Whiteaker v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co.

160 S.W. 1009, 252 Mo. 438, 1913 Mo. LEXIS 122
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedNovember 24, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by41 cases

This text of 160 S.W. 1009 (Whiteaker v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Whiteaker v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co., 160 S.W. 1009, 252 Mo. 438, 1913 Mo. LEXIS 122 (Mo. 1913).

Opinions

LAMM, C. J.

Suing for personal injuries in negligently ejecting plaintiff from .defendant railway company’s freight train, a jury returned him a verdict for $8500 in the Clinton Circuit Court. Prom a judgment following that verdict/ both defendants appeal, raising four questions only, viz.:

First: The' State court lost jurisdiction on the corporate defendant’s filing a petition for removal to the Federal court, hence the judgment is coram non judice.
Second: There was reversible error in not sustaining a demurrer to the evidence at the close of plaintiff’s case in chief, and, finally, in refusing to direct a verdict in favor of the corporate defendant at the close of the whole case.
Third: And similar error in admitting improper expert testimony.
Fourth: And similar error in instructing the jury that, if they found for plaintiff to find against both defendants, and in refusing an instruction contra.

Many exceptions were taken nisi, but appellants have pretermitted a group of them on final submission, the gist of the remainder being set forth above. Of those questions in their order, any facts necessary to an understanding and disposition of either appearing in that connection.

I. Of jurisdiction.

Appellants insist the trial court lost jurisdiction in this way: Prior to answering the corporate defendant filed its verified petition for a removal of the cause to the circuit court of the United States for the St. Joseph Division of the Western District of Missouri, and tendered its bond. On leave it filed affidavits sup-[447]*447Removai of Cause! Diverse Citizenship, porting its petition for removal. The petition for removal admits WMteaker is • a citizen and resident of Missouri and by implication that defendant Drake is the same, hut alleges, the corporate defendant is a citizen and resident (not of Missouri, but) of Illinois and Iowa. That the cause of action is a separable controversy “which can be fully determined between plaintiff and yonr petitioner” without the presence of Drake. That Drake was joined for the sole and fraudulent purpose of preventing removal to the Federal court and defeating the jurisdiction of that court. That plaintiff could not have had at the time of the institution of the suit any cause of action against Drake, who has no property out of which the judgment could be made,.whereas, to the contrary, the petitioner is solvent and able to pay its debts. Then follows this: “According to the allegations in plaintiff’s petition, any act of negligence on the part of the defendant Frank Drake alleged to have produced the injury to this plaintiff, was an act of this defendant, and, accordingly, this defendant is responsible and liable for the same. That the plaintiff, when he instituted this action, did not have any reasonable hope, intention or expectation of recovering any judgment or collecting any money from the defendant Frank Drake, on account of the accident or injuries to the plaintiff mentioned in the petition.”

The affidavits filed in support were, to the effect that Drake was not on top of his train on the trip from Lathrop to Cameron and neither conld attempt to, nor did eject any person from the train.

The petition for removal, was denied and defendants saved an exception.

■ The question is: Did that application oust the jurisdiction of the State court, and hence, were all the proceedings without jurisdiction?

[448]*448To determine that question' lieed must be given to the averments of plaintiff’s petition anent his canse of action. It alleges, inter alia, that Drake, a resident and citizen of Missouri, was in the employ of his co-defendant as a conductor of one of its trains, and then in part as follows (quoting)

“Plaintiff further states that on or about the 20th day of July, 1905, at or near the crossing of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company at the town of Lathrop, Missouri, plaintiff, with the consent of, and under the direction, advice and invitation of the defendant railway company’s servant, on and operating, and assisting to operate the hereinafter mentioned train, boarded and got upon one of defendant railway company’s freight trains for the purpose of being transported thereon from said town of La-throp to said railway company’s station at Cameron, Missouri, and immediately after boarding said train plaintiff inquired of said servant of defendant railway company, who had so invited him onto said train, what the charge or fare would be for him to ride thereon to said station of Cameron, and said servant then and there informed plaintiff that the charge or fare would be twenty-five cents, and for plaintiff to pay him that sum and plaintiff did then and there pay said servant the said sum of twenty-five cents for the privilege of riding on said train to said station of Cameron; that afterwards, while plaintiff was so on said train and while said train was running at a high rate of speed and was near the station of Turney on said road, the defendant Drake, who was in the employ of said defendant, the Chicago, Bock Island & Pacific Bailway Company, as a conductor, and as such was defendant railway company’s conductor, agent and servant, on and in charge of said train, and while acting in the line of his duties to' defendant railway company as such conductor and agent, and in the course of his employment, approached plaintiff (who was then sitting [449]*449on the top of one of the cars in said train) and wrongfully and unlawfully, and with great and unusual and unnecessary force and violence, and in an improper and wrongful manner, forced and ejected plaintiff from the top of said car and train to the ground, and wrongfully and unlawfully kicked him therefrom, all while said train was running at said high rate of speed, and when it was dangerous and unsafe for plaintiff to have attempted to alight therefrom, and plaintiff was, hy reason of said wrongful ejection and kicking from said train and all of the above, and without any fault •on his part, thrown and made to fall to the ground below and greatly and permanently injured as hereinafter set out; that all the aforesaid acts and conduct on the part of said Drake were done and performed while in the course of his employment by defendant railway company, and in the line of his duties to defendant railway company and as a part of his duties, and said defendant Drake was defendant railway company’s agent and servant, in charge and command of said train, and had control thereof.”

The ruling below was right, because: It was for plaintiff, not defendant, to elect who should be sued ■on a joint liability sounding in tort. When a plaintiff sues both corporate master and individual servant on ■a liability that appears on the face of his petition to be joint, the cause is not removable to the Federal ■court, although the master be a nonresident and not a citizen of the State, where, as here, the servant is a resident and citizen of the State. The presence of the resident citizen as a party defendant, carries the ease ■outside of the intendment of the Federal statute.

If there had been a question of fact on Drake’s •citizenship and residence we might have had a different question to deal with.

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Bluebook (online)
160 S.W. 1009, 252 Mo. 438, 1913 Mo. LEXIS 122, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/whiteaker-v-chicago-rock-island-pacific-railway-co-mo-1913.