Sullivan v. Lloyd

213 F. 275, 1914 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 950
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedApril 25, 1914
DocketNo. 504
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 213 F. 275 (Sullivan v. Lloyd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sullivan v. Lloyd, 213 F. 275, 1914 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 950 (D. Mass. 1914).

Opinion

DODGE, Circuit Judge.

1. The plaintiff describes the defendant in her writ as a citizen of Massachusetts. In his petition' to remove he alleges that he is a citizen of Illinois. Upon this issue the burden is upon him. By consent of parties the evidence bearing upon it has been heard, and it is to be decided, by the court.

There is no dispute that the defendant was a citizen and resident of Massachusetts from 1908 until June 19, 1913; his residence being in Malden until April 22, 1913, after that in Boston. He left Boston on June 19, 1913, left Massachusetts on June 20th, and went to Winnetka, Ill., arriving there June 21st. He was born in Winnetka in 1886 and had lived there from the time of his birth up to 1899. He stayed in Winnetka in the house where he was born, then occupied as a residence by his brother William, until the end of June, when he started with his brother for Seattle. He ultimately continued this journey around the world, arriving again in the United ■States in March, 1914. From New York he went back to Winnetka, where he has since lived. He never returned to Boston after leaving it on June 19th, and has been in Massachusetts only on one day since that time, viz., March 23, 1914, for the purpose of testifying in a suit brought against him by a different plaintiff. He returned to Winnetka as soon as this testimony had been given.

[1] The date of the plaintiff’s writ is January 14,- 1914, and the [277]*277question is as to the defendant’s citizenship on that day. It is true that after he left Boston, and before the date of the writ, he had actually lived in Illinois only from June 21st to the end of that month, and only as a visitor at his brother’s house, without residence or place of business in Illinois which he could call his own. But, particularly in view of the fact that his domicile of origin was «in Illinois, I see no reason to doubt that if when he went there in June he actually intended in good faith to abandon his Massachusetts residence and live in Illinois instead, either permanently or for an indefinite time, and if this was the whole of his intent, it would be enough to effect the proposed change of citizenship and residence immediately. Cooper v. Galbraith, 3 Wash. C. C. 546, Fed. Cas. No. 3,193; Marks v. Marks (C. C.) 75 Fed. 321.

[2] Nor would this be any the less true if it was his purpose at the time to enable himself to invoke federal jurisdiction, by means of a change of citizenship effected as above, in case the plaintiff should sue him. Such a purpose would make no difference unless what he intended was only an ostensible change, to be made without real intent to stay in Illinois longer than might be desirable for the purposes of the apprehended litigation, but with the view of coming back to Massachusetts when those purposes would no longer be served by residence elsewhere. Morris v. Gilmer, 129 U. S. 315, 328, 329, 9 Sup. Ct. 289, 32 L. Ed. 690.

[3] There is every reason to believe that the defendant’s departure from Massachusetts was induced by apprehension of a suit to be brought against him by the plaintiff, and for the cause of action she has declared on. He admits having promised to marry her on April 28, 1913, and having told her on June 16, 1913, that he would not do so, after preparations for the wedding had been made and one date fixed for it had gone by. It may well be supposed that he left to avoid service of process, and not improbably also in order to bring about a diversity of citizenship as between her and himself. Has he made it clear that his intent to change his citizenship covered no ulterior purpose of changing it back again if circumstances should permit?

Independently of this litigation there is not much reason to believe that Massachusetts would be more desirable to him as a residence than Illinois. He is unmarried, without a family, and had been occupying hired apartments. He had been receiving the income from a considerable estate held in trust for him by two Massachusetts residents, summoned as trustees in this case, but the trust property is situated chiefly in Chicago, and the trust expired by its terms on January 13, 1913, the day preceding the date of this writ. In anticipation of its expiration, his interest in the trust property, with other property belonging to him, was made over by him to new trustees upon another trust for his benefit, at or immediately after his departure from Boston in June, 1913, and it is on their behalf that an adverse claim is made in these proceedings. He had been carrying on a printing business in Everett, Mass.; but this plant was conveyed by him to the new trustees and was sold out in December, 1913. He has no other business interests in Massachusetts, so far as appears. His parents are [278]*278not living, and of his three brothers, who are all his nearest relatives, two live in Massachusetts and one in Illinois.

He has testified in a deposition taken April 4, 1914, in Illinois, under a commission from this court, that when he left Massachusetts it was his purpose not to return there to live; that when he arrived in Winnetka.he had no present intention of leaving there to go elsewhere; that his purpose to go on the journey which took him around the world was not acquired until the latter part of June, 1913; that he intended then and during his journey to return^ to- Winnetka to live; and that he went back there after his arrival 'in New York to continue to reside there as his home.

It appears by the deposition of Robert H. Howe, taken February 1, 1914, in Illinois, under a commission from the state court, as well as by the defendant’s own deposition, that the defendant told Howe on June 21 and on June 26, 1913, in Chicago, that he had come back to Illinois for good, was going to live in Winnetka, and had removed his place of residence from Boston to Winnetka for that purpose, and had left Boston with the purpose and intention of so removing his residence. The statements on June 26th were made in connection with his acknowledgment before Howe, as notary public, of a deed dated June 19, 1913, executed by him before he left Massachusetts, in which he was described as living in Boston. They are recited in Howe’s certificate of acknowledgment on the deed.

It further appears that, before he left Boston, the defendant told Dr. Lloyd to give up the apartments he had been occupying, remove his furniture, and'store it in Rhode Island; also, that these directions were carried into effect after his departure, the apartments being sublet and never again occupied by him.

[4] Although all the above acts and declarations by the defendant appear without contradiction, and although they might, under some circumstances, be sufficient for 'a finding that he became an Illinois citizen as soon as he arrived at Winnetka on June 21, 1913, they were all so evidently prompted by the exigencies of the litigation with the plaintiff, apprehended at the time and actually begun in the following month, that only the absolute necessary inferences from them are admissible. The defendant had not done anything before January 14, 1914, so far as appears, which would render another change of residence back to Massachusetts less easy of accomplishment than the change from Massachusetts to Illinois claimed by him to have been made. There was nothing which the accomplishment of such a further change would require him to give up or undo in Illinois—-another journey and a further intent would suffice.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Bradley v. Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Co.
100 F. Supp. 913 (E.D. Oklahoma, 1951)
Todd v. S. A. Healy Co.
49 F. Supp. 584 (E.D. Kentucky, 1943)
Anderson v. Splint Coal Corp.
20 F. Supp. 233 (E.D. Kentucky, 1937)
Stockyards Nat. Bank of South Omaha v. Bragg
293 F. 879 (Eighth Circuit, 1923)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
213 F. 275, 1914 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 950, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sullivan-v-lloyd-mad-1914.