Guillot v. Southern Pacific Co.

287 F. Supp. 65, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9464
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Louisiana
DecidedMay 27, 1968
DocketCiv. A. No. 67-1131
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 287 F. Supp. 65 (Guillot v. Southern Pacific Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Guillot v. Southern Pacific Co., 287 F. Supp. 65, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9464 (E.D. La. 1968).

Opinion

CASSIBRY, District Judge:

This cause came on for hearing on March 20, 1968 on motion of Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Company, successor to, and Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company, defendant, to dismiss or alternatively to quash the return of service of process. The motion was argued by counsel for the respective parties and submitted.

Whereupon, and upon due consideration thereof:

It is ordered that the motion of Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Company, successor to,, and Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company, defendant, be and the same is hereby, denied.

It is further ordered that, unless good cause is shown to the contrary on or before June 12, 1968, the order of this Court dated November 9, 1967 granting the motion of Norfolk and Western Railway Company to dismiss will be vacated and the motion will be denied.

REASONS

Plaintiff brought this action to recover damages for injuries allegedly sustained when a door of a freight car, owned by the defendant, Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (Atlantic), fell from the car and struck him. At the time he was engaged in performing the duties of his employment at the railroad siding of his employer, Johns-Manville Products Corporation, New Orleans, Louisiana.

The affidavits attached to the motions filed by defendants disclose that the railroad car involved in this suit, ACL 53013, was received empty by Atlantic at Jarratt, Virginia on September 5, 1966, and placed on an interchange track Cor movement by Norfolk and Western Railway Company (Norfolk) to the Johns-Manville Products Corporation plant in Jarratt, Virginia. On September 6, 1966 the car was loaded and seals affixed by Johns-Manville employees. ACL 53013 was then returned to the interchange track in Jarratt, Virginia by Norfolk on September 7, 1966, and redelivered to Atlantic. On September 8 the railroad car left Jarratt and moved over the line of Atlantic to Atlanta, Georgia, where it was delivered to the Southern Railway on September 10.

On July 1, 1967 Atlantic was merged into Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company, the surviving corporation, which continued its corporate existence under the name of Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Company (Seaboard). Like its predecessor, Seaboard is a Virginia corporation with its principal place of business outside of Louisiana. Since the merger, Seaboard’s activities in, and contacts with Louisiana are identical with those of Atlantic.

Norfolk is also a Virginia corporation, and like Seaboard owns no trackage in Louisiana, has no agent for service of process here and is not licensed to do business in this State. Neither railroad operates trains within the State, however both maintain an office in New Orleans for the purpose of soliciting traffic over their lines located entirely outside of Louisiana. Neither railroad has sought to qualify to do business in Louisiana as a foreign corporation nor have they appointed an agent upon whom process might be served within the State.

Defendants presence within Louisiana is and has always been restricted to traffic solicitation. They conclude that they are not doing business within the State and therefore are not amenable to service of process and the jurisdiction of this Court.

The issue then becomes two-fold. First, whether there is statutory authority in Louisiana for the assertion of jurisdiction by a state court over these foreign corporations, and secondly, if there is, would such assertion be in accord with the due process requirements of the United States Constitution.

Our jurisdiction is based on diversity of citizenship, 28 U.S.C.A. § 1332 [67]*67(a) (1), however, it will not be asserted over a foreign corporation unless the Louisiana Courts would do so. Stanga v. McCormick Shipping Corp., 268 F.2d 544, 548 (5 Cir. 1959); Connor v. New York Times Co., 310 F.2d 133 (5 Cir. 1962) .

Defendants insist that the courts of Louisiana would not assert jurisdiction under the present facts, and cite as authority Universal Carloading & Distributing Co., Inc. v. Saia Motor Freight Line, Inc., 156 So.2d 608, 609 (La.App. 1963) .

Universal involved the following: goods were delivered in New York to the Pennsylvania Railroad and placed in a sealed box car. The Pennsylvania Railroad transported the ear to Illinois where the Missouri-Pacific Railroad received it and transported it to New Orleans. Saia Motor Freight removed the goods from the sealed car and delivered them to plaintiff in Patterson, Louisiana. The goods arrived damaged, and suit was filed against the three carriers. Pennsylvania moved to dismiss, contending that they were not amenable to service of process in Louisiana since they owned no trackage within the state, were not licensed to do business in Louisiana, and hadn’t appointed an agent for service of process. Pennsylvania did maintain an office for passenger and freight solicitation over its lines outside of Louisiana. The appellate court held Pennsylvania’s “participation in the subject multi-carrier interstate shipment, and any breach of its contractual or statutory duties, took place entirely outside of Louisiana, and the Louisiana courts have no jurisdiction to entertain a claim for any damages resulting from any such breach of duty.” In support, the court cited W. H. Hodges & Co. v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 171 La. 699, 132 So. 115 (1931) which held “that the defendant railroad company being a nonresident corporation not admitted to do and not doing any business within the state is not amenable to the process of the state in an action ex delicto arising in another state.”

In both Universal Carloading and W. H. Hodges & Co., the courts reached their holdings after an examination of the then current legislation and the subsequent determination that the Louisiana Legislature had not, as yet, seen fit to confer jurisdiction upon the state courts over foreign corporations engaged in these particular type activities. In 1964, after both cases were decided, Act. No. 47, R.S. 13:3201 was passed. In part, this Act reads:

“A court may exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident, who acts directly or by an agent, as to a cause of action arising from the nonresident’s * * * (d) causing injury or damage in this state by an offense or quasi offense committed through an act or omission outside of this state if he regularly does or solicits business, or engages in any other persistent course of conduct, or derives substantial revenue from goods used or consumed or services rendered, in this state; * *

I am convinced that today the Louisiana courts, with the present facts before them, would assert jurisdiction over these foreign corporations.

There remains only to consider whether the assertion of jurisdiction would violate the due process requirements of the United States Constitution. In support of their contention that such assertion would violate due process, defendants rely upon Green v. Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railway Company, 205 U.S. 530, 27 S.Ct. 595, 51 L.Ed. 916 (1907).

Green,

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Bluebook (online)
287 F. Supp. 65, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9464, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guillot-v-southern-pacific-co-laed-1968.