South Carolina v. Virginia-Carolina Chemical Co.

117 F. 727, 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 5129

This text of 117 F. 727 (South Carolina v. Virginia-Carolina Chemical Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
South Carolina v. Virginia-Carolina Chemical Co., 117 F. 727, 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 5129 (circtdsc 1902).

Opinion

SIMONTON, Circuit Judge.

This case comes up on a motion to remand to the state court the cause of the state of South Carolina against the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company, a corporation of the state of Virginia, et al. The record has been filed in this court. With the record is no order of the state court removing it. But from the admissions made at the bar, and from the whole tenor of the argument, it appears that the absence of the order removing the cause was not based upon the insufficiency of the bond, but upon the legal ground that the case made by the plaintiff does not raise the federal question on which alone this court can take jurisdiction. The question involved in this discussion is grave and beset with difficulty. The state has the right to have the case brought by her tried in her own courts unless the constitution of the United States has secured to the defendant the right of protection in the federal court. Germania Ins. Co. v. Wisconsin, 119 U. S. 475, 7 Sup. Ct. 260, 30 L. Ed. 461.

The second section of the act of 1887-88 gives to a defendant sued in a state court the right to remove the cause into the circuit court of the United States when the suit is one arising under the constitution or laws of the United States, of which the circuit courts of the United States are given original jurisdiction in that act. This act gives to these circuit courts original jurisdiction “of all suits arising under the constitution or laws of the United States.” The phrase “suits arising under the constitution or laws of the United States” has been construed to mean suits in which the title or right set up by the party may be defeated by one construction of the constitution of the United States, or may be sustained by the opposite construction. Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264, 5 L. Ed. 257; Osborn v. Bank, 9 Wheat. 738, 6 L. Ed. 204; Starin v. City of New York, 115 U. S. 248, 6 Sup. Ct. 28, 29 L. Ed. 388; Carson v. Dunham, 121 U. S. 427, 7 Sup. Ct. 1030, 30 L. Ed. 992; W. U. Tel. Co. v. Ann Arbor R, Co., 178 U. S. 243, 20 Sup. Ct. 867, 44 L. Ed. 1052.

Is this a suit arising under the constitution or laws of the United States? In deciding this question we are confined to. the case as made by the plaintiff in its own pleading, and we cannot aid the decision with anything appearing in. the petition of the defendant, or in any defense it may make to the action. The rule is distinctly stated in Walker v. Collins, 167 U. S. 58, 17 Sup. Ct. 738, 42 L. Ed. 76, affirming Chappell v. Waterworth, 155 U. S. 102, 15 Sup. Ct. 34, 39 [729]*729L. Ed. 85, and following Tennessee v. Union & Planters’ Bank, 152 U. S. 454, 14 Sup. Ct. 654, 38 L. Ed. 511:

“A case not depending upon the citizenship of the parties, not otherwise specially provided for, cannot be removed from a state court to the circuit court of the United States, as one arising under the constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States, unless that appears in the plaintiff’s own statement.”

Upon this point there can be no controversy.

In order to reach a conclusion in this matter the court cannot take judicial cognizance of any matter of fact which would be evidence for defendant, or anticipate the defense which may be set up, nor can any matter dehors the pleading of the plaintiff be considered. In Galveston, H. & S. A. R. Co. v. Texas, 170 U. S. 226, 18 Sup. Ct. 603, 42 L. Ed. 1017, the state of Texas brought an action in one of its own courts against the railway company to recover certain tracts of land. The defendant filed its petition for removal, which was refused. The grounds are not stated. But from its defense it appears that the defendant relied upon its charter, and the laws, general and special, of the state of Texas, of which it claimed the court should take judicial cognizance. The supreme court held that, as it did not appear from the state’s statement of its own case that the suit was one arising under the constitution or laws of the United States, the defendant could not be aided by the charter and' laws of the state, —a defense outside of the record. In Railroad Co. v. Skottowe, 162 U. S. 495, 16 Sup. Ct. 869, 40 L. Ed. 1048, the defendant was sued as a corporation organized, existing, and doing business in Oregon. The court could not take judicial cognizance of the fact that it was incorporated under an act of congress, and so create the federal question. So in Milling Co. v. McFadden, 180 U. S. 535, 21 Sup. Ct. 488, 45 L. Ed. 656, it was conceded that the cause must be remanded unless the court would take judicial cognizance of the fact that the claim of the Mountain View Company was located on an Indian reservation restored to the public domain by an act of congress, notwithstanding that the complaint had stated no claim based on these facts. The court say the circuit court could not make plaintiff’s case other than they made it by taking judicial notice of facts they did not choose to rely on in their pleadings. The averments brought no controversy in this regard into court, in respect of which resort might be had to judicial knowledge. This position is illustrated in the leading case of Tennessee v. Union & Planters’ Bank, 152 U. S. 454, 14 Sup. Ct. 654, 38 L. Ed. 511. That reported case covers three cases brought by the state of Tennessee against two banks. Two of the bills were filed in the circuit court of the United States, and one bill was filed in a state court, and had been removed into the circuit court. The purpose of the suits was to enforce a statute of Tennessee taxing these banks. The bills filed originally in the circuit court of the United States sought to secure the jurisdiction by the statement that the defendants would set up an exemption granted them by the state of Tennessee, and so protect themselves under the constitutional provision against the impairment of contracts. The bill in the state court made no allusion to the constitution. The two [730]*730bills filed in the original jurisdiction were dismissed because the case made by complainant presented no federal question. The suggestion made in the bills that defendants relied upon or would raise the constitutional protection could not affect the case, because “the right of plaintiffs to sue cannot depend upon the defense which defendant may choose to set up. The right to sue is anterior to that defense, and must depend on the state of things when the action was brought.” Osborn v. Bank, 9 Wheat. 738, 6 L. Ed. 204. The case removed from the state court was remanded as improperly removed. The bill itself showed no federal question. That depended upon the exemption supposed to arise under the charter and the acts of the state of Tennessee, which defendant, if it intended to rely upon them, must plead, or could refrain from doing so if it chose. The court would not'make a defense for it. The rule is clearly stated in Powell v. Brunswick Co., 150 U. S. 433, 14 Sup. Ct. 166, 37 L. Ed. 1134:

“If it appear from the record, by clear and necessary intendment, that the federal question must have been directly involved, so that the state court could not have given judgment without deciding it, that will be sufficient.

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Related

Cohens v. Virginia
19 U.S. 264 (Supreme Court, 1821)
Osborn v. Bank of United States
22 U.S. 738 (Supreme Court, 1824)
Starin v. New York
115 U.S. 248 (Supreme Court, 1885)
Germania Insurance v. Wisconsin
119 U.S. 473 (Supreme Court, 1886)
Carson v. Dunham
121 U.S. 421 (Supreme Court, 1887)
Powell v. Brunswick County
150 U.S. 433 (Supreme Court, 1893)
Tennessee v. Union & Planters' Bank
152 U.S. 454 (Supreme Court, 1894)
Chappell v. Waterworth
155 U.S. 102 (Supreme Court, 1894)
Postal Telegraph Cable Co. v. Alabama
155 U.S. 482 (Supreme Court, 1894)
Missouri Pacific Railway Co. v. Fitzgerald
160 U.S. 556 (Supreme Court, 1896)
Walker v. Collins
167 U.S. 57 (Supreme Court, 1897)
Houston & Texas Central Railroad v. Texas
177 U.S. 66 (Supreme Court, 1900)
Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Ann Arbor Railroad
178 U.S. 239 (Supreme Court, 1900)
Mountain View Mining & Milling Co. v. McFadden
180 U.S. 533 (Supreme Court, 1901)
Arkansas v. Kansas & Texas Coal Co.
183 U.S. 185 (Supreme Court, 1901)

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Bluebook (online)
117 F. 727, 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 5129, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/south-carolina-v-virginia-carolina-chemical-co-circtdsc-1902.