circuit.” Among the powers granted to the boards of supervisors was that of calling in warrants, now exercised by the county court. Section 614, Gantt’s Digest. Section 614 of Gantt’s Digest is identical with section 1175 of Kirby’s Digest, except that by an amendatory act, approved February 26, 1875, that section, which originally was enacted January 6, 1857, was changed, permitting such calls to be made annually instead of “not oftener than once in three years.” That the board of supervisors had no judicial powers is unquestioned, as will be noticed by reference to chapter 170 of Gantt’s Digest, and it was so expressly held by the Supreme Court of this state in Maxey v. Mack, 30 Ark. 472, 482. The present Constitution abolished the boards of supervisors and created the county courts. Section 23 of Schedule to the Constitution of 1874, which is as follows:

“Ttie county courts provided for in this Constitution shall be regarded in law as a continuation of the boards of supervisors now existing by law.”

By section 28 of article 7 of the Constitution of 1874, now in force, the jurisdiction of the county courts is as follows:

“The county courts shall have exclusive original jurisdiction in all matters relating to county taxes, roads, bridges, ferries, paupers, bastardy, vagrants, the apprenticeship of minors, the disbursement of money for county purposes, and in every other case that may be necessary to the internal improvement and local concerns of the respective counties. The county court shall be held by one judge, except in cases otherwise herein provided.”

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Falls City Const. Co. v. Monroe County, 208 F. 482, 1913 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1239 (E.D. Ark. 1913).

208 F. 482 (Falls City Const. Co. v. Monroe County) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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