State ex rel. Bennett v. Texas Gas Transmission Corp.

171 F. Supp. 413, 1959 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3602
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Arkansas
DecidedMarch 6, 1959
DocketCiv. No. 3588
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 171 F. Supp. 413 (State ex rel. Bennett v. Texas Gas Transmission Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Bennett v. Texas Gas Transmission Corp., 171 F. Supp. 413, 1959 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3602 (E.D. Ark. 1959).

Opinion

BECK, District Judge.

The Court’s jurisdiction, in this case, on plaintiff’s Motion to Remand, is being challenged on two grounds: (1) that there is no diversity of citizenship and (2) that there is no federal question. The ease originally was commenced in the Chancery Court of Chicot County, Arkansas, thereafter transferred to the Circuit Court and from there, within the 20-day time limit and under 28 U.S.C.A. § 1446(b) removed here.

The question of diversity of citizenship, though it is assigned as one of the grounds for remanding, need not have consideration, since plaintiff’s only basis for the removal is its claim that the [414]*414amount “in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $3000, exclusive of interest and costs” (which is admitted) “and arises under the Constitution, laws or treaties of the United States” 28 U.S. C.A. § 1331, and also since a civil action of that kind “shall be removable without regard to the citizenship or residence of the parties. * * 28 U.S. C.A. § 1441(b).

The factual basis for a motion to remand, predicated on a claim of a non-existing federal question, under the Constitution, laws or treaties of the United States, must be found in the plaintiff’s complaint. This is a firmly established and existing rule(and references to it are found in the early cases as well as in decisions more recent. Osborn v. Bank of United States, 9 Wheat. 738, 6 L.Ed. 204; Postal Telegraph Cable Company v. State of Alabama, 155 U.S. 482, 15 S.Ct. 192, 39 L.Ed. 231; Colorado Central Consolidated Mining Company v. Turck, 150 U.S. 138, 14 S.Ct. 35, 37 L.Ed. 1030; Brewer v. Hoxie School District No. 46, 8 Cir., 238 F.2d 91 decided in October 1956. The origin of the rule is referred to in Osborn v. Bank of United States, supra, as it was held that the 3rd Article of the Constitution “enables the judicial department to receive jurisdiction to the full extent of the Constitution, laws and treaties of the United States, when any question respecting them shall assume such a form that the judicial power is capable of acting on it. That power is capable of acting only when the subject is submitted to it, by a party who asserts his rights in the form prescribed by law. It then becomes a case, and the Constitution declares, that the judicial power shall extend to all cases arising under the Constitution, laws and treaties of the United States.” Where and when the facts underlying the jurisdictional question are to be presented for determination, is explained in Colorado Central Consolidated Mining Company v. Turck, supra, where it is said [150 U.S. 138, 14 S.Ct. 37]: “When, however, the original jurisdiction of a circuit court of the United States is invoked upon the sole ground that the determination of the suit depends upon some question of a federal nature, it must appear, at the outset, from the declaration or the bill of the party suing, (Emphasis supplied) that the suit is of that character; in other words, it must appear in that class of eases that the suit was one of which the circuit court, at the time its jurisdiction is invoked, could properly take cognizance. If it does not so appear, then the court, upon demurrer or motion, or upon its own inspection of the pleading, must dismiss the suit; just as it would remand to the state court a suit which the record, at the time of removal, failed to show was within the jurisdiction of the circuit court. * * * ”, by the pronouncement in Postal Telegraph Cable Company v. State of Alabama, supra, that [155 U.S. 482, 15 S.Ct. 194]: “It is equally well settled that * * * no suit can be removed by a defendant from a state court into the circuit court of the United States as one arising under the constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States, unless the fact that it so arises appears by the plaintiff’s statement of his own claim * * and by Judge Woodrough, as recently as in the case of Brewer v. Hoxie School Dist. No. 46, supra, as he dealt with this precise point [238 F.2d 97]: “ * * * before deciding that there is no jurisdiction, the district court must look to the way the complaint is drawn to see if it is drawn so as to claim a right to recover under the Constitution and laws of the United States. For to that extent ‘the party who brings a suit is master to decide what law he will rely upon and * * * does determine whether he will bring a “suit arising under” the * * * [Constitution or laws] of the United States by his declaration or bill.’ The Fair v. Kohler Dye & Specialty Company, 228 U.S. 22, 25, 33 S.Ct. 410, 411, 57 L.Ed. 716.” (Emphasis supplied.)

Other restrictions, even more limiting as to scope, are a part of this rule. Averred facts in a complaint com[415]*415ing under classifications of surplusage and anticipatory defenses, even, are to be disregarded. Court excursions into fields of the factual, as disclosed by amendments, petitions for removal, proceedings on motions to remand or in a defendant’s answer, counterclaim or other pleading, are not permitted. The search for the facts which have bearing on the existence or non-existence in a case involving a federal question, must be confined to those the plaintiff in his original complaint, has seen fit to plead and disclose. Postal Telegraph Cable Company v. State of Alabama, Colorado Central Consolidated Mining Company v. Turck, supra, and State of Tennessee v. Bank of Commerce, 152 U.S. 454, 14 S.Ct. 654, 656, 38 L.Ed. 511. As said in the first of those citations: “* * * a deficiency in his statement, (plaintiff’s complaint) in this respect, cannot be supplied by allegations in the petition for removal or in subsequent pleadings in the case”; in the second: “It (the court) cannot retain it (the jurisdiction) in order to see whether the defendant may not raise some question of a federal nature upon which the right of recovery will finally depend; and, if so retained, the want of jurisdiction, at the commencement of the suit, is not cured by an answer or plea which may suggest a question of that kind.”, and in the third: “But ‘the right of the plaintiff to sue cannot depend on the defense which the defendant may choose to set up. His right to sue is anterior to that defense, and must depend on the state of things when the action is brought.’ ”

What effect then, must be ascribed to the allegations in plaintiff’s original petition, related to the question before the Court on this motion and in the following form:

“That the defendant, Texas Gas Transmission Company, is a Delaware Corporation engaged in the business of transporting natural gas and other products through large pipelines, and that several of said pipelines are laid across Chicot County, Arkansas and cross the Mississippi River from various points in Chicot County, at which points said pipelines are laid across the bed or bottom of the Mississippi River.

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171 F. Supp. 413, 1959 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3602, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-bennett-v-texas-gas-transmission-corp-ared-1959.