Ward v. Blake Manuf'g Co.

56 F. 437, 5 C.C.A. 538, 1893 U.S. App. LEXIS 2075
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedMay 1, 1893
DocketNo. 202
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 56 F. 437 (Ward v. Blake Manuf'g Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ward v. Blake Manuf'g Co., 56 F. 437, 5 C.C.A. 538, 1893 U.S. App. LEXIS 2075 (8th Cir. 1893).

Opinion

CALDWELL, Circuit Judge,

(after stating the facts.) The jurisdiction of the court is challenged upon the ground that it does not appear from the averments of the complaint that the plaintiff- is a citizen of New York, or that its citizenship is different from that of the defendant. The point was not suggested in the court below. The allegation of the complaint is that the plaintiff “is a corporation organized and domiciled in the state of New York.” A corporation must dwell iu the state of its creation. It cannot have a domicile in any other state. “It has no faculty to emigrate.” St. Louis v. Ferry Co., 11 Wall. 423, 429. The doctrine of the supreme court in the case of Bank v. Earle, 13 Pet. 519, 589, that a corporation “must dwell in the place of its creation, and cannot migrate to another sovereignty,” has never been departed from. In a recent case in that court, after quoting the language of Chief Justice Taney in the case last cited, Mr. Justice Cray, speaking for the court, said:

“This statement has been often reaffirmed by this court, with some change of phrase, hut always retaining the idea that the legal existence, the home, the domicile, the habitat, the residence, the, citizenship o£ the corporation, can only he in the state by which it was created, although it may do bnsi[440]*440ness in oilier states, whose laws permit it.” Shaw v. Mining Co., 145 U. S. 444, 450, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep. 935.

The logical and necessary result of this doctrine is that a corporation cannot have a domicile anywhere except in the place of its creation. The averment-, therefore, of the complaint, that the plaintiff is a corporation organized and domiciled in the state of ]Sfe\v York, is, for the purpose of jurisdiction, tantamount to an allegation that it was chartered bj' the laws of that state. There is no prescribed formula for jurisdictional averments. It is sufficient to support the jurisdiction that the diverse citizenship requisite to confer it appears in any part of the record, (Gordon v. Bank, 144 U. S. 97, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep. 657,) or is the necessary consequence of the facts stated in the pleadings, (Express Co. v. Kountze, 8 Wall. 342; Jones v. Andrews, 10 Wall. 327, 331.)

For the purpose of jurisdiction in the courts of the United States in the case of natural persons domicile is the test of citizenship. Express Co. v. Kountze, supra; Hurlburt v. Van Wormer, 14 Fed. Rep. 709; Lessee of Cooper v. Galbraith, 3 Wash. C. C. 546; Case v. Clarke, 5 Mason, 70; In re Watson, 4 N. B. R. 197, (2d Ed. 613;) Railroad Co. v. Jones, 5 N. B. R. 97, 109; In re Alabama & Chattanooga R. R. Co., 6 N. B. R. 107. It is equally the test of the citizenship of a corporation. There is only this difference: a natural person may change his domicile, and therefore his citizenship, but the domicile of a corporation must always remain the same, and is necessarily in the state of its creation. Where the diverse citizenship of the parties was not alleged in the complaint, but was stated in the summons issued by the clerk, the supreme court held that to be sufficient, and in its opinion uses language which may appropriately be repeated here. The chief justice, speaking for the court, said:

“Tlie question of jurisdiction is raised for tlio first time in tliis court, raid, as we are of opinion that tUo diverse citizenship of the parties appears affirmatively and with sufficient distinctness from the record, of which the summons forms a part, we must decline to inverse the judgment on this ground, al-iliough greater care should have "been exercised by the plaintiff in the aver-ments upon that subject.” Gordon v. Bank, 144 U. S. 97, 108, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep. 657.

The defendant alleged in his answer that "the “water cylinders were too weak for the pressure made upon them.” To disprove this allegation the plaintiff proved by a witness, over the objection of the defendant, that it had put up pumps at Racine, Wis., with water cylinders made from the same patterns, and identical in all respects with those made for defendant, which pumped successfully against a static head greater than that of defendant’s pumps by the difference between 350 and 285 feet. As ihe pressure from a given static head in Racine must be the same that it is in Little Rock, it was competent for the plaintiff to show that a pump in the latter place, of the.exact pattern of the One .made for the defendant, had been in use some time, and that its water cylinders proved to be of sufficient strength to resist a static pressure considerably greater than the pressure upon the defendant’s pumps. Such evidence had a tendency to prove the construe[441]*441tion of the defendant’s pumping machinery was not faulty in the respect claimed by the defendant.

It is assigned for error that the court allowed the plaintiff to introduce parol evidence to vary the written contract between the parlies. The contract here referred to was the first one which the parties made, and which, as we shall hereafter see, was superseded by a later contract. But, supposing the first contract had not been superseded, the evidence was competent under the circumstances. The defendant testified in his own behalf, and detailed the conversation which took place during the treaty between the parties which led up to the first written contract, in reference to the quantity of water to be pumped, the height of the reservoir above the pump, the joint and separate capacity of the pumps, and other matters. In rebuttal of the defendant’s testimony on the subject of this conversation, the plaintiff offered evidence of what was said on the occasion. The defendant, without withdrawing or offering to withdraw his evidence on the subject, objected to that of the plaintiff. If the evidence on the subject was irrelevant or incompetent, the defendant first introduced it, 'and will not be heard to complain that the court permitted the plaintiff to introduce evidence in rebuttal. Railway Co. v. Tankersley, 54 Ark. 25, 14 S. W. Rep. 1099; Elliott’s App. Proc. § 628.

For the same reason the fourth assignment of error is without merit. The defendant had testified as to what took place between himself and Worthington; and the testimony of Johnson, and the written propositions read in evidence, were properly admitted in rebuttal of the defendant’s testimony. These assignments of error are not well taken for another reason. The specific grounds of the objection to the introduction of the evidence are not disclosed by the bill of exceptions. All the record discloses is that the defendant “objected” to the introduction of the evidence, and “excepted” when his objection was overruled. An objection l.o the introduction of evidence presents no question for review in the appellate court, unless the bill of exceptions discloses that the specific ground of objection to the introduction of the evidence was brought to the attention of the trial court. U. S. v. Shapleigh, (8th Circuit,) 12 U. S. App. 26, 4 C. C. A. 237, 54 Fed. Rep. 126; Burton v. Driggs, 20 Wall. 125; Elliott’s App. Proc. § 779; Thomp. Trials, § 693; Railroad Co. v. Charless, (9th Circuit,) 7 U. S. App. 359, 375, 2 C. C. A. 380, 51 Fed. Rep. 562.

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Bluebook (online)
56 F. 437, 5 C.C.A. 538, 1893 U.S. App. LEXIS 2075, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ward-v-blake-manufg-co-ca8-1893.