Illinois Central Railroad v. Robinson

66 So. 519, 189 Ala. 523, 1914 Ala. LEXIS 153
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedNovember 7, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 66 So. 519 (Illinois Central Railroad v. Robinson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Illinois Central Railroad v. Robinson, 66 So. 519, 189 Ala. 523, 1914 Ala. LEXIS 153 (Ala. 1914).

Opinion

MCCLELLAN, J.

On April 14, 1910, Lee Gaston Robinson, an infant 18 months of age, was killed by being rnn upon by an engine and train operated by the Illinois Central Railroad Company. J. R. Gaffney was the engineer in charge. The Illinois Central Railroad Company, J. R. Gaffney, and the Alabama Western Railroad Company, a domestic corporation, were joined as defendants in the action. At the request of the plaintiff the court gave to the jury a special instruction, in which an apt form of verdict was set forth if the jury should find for the plaintiff and against the Illinois Central Railroad Company and J. R. Gaffney and in favor of the defendant Alabama Western Railroad Company. The bill of exceptions then recites: “After argument of the case by counsel to the jury the court passed upon all written charges, and gave to the jury his oral charge' in full. In the opening of the oral charge to the jury, the court excluded from the consideration ,of the jury all of the testimony of the witness W. C. Davis. After the court finished its oral charge, the plaintiff’s counsel, Capt. Frank S. White, read to .the jury a written charge given at his request (numbered charge A above set out), which was a prescribed form of a verdict if the jury found in favor of plaintiff as against Illinois Central Railroad Company and J. R. Gaffney, and found in favor of the defendant Alabama Western Railroad Company. After he had read the same, in the hearing of the jury, he annuonced that plaintiff would not insist upon a verdict against the Alabama Western Railroad Company. Thereupon Mr. [527]*527Benners, of counsel for defendants, asked that a note of said statement be made by the stenographer, and announced he would present a petition for removal of the cause to the United States court, and while saying same took from his private file the petition and bond for removal of this case appearing below, and handed a paper to Captain White and stated that it was a notice of the presentation of the petition for removal, in view of his, Capt. White’s, announcement. Thereupon Capt. White stated that he made the announcement he did because of the ruling of the court in excluding the testimony of Mr. W. C. Davis. Mr. Benners then stated that Capt. White did not accompany the original statement that he would not insist on a verdict against the Alabama Western Railroad because of the adverse ruling of the court, and objected to same now. Thereupon Capt. White announced that he would withdraw the statement that he would not insist upon a verdict against the Alabama Western Railroad Company, and Mr. Benners objected to the withdrawal of the same on the grounds that same had been made in the presence of the jury, and that the removal papers had been filed. A ruling upon the petition was then insisted upon by Mr. Benners, and the court stated that, in view of the foregoing and the state of the case and circumstances surrounding it, he would refuse the petition for removal, and it was accordingly refused by the court, and the defendants Illinois Central Railroad Company and J. R. Gaffney excepted. Thereupon counsel for said defendants objected to proceeding with the cause, the court overruled-the objection, and directed them to proceed, and the said defendants duly excepted:”

Verdict was rendered against the Illinois Central Company and Gaffney and in favor of the other defend[528]*528ant, Alabama .Western Railroad Company. It is insisted here that the trial court was in error in denying the petition to remove, the argument being that the joinder of the Alabama Western Company, the only defendant of like residence in Alabama, with the plaintiff was a fraudulent action to prevent the removal of the cause on the ground of diverse citzenship, and that the acts and circumstances discovered in the bill as quoted are sufficient to establish the wrongful purpose in the joinder of the domestic corporation. The amount in controversy was sufficient to warrant the removal if the nonresident defendants were otherwise entitled thereto. In addition to averring the incorporatory authorization of the Alabama Western Railroad to construct and operate in Alabama between the Alabama-Mississippi line, and Haleyville, Ala., and a franchise from the city of Birmingham to construct and operate a railroad over its streets, it is further averred that the Illinois Central Railroad Company was, on and be-before the 14th of April, 1910, “operating trains under the franchise granted to the said Alabama Western Railroad Company as aforesaidIt appears from the complaint that the- point at which intestate was killed was between Jasper and the city of Birmingham, on the tracks of the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham Railroad, some distance southeast of the nearest point of the line authorized, as averred in the complaint, to be constructed and operated from the said state line to Haleyville, Ala., and outside of the city of Birmingham.- It is difficult to understand the idea, much less the occasion, for interposing the indicated allegations with respect to the domestic corporation, since the words “as aforesaid” plainly restrict the allegation with reference to the Illinois Central Company’s use of the Alabama Western’s franchise and rights to a place re[529]*529mote from the scene of the intestate’s death. It would therefore seem that the complaint disclosed on its face the want of any legal connection on the part of the Alabama Western Railroad Company with the wrong sought to be redressed. Accordingly, it might well be ruled, though not necessary so to* do in this, instance, that the nonresident defendants were derelict in not presenting their petition for' removal before pleading in defense of the cause.—K. C., Ft. Scott & Memphis R. R. Co. v. Daughtry, 138 U. S. 298, 303, 11 Sup. Ct. 306, 34 L. Ed. 963; Powers v. C. & O. R. R. Co., 169 U. S. 92, 99, 18 Sup. Ct. 264, 42 L. Ed. 673; 34 Cyc. pp. 1274, 1277. But, aside from this, and assuming for the occasion only, that the petition, when filed as stated in the foregoing excerpt from the bill of exception, was filed in time to appropriately invoke the action of the court, the state court committed no error in declining to give effect to the petition.

In order to invite and to* justify the removal of a cause from the state to the federal court on the ground of fraudulent joinder of a defendant of like state residence with the plaintiff, to the end of defeating, and with the purpose of defeating the right of removal because of diverse citizenship, from the plaintiff, of the real parties defendant, the bad faith of such joinder must-be alleged, with circumstantiality as to the facts, and then proven.—A. G. S. R. R. Co. v. Thompson, 200 U. S. 206, 215, 216, 26 Sup. Ct. 161, 50 L. Ed. 441, 4 Ann. Cas. 1147; L. & N. R. R. Co. v. Wangelin, 132 U. S. 599, 601, 10 Sup. Ct. 203, 33 L. Ed. 473; 34 Cyc. pp. 1288, 1289. The petition in this instance contained no charge, much less allegations of facts, impeaching the good faith of the joinder of the domestic corporation as a defendant. Hence the issue of bad faith in that join[530]*530der was not presented below and cannot be considered here.

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Bluebook (online)
66 So. 519, 189 Ala. 523, 1914 Ala. LEXIS 153, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/illinois-central-railroad-v-robinson-ala-1914.