Haraburda v. United States Steel Corp.

187 F. Supp. 79, 1960 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4220
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Michigan
DecidedFebruary 27, 1960
DocketCiv. A. No. 3578
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 187 F. Supp. 79 (Haraburda v. United States Steel Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Haraburda v. United States Steel Corp., 187 F. Supp. 79, 1960 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4220 (W.D. Mich. 1960).

Opinion

STARR, Chief Judge.

The plaintiff, a citizen of Michigan residing in Kent county, began this action in the circuit court of Kent county on November 26, 1958, against the defendant, a New Jersey corporation authorized to do business in Michigan, to recover damages resulting from personal injuries. This action was commenced by the issuance of summons dated November 26, 1958, which was served on the defendant’s legally-designated resident agent in the city of Detroit, Wayne county, Michigan, on November 28th. The plaintiff filed his declaration in the circuit court on December 15, 1958, and a copy thereof was served on the defendant.

In his declaration the plaintiff alleged that his employer, the American News Company, Inc., had leased an electric wire-tying machine from the defendant through its Gerrard Steel Strapping division, to be used for the bailing of magazines and other news material, and had purchased' bailing wire from the defendant to be used in the machine. Plaintiff alleged that at all times the title to the leased wire-tying machine remained in the defendant. He further alleged that “on or about” December 7, 1955, while using the wire-tying machine in the bailing of magazines, the wire on a bundle being bailed broke and flew up in his face, causing severe facial and eye injuries. He further alleged that the defendant was careless and negligent in the manufacture and inspection of its wire-tying machine and in the manufacture of bailing wire for use in the machine; that defendant warranted that the machine was reasonably fit for the use and purpose for which it was intended; and that defendant’s carelessness, negligence, and breach of warranty were the direct and proximate cause of his injuries and resulting damages.

On January 2, 1959, the defendant removed the action from the circuit court of Kent county to this court on the basis of diversity of citizenship, 28 U.S.G. § 1441(a), and on January 6th filed motions to quash service of summons, to strike the declaration, and to dismiss the action. It based its motion to quash service of summons on the ground that this is a personal transitory action at law commenced in Kent county where the plaintiff resides against the defendant Steel Corporation, which resides outside the county, and that as the summons was served outside the county where the suit was commenced, contrary to the provisions of Comp.Laws Mich.1948, § 613.27, subd. 4, the service was void and ineffective and the circuit court of Kent county did not acquire personal jurisdiction over the defendant in the first instance, and therefore that this Federal court did not acquire jurisdiction upon removal. The defendant based its motions to strike the declaration and to dismiss the action on the ground that as the plaintiff’s declaration was filed December 15, 1958, which was more than three years after the alleged cause of action arose on December 7,1955, the plaintiff’s cause of action was barred by the State statute of limitations, Comp.Laws Mich.1948, § 609.13, subd. 2,1 and that the filing of the declaration on December 15, 1958, was in effect an attempt to assert a new cause of action after the statute of limitations had run.

[81]*81Before considering the question as to whether the circuit court of Kent county acquired personal jurisdiction of the defendant by service of summons on the defendant’s resident agent in Wayne county, it should be noted that the jurisdiction of this Federal court on removal is derivative and depends upon whether the State court had jurisdiction. That is, if the circuit court of Kent county did not acquire personal jurisdiction of the defendant, this court did not acquire jurisdiction upon removal. In Lambert Run Coal Company v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, 258 U.S. 377, 382, 42 S.Ct. 349, 351, 66 L.Ed. 671, the Supreme Court said:

“The jurisdiction of the federal court on removal is, in a limited sense, a derivative jurisdiction. If the state court lacks jurisdiction of the subject-matter or of the parties, the federal court acquires none, although it might in a like suit originally brought there have had jurisdiction.”

See also Freeman v. Bee Machine Co., Inc., 319 U.S. 448, 63 S.Ct. 1146, 87 L. Ed. 1509; WSAZ, Inc., v. Lyons, 6 Cir., 254 F.2d 242, 244; Garden Homes, Inc., v. Mason, 1 Cir., 238 F.2d 651, 653; Petroleum Carrier Corporation v. Carter, 5 Cir., 233 F.2d 402, 404; Block v. Block, 7 Cir., 196 F.2d 930, 933.

The summons or process issued in the action in the circuit court of Kent county on November 26, 1958, was served upon the Corporation Company, the legally-designated resident agent of the defendant, in Wayne county, Michigan, on November 28th. Comp.Laws Mich.1948, § 613.29, provides in part:

“Provided, That when any corporation shall appoint a resident agent and file a certificate of such appointment as by law required, such resident agent shall continue to be an agent for the service of process until a certificate of change of resident agent shall be filed with the secretary of state as by law required.”

Comp.Laws Mich.1948, § 613.27 as amended by Act No. 13, Pub.Acts 1955, relating to service of process, provides (it should be noted that only subd. 3 was amended):

“All civil process issued from any court of record may be served anywhere within the state where the party upon whom service is to be made may be found, in the following cases:
“1. When the process is issued out of a court in chancery;
“2. When the process is issued out of a court at law, when the suit is brought in the county where the defendant, or 1 of the defendants if there be more than 1, resides;
“3. In ejectment cases and in all other cases [when] suit is required [or permitted] by law to be brought [, and is brought] in the county where the subject matter of the suit [or any part thereof] is located or where the cause of action [, or any part thereof,] arose; 2
“4. In any suit brought upon any bond required by law to be filed in any probate court. When a personal transitory action at law is commenced in the county where the plaintiff resides, against a defendant or defendants residing without the county, service of process must be had in the county where the suit is commenced. If such service is had upon 1 defendant within such county, the remainder of the defendants may be served anywhere in the state.”

Comp.Laws Mich.1948, § 610.1 as amended by Act No. 13, Pub.Acts 1955, relating to venue provides as follows:

“2. All actions founded upon wrongs, and contracts, except as herein otherwise provided, shall be commenced and tried in the county where 1 of the parties shall reside at the time of commencing such action: Provided, That actions founded upon wrongs may also be commenced and [82]

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Knapp v. Mosier
125 N.W.2d 854 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1964)
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Haraburda v. United States Steel Corporation
187 F. Supp. 86 (W.D. Michigan, 1960)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
187 F. Supp. 79, 1960 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4220, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/haraburda-v-united-states-steel-corp-miwd-1960.