Shaffer v. Union Brick Co.

128 F. 97, 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4660
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Kansas
DecidedMarch 12, 1904
DocketNo. 326
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 128 F. 97 (Shaffer v. Union Brick Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shaffer v. Union Brick Co., 128 F. 97, 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4660 (circtdks 1904).

Opinion

POLLOCK, District Judge

(after stating the facts as above). The petition is framed on the theory that defendants are joint wrongdoers, and jointly liable in damages for the death of David C. Shaffer. If so, the case is not removable into this court. Powers v. Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, 169 U. S. 92, 18 Sup. Ct. 264, 42 L. Ed. 673; Louisville, etc., Railroad Co. v. Wangelin, 132 U. S. 599, 10 Sup. Ct. 203, 33 L. Ed. 473; Pirie v. Tvedt, 115 U. S. 41, 5 Sup. Ct. 1034, 1161, 29 L. Ed. 331; Sloane v. Anderson, 117 U. S. 275, 6 Sup. Ct. 730, 29 L. Ed. 899.

It is alleged in the petition for removal filed herein that Ratliff, a citizen and resident of the state of Kansas, was made party defendant for the sole and only purpose of defeating a removal of the case from the state court into this court, but such allegation cannot have effect in this case for two reasons: First, it is not supported by proof. In Warax v. Cincinnati, N. O. & T. P. Ry. Co. (C. C.) 72 Fed. 637, it is said:

“In order that such joinder should be regarded as fraudulent, it must appear, by allegation and proof, not only that it was made for the purpose of avoiding the jurisdiction of the federal court, but also that the averments o I the petition upon which the right to join the defendants is claimed are so uf founded and incapable of proof as to justify the inference that they worn not made in good faith, with the hope and intention of proving them, or el¡-.í that they do not state a joint cause of action.”

Again, it is well settled, if the plaintiff alleges a joint cause of acticm against the defendants in her petition filed in the state court, and one or more of such defendants are citizens of the state, a nonresident defendant may not remove the case into this court. In Powers v. Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, supra, it is said:

“It is well settled that an action of tort, which might have been brought against many persons or against any one or more of them, and which is brought in a state court against all jointly, contains no separate controversy which will authorize its removal by some of the defendants into the Circuf. Court of -the United States, even if they file separate answers and set up different defenses from the other defendants, and alleges that they are not jointly liable with them, and that their own controversy with the plaintiff is a separate one; for, as this court has often said, ‘A defendant has no right to say that an, action shall be several which the plaintiff seeks to make joint.’ [99]*99A separate defense may defeat a joint recovery, bnt it cannot deprive a plaintiff of his right of prosecuting his suit to a final decision in his own way. The cause of action is the subject-matter of the controversy, and that is, for all the purposes of the suit, whatever the plaintiff declares it to be in his pleadings.”

In Louisville, etc., Railroad Co. v. Wangelin, supra, it is said to be equally well settled—

“That in any case the question whether there is a separable controversy which will warrant a removal is to be determined by the condition of the record in the slate court at the time of the filing of the petition for removal, independently of the allegations in that petition or in the affidavit of the petitioner, unless ¡lie petitioner both alleges and proves that defendants were wrongfully made joint defendants for the purpose of preventing a removal into the federal court.”

In other words, the authorities hold that, if plaintiff has in law a joint cause of action against both defendants, she may join them in one action, and no wrong or fraudulent motive will be imputed to her, though the result of her action be to prevent a removal by the nonresident defendant.

Hence the only question of merit arising upon this motion for determination is, does the plaintiff allege in her petition a joint cause of action against both defendants? If so, the motion to remand must be granted.

The almost universal practice in vogue of late years, and more especially since the decision of the Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. Co. v. Dixon, 179 U. S. 131, 21 Sup. Ct. 67, 45 L. Ed. 121 (decided in October, 1900), of joining a local resident defendant, like an engineer, fireman, brakeman, or other employé, with the nonresident master, to prevent the removal by the master from the state to the federal court, demands a consideration and determination of this question upon principles alike applicable to all this class of cases. Doubtless there are cases of this character where the allegations of joint liability are so ridiculous or absurd upon their face that the court would be justified, from a simple inspection of the record, in holding that no joint liability does or could exist in the case. Again, no doubt there'are cases in which it might be alleged in the petition for removal, and shown by proof, that a resident employé was fraudulently joined with a nonresident master for the sole purpose of preventing removal of the case by the master; but in comparison with the great body of litigation upon this question such cases are quite infrequent in occurrence, and depend more upon the ingenuity and skill of the pleader drafting the petition than the true circumstances of tlie particular case, ft is manifestly both unsafe and unsound to allow the ultimate determination of the right of removal from the state to the federal courts to rest upon the ingenuity of counsel drafting the pleadings; for, as said by Mr. Justice Miller in Board of County Com’rs v. Kansas Pac. Ry. Co., 4 Dill. 277, Fed. Cas. No. 502:

“It would be a very dangerous doctrine — one utterly destructive of the right which a man 1ms to go into the federal courts on account of his citizenship — ■ if Hie plaintiff in the case, in instituting his suit, can, without any right or reason or just cause, join persons who have not the requisite citizenship, and thereby destroy the rights of parties in federal courts. We must therefore [100]*100be astute not to permit devices to become successful which are used for the very purpose of destroying that right”

. As the right of the nonresident master, joined in an action to recover damages for negligence with the resident servant charged with committing the act of negligence, to remove the action from the state into the federal court must be tested by. the petition of the plaintiff filed in the state court, the broad general proposition for consideration is, under what circumstances may such joinder be made? In what case does a joint liability on the part of the master and negligent servant exist in law ? In principle and upon authority, as gathered from the law writers and adjudicated cases upon this proposition, is the master jointly liable with his negligent servant in all cases or in any case ? If so, what is the reason for such joint liability or nonliability, in the absence of statutory enactment upon the subject?

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Bluebook (online)
128 F. 97, 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4660, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shaffer-v-union-brick-co-circtdks-1904.