Shelby v. Hoffman

7 Ohio St. (N.S.) 450
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 15, 1857
StatusPublished

This text of 7 Ohio St. (N.S.) 450 (Shelby v. Hoffman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shelby v. Hoffman, 7 Ohio St. (N.S.) 450 (Ohio 1857).

Opinion

Sutliff, J.

The facts of the case, as they appear from the relators’ petition, alternative writ, and answer thereto, are as follows :

At the May term, 1857, of the court of common pleas of Columbiana county, held by the defendant, one of the judges of the ninth judicial district, two causes were pending in that eourt; one entitled Jacob N. McCullough, Duncan McDonald, E. W. Roby, Daniel McDonald, and Selah Chamberlain, partners under the name of Chamberlain, McDonald & Co., plaintiffs, v. Isaac Shelby, Jun., Illinois and Ohio Coal Company, defendants; and the other entitled [408]*408Elizabeth McIntosh, administratrix of the estate of John S. McIntosh, deceased, plaintiff, v. Isaac Shelby, Jun., Illinois and Ohio Coal Company, Adam Kuhn and William S. McIntosh, and Philip S. McIntosh, partners under the name of W. S. & P. S. McIntosh, defendants.

Isaac Shelby, Jun., was, at the commencement of the suit, and continues to be, a citizen and resident of the State of Illinois; and the Illinois and Ohio Coal Company is an association of persons incorporated and doing business within the State of Illinois. The plaintiffs in each of said suits were citizens of the State Ohio; and the matters in dispute between the parties in each of said actions, constituting the claim of plaintiffs, as set forth in their petition, exceeds in value the sum of five hundred dollars, exclusive of costs. Upon the day the relators entered their appearance in said actions at said May term of that court, so held by defendant, they filed their petitions, with bonds conditioned according to law, setting forth the foregoing facts, and praying *for the removal of said causes for trial into the next circuit court of the United States, to be held in the northern district of Ohio, within which said Columbiana county is situate, agreeably to the provisions of the act of Congress in such cases provided. Without any defense being made to their said petitions for removal, or to the' granting the prayer thereof, the defendant so then holding said court of common pleas, refused to fix the amount of the penalty for said bonds, or to allow a change of jurisdiction or removal of the causes as prayed for, and refused to give the relators the benefit of said act of Congress, but proceeded to render judgment in each of said cases, as upon default. No proof was heard by the court of the truth of the allegations of the petitions; nor does it appear that they were denied; but the defendant having gained jurisdiction of the cases, and no satisfactory reason, as it seems, being given to him for their removal, insisted upon the right to exercise the jurisdiction which he had before acquired, and so' proceeded to render judgment therein.

As reasons, among others, for not certifying the causes to the circuit court, it is suggested, that only part of the defendant's in one of the causes were citizens of another -state, and that they were made parties, some by summons, and others by notice, and appeared respectively at different times; but it is not insisted that the relators were not citizens of another State; nor that the Illinois [409]*409and Ohio Coal Company was not a corporation created by the legislature of the State of Illinois, and doing business in that state. 'The other party defendant in that case, it is admitted, was a citizen of Illinois; and that all the plaintiffs in each cause were citizens of Ohio. It is also suggested that there was no proof made •of the fact that the matter in controversy, or dispute, in the cases, exceeded the sum of $500, exclusive of costs; the only evidence being the sum demanded by plaintiffs in their petition; and that it did not appear that plaintiffs expected to recover that amount, and were not in fact willing to accept a less sum than the sum claimed in their petition.

The removal of causes from the state courts in certain cases, is provided for by the act of Congress, passed September -24, 1789, as follows:

*“Seo. 12. Ifasuilbe commenced in anystate court against any alien, or by a citizen of the state in which the suit is brought, •against a citizen of another state, and the matter in dispute exceeds the aforesaid sum of' five hundred dollars, exclusive of costs, to be made to appear to the satisfaction of the court, and the defendant shall, at the time of entering his appearance in such state court, file a petition for the removal of the cause for trial into the next circuit court to be held in the district where the suit is pending (or if in the district of Maine, to the district court next to be hoiden therein ; or if in the Kentucky district, to the district court next to be hoiden therein), and offer good and sufficient surety for his entering in such court, on the first day of its session, copies of said process against him, and also for his there appearing and entering spcial bail in the cause, if special bail was originally requisite therein, it shall then be the duty of the state court to accept the surety, and proceed no further in the cause; any bail that may have been originally taken shall be discharged, and the said copies being entered as aforesaid, in such court of the United States, the cause shall then proceed in the same manner as if it had been brought there by original process,” etc.

Under this section it has been held, that a suit can not be removed where part of the defendants are citizens of the state in which the suit is brought, and only part of the defendants are citizens of another state. See the case of Wilson v. Blodget, 4 McLean, 363; and Heirs of Ludlow v. Heirs of Kidd, 3 Ohio, 48. To sustain the jurisdiction of the United States court, and authorize the removal, the citizenship of each of the several defendants must be such as to make the suit removable. Hubbard v. Northern [410]*410Railroad Co., 25 Vt. 715, 719: Board of Foreign Missions v. McMaster, 4 Am. L. Reg. 529; Welch v. Tennent, 4 Cal. 203.

A corporation created by, and transacting business in, a certain state, is to be deemed an inhabitant of that state, and capable of being treated as a citizen for all purposes of suing and being sued. Louisville Railroad Co. v. Letson, 2 How. 314; Wheedon v. Camden & Amboy R. R. Co., 4 Am. L. Reg. 296; Marshall v. Baltimore & Ohio R. R. Co., 16 How. 314.

When none of the defendants are citizens of the state where sued, and are served at different times, or at different times enter their appearance, they may each, at such different times of entering their appearance, respectively make application for removal. Ward v. Arredondo, 1 Paine, 370. But if all the parties defendant *in such case do not appear in the circuit court to which the suit is so removed, the case will be remanded by that court.

If, however, all the parties defendant have been served, and appear in the state court, in order to give any the benefit of the law of Congress for having the case certified to the circuit court of the-United States, they must all join in the petition.

The foregoing decisions, made under the .act of Congress above-referred to, would seem to have disposed of the principal objections suggested by defendant, to the right of relators to have at least one-of the cases certified for trial into the circuit court of the United States, as prayed for in their petition.

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Related

Stoddard v. Chambers
43 U.S. 284 (Supreme Court, 1844)
Marshall v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad
57 U.S. 314 (Supreme Court, 1854)
Welch v. Tennent
4 Cal. 203 (California Supreme Court, 1854)
Hubbard v. Northern Railroad
25 Vt. 715 (Supreme Court of Vermont, 1853)
Wilson v. Blodget
30 F. Cas. 111 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Indiana, 1848)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
7 Ohio St. (N.S.) 450, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shelby-v-hoffman-ohio-1857.