Keefe v. Derounian

6 F.R.D. 11, 1946 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1586
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedSeptember 25, 1946
DocketNo. 45 C 1905
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 6 F.R.D. 11 (Keefe v. Derounian) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Keefe v. Derounian, 6 F.R.D. 11, 1946 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1586 (N.D. Ill. 1946).

Opinion

CAMPBELL, District Judge.

The plaintiff brings this action to recover damages for defamation allegedly resulting from the publication by the defendant of an article entitled “Daughters of Dissension and Defeat” in the November 1944 issue of “The Woman”. The complaint charges that the defendant, in the aforesaid article, caused readers to believe that, during the recent war, the plaintiff sent letters to parents of servicemen killed in the war charging that this nation’s leaders were responsible for their deaths and absolving enemy nations from blame. The plaintiff alleges that, in fact, these letters were sent, prior to this nation’s entry into the war, to parents of servicemen killed on pre-war convoy duty.

The defendant has heretofore moved to dismiss the complaint on the ground that it failed to state a cause of action for libel, and, in the alternative, to strike paragraph six of the complaint on the ground that its allegations were immaterial, impertinent, and scandalous. On April 3,1946 this Court denied the motion to dismiss and granted the motion to strike.

1. The plaintiff now moves the Court to vacate that part of its order of April 3, 1946 granting the defendant’s motion to strike.

[12]*12The paragraph in qhestion listed certain individuals and an organization with whom plaintiff asserts the defendant acted in concert to force this nation into the recent war and to discredit those who opposed them. The plaintiff has not joined those other individuals and organization as parties defendant in this suit, which is based merely on the alleged libel committed by the defendant.

The existence of an alleged conspiracy between the defendant and others is irrelevant in this case unless the latter are joined as defendants. This is so because the gist of a civil conspiracy action is not the conspiracy itself, but the damage resulting to the plaintiff from acts done under the conspiracy. Scavenger Service Corporation v. Courtney, 7 Cir.1936, 85 F.2d 825, 832; Sidney Morris & Co. v. National Association of Stationers, Office Outfitters & Manufacturers, 7 Cir.1930, 40 F.2d 620, 624. Furthermore, the parties to a conspiracy are each jointly and severally liable-, for any resulting damage. Dixmoor Golf Club, Inc. v. Evans, 1927, 325 Ill. 612, 624, 156 N.E. 785. Thus the allegation of conspiracy is important when the plaintiff desires to recover against the conspirators as joint tort-feasors, or when the plaintiff desires to hold one defendant responsible for the acts of his coconspirators. But when the plaintiff sues only one member of an alleged conspiracy for an alleged libel committed by him, the case is simply one against an individual defendant for his alleged tortious action. Since that is the situation in this case, the parties named in paragraph six of the complaint not having been joined as defendants, the allegation of an alleged conspiracy is irrelevant. The. said paragraph was properly stricken, and the plaintiff’s motion to vacate that part of the Court’s order is denied.

2. The defendant now moves to quash service of process and to dismiss the complaint as amended. The defendant alleges' that the Court has no jurisdiction of his person, because he was served with a summons for this action while he was attending a trial in this District as a witness. As a citizen and resident of another state, he asserts his immunity from process while in this jurisdiction for the purpose of attending a lawsuit. Stewart v. Ramsay, 1916, 242 U.S. 128, 37 S.Ct. 44, 61 L.Ed. 192. The plaintiff argues that the defendant has entered a general appearance without objecting to the manner of service, and has therefore waived any irregularity in the service of process. The defendant replies that the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S. C.A. following section 723c, have abolished common law rules relating to general and special appearances, and allow him to raise this objection either by motion or by answer.

It is true that Rule 12 has abolished the distinction between general and special appearances and the related rules concerning waiver of defects in process, and has instituted a procedure allowing jurisdictional objections to be joined with the defense on the merits. Blank v. Bitker, 7 Cir.1943, 135 F.2d 962. But Rule 12 contains certain limitations designed as safeguards against dilatory tactics. ¡ .

Thus, subdivision (g), relating to consolidation of motions, provides that if a party makes a motion under Rule 12 and does not include all defenses and objections then available to him which may be raised by motion, he cannot thereafter make a motion based on any of the defenses or objections so omitted, except that, prior to making any other motions under Rule 12, he may make a motion joining any or all of the objections (1) to (5) of subdivision (b), which relate to jurisdiction, process, and venue.. The effect of these provisions is that objections to jurisdiction, process, and venue must be raised in the first motion made by the defendant, which motion may contain only such objections, or may contain such other objections and defenses.as may .be made by motion. .Furthermore, subdivision (h), relating to waiver of defenses, provides that a party- waives all defenses and objections which he does not present either by motion, or if he has made no motion', in his answer or reply (with two exceptions not relevant here).

The defendant’s present motion challenging the jurisdiction of his person should accordingly, under subdivision (g), have been joined in one motion with the objection.to [13]*13the sufficiency of the complaint. The defendant, however, urges that the fact that the plaintiff amended the complaint to show diversity of citizenship as the basis for federal jurisdiction, after the defendant moved to dismiss for insufficiency of the complaint, constitutes a new complaint which revives the defendant’s privilege of raising objections by motion. In support of his position, the defendant cites Smith v. Nicholson Universal S. S. Co., D.C.W.D. N.Y.1941, 42 F.Supp. 1001, in which it appears that after the defendant had filed its answer, the complaint was amended to substitute a special guardian as party plaintiff. The defendant then moved to withdraw its answer and to dismiss the complaint for lack of jurisdiction. The court said that the defendant had the right to answer the amended complaint and to set up lack of jurisdiction or improper venue, since it had not waived its right to raise these questions, and could raise them by answer or by motion. The opinion contains no further discussion of the point. It would appear, however, from the court’s statement that the defendant had not waived the objections in question, that the answer to the original complaint had contained objections to jurisdiction and venue, and therefore the defendant could raise the same objections to the amended complaint. This is not the situation in the case at bar.

Clearly, of course, if the amendment to the complaint contains new matter which, had it originally been in the complaint, .would have allowed the defendant to object by motion, the defendant’s right to obj ect by motion to the complaint as amended cannot have been waived by.

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Bluebook (online)
6 F.R.D. 11, 1946 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1586, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keefe-v-derounian-ilnd-1946.