Glazer v. Colonial Village Corp.

232 F. Supp. 892, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8347
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Tennessee
DecidedApril 20, 1964
DocketCiv. A. No. 4393
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 232 F. Supp. 892 (Glazer v. Colonial Village Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Glazer v. Colonial Village Corp., 232 F. Supp. 892, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8347 (E.D. Tenn. 1964).

Opinion

ROBERT L. TAYLOR, Chief Judge.

Before the Court for consideration is the motion of defendants, Guilford Glazer, Colonial Village Corporation and Shelbourne Towers, Inc., to transfer this action to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana or, in the alternative, for a stay of proceedings until similar issues raised by plaintiffs in a counterclaim in Civil Action 11,605 pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana are finally determined. A similar motion to stay was made by the defendants on the 14th day of June, 1962 and a consent order was entered on June 21, 1962 staying the proceedings until further orders of the Court, with the right of either party to move to lift the stay order or to move to transfer to the District Court in Louisiana. The original complaint in this action was filed on February 13, 1962.

At the time the suit was filed, plaintiffs were residents of Louisiana; defendants, Colonial Village Corporation and Shelbourne Towers, Inc., Tennessee corporations; and defendant, Guilford Glazer, a resident of California. There is no indication that the corporations have ever engaged in business in the State of Louisiana.

The complaint was amended so as to join Gertrude Wallace, a resident of Louisiana, and Frank Diggs, a resident of Tennessee, as party defendants. Gertrude Wallace has not been served with process and is not before the Court.

The motion to transfer is based on Title 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a).1

Extensive oral argument was recently heard in which counsel for defendants contended that the Court had the right to transfer the case to the Louisiana Court because the case could have been brought in that Court since venue existed in that Court. Presumably, this argument was based on the premise that the plaintiffs were residents of Louisiana and for that reason they could have brought the suit in the District Court of that State. In support of their arguments, they relied upon the cases of Hoffman v. Blaski, 363 U.S. 335, 80 S.Ct. 1084, 4 L.Ed.2d 1254 (1960), Continental Grain Co. v. Barge FBL-585, 364 U.S. 19, 80 S.Ct. 1470, 4 L.Ed.2d 1540 (1960), and Van Dusen v. Barrack, 376 U.S. 612, 84 S.Ct. 805, 11 L.Ed.2d 945 a ease decided by the Supreme Court on March 30, 1964 in which Justice Goldberg wrote the opinion.

In the Blaski case, respondents Blaski and others were residents of Illinois and brought suit for patent infringement in the District Court for the Northern District of Texas against Howell and a [894]*894Texas corporation controlled by him in which it was alleged that the defendants were residents of and maintained their only place of business in the City ■of Dallas in the Northern District of Texas. Defendants moved to transfer the action to the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Respondents objected to the transfer on the ground that the defendants did not re•side, maintain a place of business, or infringe the patents, in the State of Illinois and could not have been served with process in that District and that the •courts of that District lacked venue over the action and ability to command jurisdiction over the defendants, and that, "therefore, that District was not a forum in which the respondents had a right to bring the action at the time it was brought and the Court was without power to transfer it to that District. The Court, in sustaining the position of respondents, stated that the phrase “where it might have been brought” could not be 'interpreted as reading “where it may now be rebrought, with defendants’ consent.” In that connection, the Court stated:

“It is not to be doubted that the transferee courts, like every District Court, had jurisdiction to entertain actions of the character involved, but it is obvious that they did not acquire jurisdiction over these particular actions when they were brought in the transferor courts. The transferee courts could have acquired jurisdiction over these actions only if properly brought in those courts, or if validly transferred thereto under § HOJi-fa). Of course, venue, like .jurisdiction over the person, may be ■waived. A defendant, properly served with process by a court having subject matter jurisdiction, waives venue by failing seasonably to assert it, or even simply by making default. Commercial Casualty Ins. Co. v. Consolidated Stone Co., 278 U.S. 177, 179-180, 49 S.Ct. 98, 99, 73 L.Ed. 252; Neirbo Co. v. Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., Ltd., 308 U.S. 165, 60 S.Ct. 153, 84 L.Ed. 167. But the power of a District Court under § [¶] If (a) to transfer an action to another district is made to depend not upon the wish or waiver of the defendant but, rather, upon whether the transferee district was one in which the action ‘might have been brought’ by the plaintiff." (Emphasis added.)

The Court stated that inasmuch as the respondents did not have a right to bi’ing the action in the Illinois Court that the transferor court could not transfer the action to that Court. It is our view that the principle announced in this decision is controlling of this case. This is so because none of the defendants could have been served in Louisiana at the time the action was filed and that Court could not command jurisdiction over any of them. Hence, the suit could not have been brought in Louisiana at the time it was filed here in Knoxville and since it could not have been brought in Louisiana, this Court is without power to transfer it there.

The Continental Grain Company case involved an action for damages to cargo from alleged unseaworthiness of the barge which sank in Memphis, Tennessee after it had been loaded with soy beans. A dispute arose over what caused it to sink. The barge owner brought an action for damages in the state court in Memphis, charging that the barge sank because the cargo owner, Continental Grain Company, had been negligent in loading it. The cargo owner later brought suit in the United States District Court in New Orleans against the barge and its owner in a single complaint, charging that the vessel had sunk because of its defects and unseaworthiness, and claiming damages to the cargo. In the meantime, the damage case against the grain company had been removed from the state court to the United States District Court at Memphis. The barge owner, defendant in the New Orleans action, moved to transfer the action to the United States District Court at Memphis under § 1404(a) for the convenience of the [895]*895parties and in the interest of justice. The New Orleans District Court found that the efficient administration of justice required the transfer of the case to Memphis since the suits involved the same claims and were between the same parties. The cargo owner argued that the case could not be transferred because the barge had been sued in the New Orleans Court along with the owner and the suit could not be brought against the barge in the Memphis Court since the barge was not located in Memphis at the time the suit was filed.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
232 F. Supp. 892, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8347, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/glazer-v-colonial-village-corp-tned-1964.