Fiske v. Missouri

62 F.2d 150, 1932 U.S. App. LEXIS 3105
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit·Decided November 26, 1932·No. No. 9428·Published·Cited by 9 cases

Opinion

STONE, Circuit Judge.

Ehrhardt D. Franz loft a testate estate to his wife, Sophie, and their ten children. A portion thereof later passed into a trust with the same persons as beneficiaries. Extended litig’ation developed, wherein three and one-third of the ten interests represented by the children were arrayed against Sophie, the trustees, and six and two-thirds of the children interests. The history, issues, and results of that litigation, are set forth in opinions in the various appeals to this court.1 For the present, it is helpful to note only that the litigation determined the interests of all parties to the trust to he (as far as pertinent here) that Sophie Franz had a life interest in the income from the trust which would terminate at her death and then the corpus he distributable by the trustees to the other beneficiaries. This applied to shares of stock of the Burroughs Adding Machine Company which were the main part of the trust estate. Sophie Franz died. Various of the beneficiaries have moved for distribution of the trust estate. The testate estate of Sophie is in course of administration in a probate court of Missouri. The state is entitled to collect inheritance taxes upon the estate of Sophie passing to her devisees. The appellants here represent five of the six and two-thirds children interests, and were some of* the defendants in this litigation, and all are nonresidents of Missouri.

Claiming that these six and two-thirds interests in the Burroughs stock held in the trust estate were subject to inheritance taxes as part of the estate of Sophie, that they had not been inventoried in her estate, and that the state had a lien thereon for such taxes, the state was given leave to intervene in this litigation. It filed its petition in intervention wherein it prays that a portion of this stock be transferred from the trustees to the court registry to secure the inheritance taxes thereon and be held “until it may ho determined in the Probate Court of the City of St. Louis whether such stock should have been inventoried therein” as part of the Sophie Franz estate.

Shortly after the petition in intervention was filed, the representatives of five of the above six and two-thirds children interests filed their “Ancillary and Supplemental, Bill of Complaint for an Injunction.” This bill was directed at “the State of Missouri, Stratton Shartel, Attorney General of the State of Missouri, Franklin Miller, Circuit Attorney of the City of St. Louis, State of Missouri, Richmond C. Coburn and Henry II. Stern”— the last two being attorneys for the state in connection with inheritance taxes in the Sophie Franz estate. This hill alleged that the state and the other parties, as its attorneys, had caused to he served on the executor of the Sophie Franz estate a citation from the probate court intended to discover and have inventoried as a part of such estate the Burroughs stock in the trust estate belonging to them; that such action was contrary to the decree of the trial court adjudging them entitled to receive this stock from the trustees; and that the respondents would attempt to obtain orders in the probate court which would he “adverse and prejudicial to the rights and interests of the above named plaintiffs in this cause in this Court and orders, decrees and judgments which will prejudicially affect, impair and defeat the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court and the decree rendered by it in the premises.” The prayer for restraint was from “directly or indirectly prosecuting further the said citation * * * and particularly from seeking or obtaining any order, decree or judgment therein until the further direction of this Honorable Court,” and for temporary relief.

Thereafter the state, specially appearing, filed its motion to dismiss the ancillary and supplemental hill on the grounds that; it failed to state facts warranting the relief;, that it [152] was an action against the state which had not consented to be sued, in violation of the Eleventh Amendment; that it sought to enjoin proceedings in a state court, in violation of section 265 of the Judicial Code (28 USCA § 379), and sought to interfere with the proper administration of an estate in the state probate court.

The trial court sustained the motion on the ground that the Eleventh Amendment prevented the action without the eoüsent of the state, and that the state had neither consented nor waived its rights to such immunity. Declining to plead further, an order was entered dismissing the ancillary and supplemental bill. This appeal is from that order.

Three issues are presented on this appeal, as follows: Did the intervention proceedings constitute a waiver by the state of its immunity under the Eleventh Amendment? If no waiver, is this abtion within the immunity of the amendment? Is this action within the protection of section 265 of the Code?

Waiver.

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Fiske v. Missouri, 62 F.2d 150, 1932 U.S. App. LEXIS 3105 (8th Cir. 1932).

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