219 F. 320 | E.D. Pa. | 1915
The question involved in this case has been razeed to one of pleading. The plaintiffs have declared upon a contract, its breach, and resultant damages. We are con
A plea to the jurisdiction has been interposed. The ground on which the jurisdiction of the court is challenged is disclosed by the fact that the difference between the market price of the grains at the time and place of delivery and the contract price was $550 on the August shipments, and the damage claimed is a loss on this shipment amounting to $647.11. The principle is invoked that, where the damages claimed are such that a legal certainty exists that they cannot be recovered, they are to be thrown out of the computation in determining the jurisdictional amount. The principle may be accepted. Its application is alone involved. The damages formally laid in the statement of claim show jurisdiction. The argument against jurisdiction proceeds upon the _ proposition that the proper measure of damages is the difference between the market price at the time and place of delivery of the grains contracted to be sold and the contract price, and that the statement of claim on its face discloses what this difference is, and, if the damages are so measured, the claim falls short of the required amount.
The argument of the defendant is that in this case the pleader had selected and applied his own measure of damages, and that thereby a legal certainty exists that he cannot recover more than such predetermined sum, which is, less than the jurisdictional amount. .It is true that the plaintiff has averred' the market price at the time and place of delivery, and the contract price, and the amount of the difference between them, and in this sense the amount of the consequent damages. He has, however, averred more than this — the extension by him of the time of the delivery and the loss or expense to him of supplying himself at a later date with that which the defendant had agreed to furnish. As of which date the damages are to be assessed as the date of the real breach of the contract the evidence will alone disclose. The amount of the damage does not now appear to be a legal certainty to be limited to $550. It may reach $647.11. If the latter, the court has jurisdiction. If the claim of the latter raises a justiciable question, the court has jurisdiction. The test applied is in effect the demurrer test. The rule invoked is in its essence merely the apjplication of practical common sense in the administrative policy of the law. Whenever want of jurisdiction appears, the court can go no further with the case. If it appears to a legal certainty at the outset of the case, why proceed to trial? Answering the question which this test requires, it is clear that the court cannot now find the plaintiffs cannot make good by proofs their claim of damages.
The plea to the jurisdiction is not sustained. Treated as a motion to dismiss for want of jurisdiction, it is disallowed.