Ladd Metals Co. v. American Mining Co.

152 F. 1008, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 5078
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Oregon
DecidedApril 22, 1907
DocketNo. 3,064
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 152 F. 1008 (Ladd Metals Co. v. American Mining Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ladd Metals Co. v. American Mining Co., 152 F. 1008, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 5078 (circtdor 1907).

Opinion

WOUVERTON, District Judge.

The action is by an Oregon corporation against a Montana corporation, and, there being no other ground upon which to base federal jurisdiction than diversity of citizenship, it was properly instituted in the district of the residence of the plaintiff; the statute in such cases granting the authority to sue in the district of the residence of either party. Act Cong. March 3, 1875, c. 137, § 1, 18 Stat. 470, amended by Act March 3, 1887, c. 373, § 1, 24 Stat. 552. and corrected by Act Aug. 13, 1888, c. 866, § 1, 25 Stat. 433 [U S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 508]; 4 Fed. Stat. Ann. p. 265; In re Keasbey & Mattison Co., 160 U. S. 221, 228, 229, 16 Sup. Ct. 273, 40 L. Ed. 402.

Two questions are therefore presented for determination, namely: First, whether proper service has been had upon the defendant; and, second, whether defendant has, by the form of motion adopted to quash, waived its right to object to the insufficiency of such service. Of these in their order.

A corporation is regarded as a citizen and resident only of a state in which it is incorporated, and has its principal place of business. Shaw v. Quincy Mining Co., 145 U. S. 444, 452, 453, 12 Sup. Ct. 935. 36 L. Ed. 768. By a comity existing between the states, howeve-. corporations in one state are allowed and permitted to do business m states other than those of their citizenship and residence. Usually there exist statutory provisions prescribing the conditions upon which corporations foreign to the state may come into it, and carry on and transact business therein. But it frequently occurs that corporations intrude themselves upon the territory of other states, and transact business therein, regardless of the local rules and regulations, and in evasion of the laws intended for their observance. It is but compensatory justice that, wherever and whenever a corporation of for-[1010]*1010eign persuasion enters into another state, and therein engages in and carries on its business, whether as its principal pursuit or auxiliary thereto, and depends upon, looks to, and expects the protection of the local government in maintaining its contractual and legal relations', it should at the same time be subjected to the local tribunals of judicatory for the determination and enforcement of all reciprocal relations, whether arising out of the same or other transactions. License and protection in governmental affairs means subjection and obedience on the part of those reaping the benefits, whether they be individuals or corporations. That a corporation may be servable in a state other than that in which it' is organized and incorporated, it must have engaged in business to the extent that it may be said in legal parlance to be doing business therein, and the agent served therein must be its authorized representative for the transaction of such business, or such as will be deemed generally to represent the company in its corporate capacity. St. Clair v. Cox, 106 U. S. 350, 1 Sup. Ct. 354, 27 L. Ed. 222; Goldey v. Morning News, 156 U. S. 518, 15 Sup. Ct. 559, 39 L. Ed. 517. Says the court, in Fitzgerald Construction Co. v. Fitzgerald, 137 U. S. 98, 106, 11 Sup. Ct. 36, 39, 34 L. Ed. 608:

“Where a foreign corporation is not doing business in a state, and the president or any officer is not there transacting business for the corporation and representing it in the state, it cannot be said that the corporation is within, the state, so that service can be made upon it.”

The palpable meaning of the court being, as will find further support by other authorities to which I shall allude, that the doing business within the state must be coupled with the further fact that there is an officer of the corporation therein also transacting such business for and representing such corporation. The two things must combine to render it legally possible to m'alce service of summons in that state upon the corporation. It is always a matter for the federal courts to determine, says Thayer, Circuit Judge, in St. Louis Wire-Mill Co. v. Consolidated Barb-Wire Co. (C. C.) 32 Fed. 802, 804, “whether such corporation has transacted business to such an extent within the district, and has such a representative or agent therein, that jurisdiction to render a personal judgment against the corporation may be acquired by service on that agent.”

A single transaction of business within the state is not tantamount to doing or carrying on business therein. I quote from the headnote in Cooper Manufacturing Co. v. Ferguson, 113 U. S. 727, 5 Sup. Ct. 789, 28 L. Ed. 1137:

“A corporation organized under the laws of one state does not, by doing a single act of business in another state, with no purpose of doing any other acts’ there, come within the provisions of a statute of the latter forbidding foreign corporations to carry on business within it, except upon filing certificates showing their place or places of business, their agents, and other matters required by the statute.”

To the same purpose is Commercial Bank v. Sherman, 28 Or. 573, 43 Pac. 658, 52 Am. St. Rep. 811. In the case of Good Hope Co. v. Railway Barb Fencing Co. (C. C.) 22 Fed. 635, it appears that the [1011]*1011president of the defendant company came into the • state where sued to adjust a controversy between the defendant and the plaintiff growing out of a purchase made by the former company. In determining the cause, the court says:

“In this case, the president of the defendant was here in his representative character, hut the corporation had never been practically engaged in business here. It had made purchases here occasionally, but It could have made them by correspondence as well as by the presence of its agents here. If the purchases had been made by correspondence It could be as logically urged that the corporation was engaged in business here as it can be now. Instead of writing, its agent came here in person. As it has never kept an office here, or carried on any part of its business operations here, or been engaged in any business here, which required it to invoke the comity of the laws of the state, it was not ‘found’ here for the purpose of being sued.”

See St. Louis Wire-Mill Co. v. Consolidated Barb-Wire Co., supra.

I may say in this connection that, for the purpose of determining whether a defendant corporation is properly servable in the state where the action is begun, the law is the same new, in effect, as it was before the amendment; that is, as prescribed by section 739 of the Revised Statutes [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 587], The language of Swan, District Judge, in United States Graphite Co. v. Pacific Graphite Co. (C. C.) 68 Fed. 442, 444, is expressive of the same doctrine. This case, and the one I shall subsequently cite, were decided after the amendment of section 739. The court says:

“James O.

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Bluebook (online)
152 F. 1008, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 5078, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ladd-metals-co-v-american-mining-co-circtdor-1907.