131 F.2d 516 | 5th Cir. | 1942
Brought by a single plaintiff, the holder of a contingent endowment insurance certificate of a maximum value of $1000 against the Preferred Life Assurance Society, an insurance corporation, and its officers and agents, the suit was not brought as a class action under Rule 23(a) or (b),
We are in no doubt that plaintiff’s claim of $200,000 damages to himself on his $1000 certificate was entirely colorable for the purpose of conferring jurisdiction. St. Paul Mercury Indem. Co. v. Cab Co., 303 U.S. 283, 289, 58 S. Ct. 586, 82 L.Ed. 845. The complaint contains not a single allegation of fact on which a judgment for damages claimed in excess of the value of his certificate could possibly be awarded. It is legally inconceivable that a person holding a certificate representing a claim for money which could not at the most bring him more than $1000, could be entitled to a judgment for damages on account of being induced to purchase the certificate by representations that it was worth $1000, when in fact it was worth less. Appellant’s other point, that the suit should be considered as a class suit with the amount in controversy the value of, and the injuries to, the properties owned by the class, is equally without merit. For whatever might be said of plaintiff’s right to bring a class suit under Rule 23, if he had elected to do so, he did not bring such a suit, and in view of the definite requirements of that rule, a court, in the absence of any attempt by plaintiff to comply with it, will not, indeed cannot, by in effect, rewriting his petition for him, convert the suit which he brought as an individual suit and on his own behalf into a class suit, on behalf of the Society. The announced purpose of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure is to make pleadings simple and intelligible, and practice and procedure under them conducive to the speedy and sure attainment of just results, and the rules are so drawn that conformity with them will give effect to this purpose. In order to achieve the results intended by particular rules, while there should not be slavish, there should be substantial compliance with them, and a suit brought as an individual and not as a class action, without any regard to, or attempted compliance with, Rule 23, may not, in order to confer jurisdiction on the court, be construed as a class suit. The dismissal was, of course, without prejudice to the right of plaintiff to try again in the State Court or the Federal Court, as he may be advised, and whether if he tries again he might make a case under Rule 23 is not before us for decision. What the district judge decided and what we decide is only that, as brought, as an individual suit by plaintiff on his own behalf, the amount in controversy was not within the jurisdiction of the court. The judgment was right. It is affirmed.