Winters v. Drake

102 F. 545, 13 Ohio F. Dec. 266, 1900 U.S. App. LEXIS 5226
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Northern Ohio
DecidedJune 12, 1900
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 102 F. 545 (Winters v. Drake) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Northern Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Winters v. Drake, 102 F. 545, 13 Ohio F. Dec. 266, 1900 U.S. App. LEXIS 5226 (circtndoh 1900).

Opinion

HAMMOHD, J.

It must be conceded that the supreme court of the United States, in removal cases, has carried the doctrine that the jurisdiction of the subject-matter must appear on the face of the plaintiff’s own case, and cannot be injected into the record by the defendant in making his case for removal, to such extreme length that our jurisdiction here is very doubtful. Tennessee v. Union & Planters’ Bank, 152 U. S. 454, 14 Sup. Ct. 654, 38 L. Ed. 511; Chappell v. Waterworth, 155 U. S. 102, 15 Sup. Ct. 34, 39 L. Ed. 85; Land Co. v. Brown, 155 U. S. 488, 15 Sup. Ct. 357, 39 L. Ed. 233; Railway Co. v. Skottowe, 162 U. S. 490, 16 Sup. Ct. 869, 40 L. Ed. 1048; Metcalf v. Watertown, 128 U. S. 586, 9 Sup. Ct. 173, 32 L. Ed. 543; Railroad Co. v. Barbour, 19 C. C. A. 546, 73 Fed. 513. And yet it can scarcely be conceived that it is the intention of those decisions to apply the doctrine to a case like this, which presents in such simple form the opportunity, and its use, of defrauding the federal court of its rightful jurisdiction by the designed concealment of the jurisdictional fact that the defendant is the receiver of the federal court. The omission to describe him as such could have, in law, no other effect than that. It takes advantage of the indulgence of an act of congress which allows receivers of federal courts to be sued without leave of the courts, to abuse it, by subjecting such receivers to a jurisdiction they might avoid but for that abuse. Act Aug. 13, 1888, c. 866, § 3 (25 Stat. 436).

Certain it is that it was not the intention of congress to so extend the indulgence. It. had the simple purpose of allowing plaintiffs to sue receivers without the delay and expense of obtaining leave from courts often not accessible for that purpose without it. But there is nothing to indicate a surrender so disastrous to all control of those dealing with the receivers, and so enormously embarrassing to the federal courts in the administration of their receiverships, as the contention of the plaintiff in this case, if sustained, would impose. Just think of it. A plaintiff may, if that contention be sound, of his own arbitrary choice deprive every federal court, without exception, of any possible jurisdiction of his suit for damages against a federal receiver. Hot even the supreme court of the United States, by writ of error or appeal, could revise his recovery in any respect whatever. And this he could do by the simple device of omitting all mention of the fact in his pleading that he was suing a federal receiver. For, be it remembered, the only usefulness of that fact, in a case like this, is to give the federal court jurisdiction by removal. If the omission may defeat that right, it is a final and fatal defeat. If the defendant cannot set up the fact in his petition for removal, and claim the right of federal jurisdiction, then and there, as one given to him under the constitution and laws of the United States, he can never set it up elsewhere or in any way, and receive that benefit. If in the state court he plead it or set it up in his answer, cui bono? It is an immaterial plea or issue, [547]*547and he could i ala3 nothing hy it. It is a mere waste of paper to plead it, for he could not by such a .plea transfer the case to a federal court, nor ask any relief because of the fact. It does not go to the merits of the controversy, pertaining1 only to the matter of jurisdiction, venue, or forum in which the action is to be tried. Except the desired change of forum, there is nothing else involved in the right he claims under the federal laws, and no other federal question, so called. And here, it seems to me, lies the plain distinction between this case and those relied upon hy the plaintiff.

Those are cases where the right claimed under the constitution and laws of the United Hiatos ⅛ of that substantial character which belongs to or inheres in the controversy itself, as a part of its merits,— one that, if the plaintiff do not develop in his case as he pleads it, the defendant may nevertheless jilead or set up in his answer; and, although he may not remove the suit to a federal court, in limine, he may, if the federal right be denied him, remove that to the supreme court of the United states from the state court of last resort, and there have it determined by a federal tribunal. But should those decisions have any application to those cases involving a right or claim under the constitution and laws of the United States,' like this, when1 the remedy of a writ of error or appeal to the supreme court of the United States would be unavailing to settle the right fulness of the claim as one arising under the constitution and laws of the United States? I think not. We must hen*, however, guard against any possible confusion in the meaning of what has just been said. If the state court should refuse tills removal, as I understand is the case, and go on, as it may, with the litigation, the very question we are now (tonsidering on this motion to remand would arise, and might he taken from the slab1 court of last resort to the supreme court of the United Slates. That is to say, the question would he presented to the state and federal supreme courts, respectively, whether or not there would exist a light of removal where the averment that the defendant was a federal receiver had been omitted from the plaintiff’s petition and was to he found only in the defendant’s removal petition. But that is not the unavailing writ of error referred to in the above-suggested test.

Again, if this motion to remand should be granted, there could he no writ of error from our judgment in that behalf, and the jurisdiction of the state courts would indeed become final. But that is by force of the statute which denies a writ of error from sncli judgments for the very purpose of making the jurisdiction of the state courts conclusive. Act Aug. 13, 1866, c. 866. § 2, last clause (25 Stat. 433). And here It may be remarked that this feature of the removal acts makes it all the more necessary that the right of removal should not he unduly impeded hy carrying too far the doctrine contended for by the plaintiff. It is desired, also, to get away from that possibility of confusion in applying1 the test of our jurisdiction above suggested, and which seems, to my mind, so conclusive iu its favor.

Let us lake the case of Tennessee v. Bank of Commerce, 152 U. S. 454, 14 Sup. Ct. 654, 38 L. Ed. 511, for illustration of our meaning. There the federal right relied upon by the defendant hank was that of [548]*548an inviolable charter contract of exemption from taxation. While it was held that neither by original jurisdiction nor by removal could a circuit court of the United States acquire jurisdiction unless that fact should appear by the plaintiff’s statement of his own claim, it was left open to the defendant banks to set up the exemption in their defense to any suit brought in the state court. And Mr. Justice G-ray, quoting from another case, especially calls attention to this right of the defendant to invoke a federal decision of his federal question by his own pleading, in the following words:

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Bluebook (online)
102 F. 545, 13 Ohio F. Dec. 266, 1900 U.S. App. LEXIS 5226, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/winters-v-drake-circtndoh-1900.