Ridgway v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas R.

204 S.W.2d 411, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 1204
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 11, 1947
DocketNo. 14857
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 204 S.W.2d 411 (Ridgway v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas R.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ridgway v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas R., 204 S.W.2d 411, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 1204 (Tex. Ct. App. 1947).

Opinions

McDONALD, Chief Justice.

On March 11, 1946, Ralph P. Ridgway, a resident of Tarrant County, Texas, was injured in said county while engaged in the performance of his duties as an employee of Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company of Texas, a Texas corporation. On January 24, 1947, Ridgway filed suit in the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York to recover $300,000 damages alleged to have been sustained by reason of said injuries. The suit, as well as the claim of venue in the State of New York, was based on the theory that Ridgway’s cause of action was governed by the provisions of the Employers’ Liability Act and Safety Appliance Acts of the United States, 45 U.S.C.A. §§ 1 et seq., 51 et seq., and that Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company of Texas, to whom we shall hereafter refer as the Railroad Company, was doing business in the State of New York within the meaning of Section 6 of the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, 45 U.S.C.A. § 56. Such section provides:

“Under this chapter an action may be brought in a district court of the United States, in the district of the residence of the defendant, or in which the cause of action arose, or in which the defendant shall be doing business at the time of commencing such action.”

On March 4, 1947, the Railroad Company filed a suit in the 96th District Court of Tar-rant County, Texas, for the purpose of enjoining Ridgway from prosecuting the suit in the federal court in New York. This appeal is from an order granting a temporary injunction enjoining and restraining Ridgway, pending final disposition of this cause, from prosecuting, participating in, or taking any action in connection with the suit filed in New York. In the order granting the injunction the trial court expressly found that the Railroad Company was not doing business, within the purview of Section 6 of said Federal Employers’ Liability Act, in the State of New York or in the district of said federal court in that state at the time the action was commenced therein or at the time of attempted service of process, or at any other time between the commencement of said action and the hearing in the present cause; that there had been no valid service of process in the federal court suit; that said federal court had no jurisdiction of the Railroad Company; that it would be inequitable to permit Ridgway to prosecute said suit; that the prosecution of said suit would deprive the Railroad Company of its property without due process and in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; that the prosecution of said suit would result in an undue and unreasonable burden upon interstate commerce resulting in injury to the national transportation system of which the Railroad Company is a part; and that the issuance of the temporary injunction was necessary to prevent immediate and irreparable damage to the Railroad Company.

[413]*413It is a general rule that the granting or denial of a temporary injunction is largely discretionary with the court, if the injunction tends only to preserve the status quo or to protect the court’s jurisdiction, and that the court’s action in such respect will be disturbed on appeal only when an abuse of discretion clearly appears. 24 Tex. Jur., p. 121. The parties to this appeal, however, appear to make no point of the fact that the injunction appealed from is a temporary rather than a permanent injunction. In view of this attitude of the parties, and in view of the fact that the case appears to have been fully developed, from a standpoint of proof, we shall apply the general principles of law which would be applicable if the court had issued a permanent injunction.

The question first considered in the briefs of the parties is whether the Railroad Company was doing business in New York. We uphold the finding of the trial court that it was not. Whatever dispute there is as to the facts, resulting from conflicts in the evidence, must be resolved in favor of the Railroad Company. So treating the evidence, it appears only that the Railroad Company maintained in New York certain agents for the solicitation of business. This did not amount to doing business in that State, within the meaning of the Act. Green v. Chicago, B. & Q. Ry. Co., 205 U.S. 530, 27 S.Ct. 595, 51 L.Ed. 916; Cancelmo v. Seaboard Air Line Ry., 56 App.D.C. 225, 12 F.2d 166; Trizna v. New York, C. & St. L. Ry. Co., 57 F.Supp. 484; Murray v. Great Northern Ry. Co., D.C., 67 F.Supp. 944. We have examined the decisions cited by Ridgway in support of his contention that the Railroad Company was doing business in New York, but find that each of the cited cases involved a situation where the corporation did more than merely solicit business in the state where it was sued.

We do not see that it is material whether or not there had been, prior to the time of the hearing in the court below, a valid service of process on the Railroad Company in New York.

Much has been written concerning the right of a court to enjoin a person within

its jurisdiction from prosecuting a suit in a foreign state or country. The opinions in the following cases, both majority and dissenting, discuss at length the general rules, and the applicability of them to suits brought under the Federal Employers’ Liability Acts. Baltimore & Ohio Ry. Co. v. Kepner, 314 U.S. 44, 62 S.Ct. 6, 86 L.Ed. 28, 136 A.L.R. 1222; Miles v. Illinois Central Ry. Co., 315 U.S. 698, 62 S.Ct. 827, 86 L.Ed. 1129, 146 A.L.R. 1104; Southern Ry. Co. v. Cochran, 56 F.2d 1019; Chesapeake & O. Ry. Co. v. Vigor, 6 Cir., 90 F.2d 7, certiorari denied 302 U.S. 705, 58 S.Ct. 25, 82 L.Ed. 5-45; Rader v. Baltimore & O. Ry. Co., 7 Cir., 108 F.2d 980, certiorari denied 309 U.S. 682, 60 S.Ct. 722, 84 L.Ed. 1026. For citations of other cases, see the annotations in 57 A.L.R. 77; 85 A.L.R. 1351; 113 A.L.R. 1444; 115 A.L.R. 237; 136 A.L.R. 1232; 146 A.L.R. 1118; and 86 L.Ed. 39. See also Union Pac. Ry. Co. v. Utterback, 173 Or. 572, 146 P.2d 76, 769, rehearing denied 173 Or. 572, 146 P.2d 769, certiorari denied 323 U.S. 711, 65 S.Ct. 36, 89 L.Ed. 572; Leet v. Union Pac. R. Co., Cal.App., 144 P.2d 64, subsequent opinion 25 Cal.2d 605, 155 P.2d 42, 158 A.L.R. 1008, certiorari denied 325 U.S. 866, 65 S.Ct. 1403, 89 L.Ed. 1986, both of which cases cite and follow the Kepner and Miles cases, supra.

Although we have studied the declarations in a number of decisions of various state courts, the rules as declared by the federal courts are controlling on us. Baltimore & O. Ry. Co. v. Kepner, supra.

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204 S.W.2d 411, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 1204, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ridgway-v-missouri-kansas-texas-r-texapp-1947.