Manufacturers' Nat. Bank v. Baack

16 F. Cas. 671, 8 Blatchf. 137, 4 Am. Law T. Rep. U.S. Cts. 24, 3 Chi. Leg. News 169, 13 Int. Rev. Rec. 35, 2 Abb. 232, 40 How. Pr. 409, 1871 U.S. App. LEXIS 1732
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York
DecidedJanuary 10, 1871
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 16 F. Cas. 671 (Manufacturers' Nat. Bank v. Baack) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Manufacturers' Nat. Bank v. Baack, 16 F. Cas. 671, 8 Blatchf. 137, 4 Am. Law T. Rep. U.S. Cts. 24, 3 Chi. Leg. News 169, 13 Int. Rev. Rec. 35, 2 Abb. 232, 40 How. Pr. 409, 1871 U.S. App. LEXIS 1732 (circtsdny 1871).

Opinion

BLATCHFORD, District Judge.

The bill in this case describes the plaintiffs as “The Manufacturers’ National Bank, of Chicago, Illinois, a banking corporation, incorporated and existing under and by virtue of an act of the congress of the United States, entitled ‘An act to provide a national currency, secured by a pledge of United States bonds, and to provide for the circulation and redemption thereof,’ approved June 3, 1864, and having capacity to sue by the above title, and a citizen of the state of Illinois, and located and residing and doing business in the city of Chicago, in said state.” It describes the defendants as citizens of the state of New York. The allegations of the bill as to the incorporation and location of the plaintiffs are admitted by stipulation. The plaintiffs move for an injunction and the appointment of a receiver in the case, and the question arises, whether, on the allegations of the bill, thus admitted, with the fact that the allegation of the bill as to the citizenship of the defendants is not denied by the answers, this court has jurisdiction of the suit.

The 8th section of the act of June 3, 1864 (13 Stat. 101), under which the plaintiffs are incorporated, provides, that every association formed pursuant to the provisions of the act shall be a body corporate, and may have a corporate seal, and shall have succession by the name designated in its organization certificate, and may, by such name, “sue and be sued, complain and defend, in any court of law and equity, as fully as natural persons.” The effect of this provision is not to give to the corporation the right to sue, or the capacity to be sued, in every court within the United States, whether state or federal, or-to give to every such court jurisdiction over every suit which may be brought in it, wherein the corporation is plaintiff or defendant. Its only proper effect is, to provide that the corporation, when it has come, or been brought, as a suitor, into a court which has jurisdiction of the suit, shall stand in court, in all respects, in the same position, as regards its own rights or the rights of others against it, as to the subject matter of the suit, in which a natural person, who is a suitor in such court, can stand. The question, as to the proper court in which the suit is to be brought, in respect of jurisdiction, is left to be determined by other provisions of law. If a natural person had brought this suit, in this court, against the defendants, as citizens of New York, he would have been obliged to aver himself to be a citizen of some state other than New York, the bill being what is known as a “creditor’s bill,” founded on a judgment at law, and praying for equitable relief. Therefore, so far as the provisions of section 8 of the act are concerned, the plaintiffs must show, by the aver-ments of their bill, jurisdiction of this suit by this court, by showing proper citizenship in the parties.

There is no other provision of the act, which can be cited as giving to this court jurisdiction of this suit. The 57th section, even if, under the dictum of Mr. Justice Swayne, in Kennedy v. Gibson, 8 Wall. [75 U. S.] 498, 506, it be held to refer to suits by national banks as well as to suits against them, relates only to suits to be brought in courts of the United States held within the district in which the bank is established, and does not affect the question of the jurisdie[672]*672tion of this court in this suit. Such jurisdiction, in order to be sustained, must, therefore, appear, by the averments of the bill, to be brought within that provision of the 11th section of the judiciary act of September 24, 1789 (1 Stat. 78), which gives to this court original cognizance of all suits of a civil nature, in equity, where the matter in dispute exceeds, exclusive of costs, the sum or value of five hundred dollars, and the suit is between a citizen of the state where the suit is brought and a citizen of another state.

The averment in the bill, that the plaintiff corporation is a citizen of the state of Illinois, is, in and of itself, not sufficient to show jurisdiction, as a corporation cannot be a citizen of a state, in the sense in which that word is used in the constitution of the United States. Lafayette Ins. Co. v. French, 18 How. [59 U. S.] 404; Covington Drawbridge Co. v. Shepherd, 20 How. [61 U. S.] 227, 233, 234. The substance of the averments in the bill in regard to the status of the plaintiffs is, that they are a banking corporation, incorporated under the act of congress named; that their members are authorized to sue by the title given to the corporation; that the corporation is located and does business at Chicago, in the state of Illinois; and that, therefore, the real plaintiffs, the members of the corporation, must be regarded, on such averments, as citizens of the state of Illinois.

The various decisions of the supreme court in cases of suits in the federal courts by and against corporations created by the laws of the states, where the jurisdiction depended on the citizenship of the parties to the suit, are reviewed in the opinion given by that court in the case of Ohio & M. R. Co. v. Wheeler, 1 Black. [66 U. S.] 286. The law is there stated to be settled, that, where a corporation is created by the laws of a state, the legal presumption is, that its members are citizens of such state; that a suit by or against such corporation in its corporate name must be presumed to be a suit by or against citizens of the state which created the corporation; and that no averment or evidence to the contrary is admissible, for the purpose of withdrawing the suit from the jurisdiction of a court of the United States. In the case of Cowles v. Mercer Co., 7 Wall. [74 U. S.] 118, 121, the rule is thus stated: “A corporation created by the laws of a state, and having its place of business within that state, must, for the purposes of suit, be regarded as a citizen, within the meaning of the constitution giving jurisdiction founded upon citizenship.” This rule, however, does not. ex vi termini, cover the case of a corporation created by an act of congress.

The argument urged against a jurisdiction in this case drawn from citizenship is, that, as the corporation is created by the United States, the only legal presumption that can be drawn is. that its members are citizens of the United States; and that there is no presumption that they are citizens of the state in which the corporation is located.

With a view to the consideration of the question raised, it will be necessary to examine the statutory provisions in respect to the location of banking associations. The 6th section of the act of 1864, provides, that the organization certificate of every association for carrying on the business of banking, formed under the act, (and which, by the execution of such certificate, becomes, under the 8th section, a body corporate.) shall specify the place where the operations of discount and deposit of the association are to be carried on, designating the state, territory, or district, and also the particular county and city, town or village.

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Bluebook (online)
16 F. Cas. 671, 8 Blatchf. 137, 4 Am. Law T. Rep. U.S. Cts. 24, 3 Chi. Leg. News 169, 13 Int. Rev. Rec. 35, 2 Abb. 232, 40 How. Pr. 409, 1871 U.S. App. LEXIS 1732, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/manufacturers-nat-bank-v-baack-circtsdny-1871.