128 Minn. 77 | Minn. | 1914
Plaintiff instituted suit in the district court of Waseca county for the wrongful death of her intestate. The complaint alleged facts showing a cause of action against the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad Go. under the Federal Employer’s Liability Act, and attempted to state a cause of action against the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co. under the common law and the statutory law of Iowa,
The controlling question is whether the action of the district court in surrendering jurisdiction to the- Federal court is reviewable on appeal to this court. No provision in our statutes, in terms, gives such appeal. Chadbourne v. Reed, 83 Minn. 447, 86 N. W. 415, is relied on as authority for the proposition that an order or action of the district court which puts an end to further steps in that court in a cause properly triable therein is reviewable on appeal. The question there involved was whether the cause had been removed from one state court to another, and this court held that the matter could be determined on appeal because, as stated by the court, the two district courts having equal jurisdiction on both questions of law and fact might “disagree as to the validity of the transfer of the case, and each strike it from its calendar.” The reason for the ruling in the Chadbourne case does not obtain here. The removal of causes from state to Federal courts is governed entirely by the acts of Congress. “The right to remove is derived from a law of the United States, and whether a case is made for removal is a Federal question.” Railroad Co. v. Koontz, 104 U. S. 5, 26 L. ed. 643; Goldey v. Morning News, 156 U. S. 518, 15 Sup. Ct. 559, 39 L. ed. 517.
Another reason why this court should not interfere, when the district court has transferred the cause, is that the Federal court, by the transfer, is vested with jurisdiction, and even though it erroneously refuses to remand and proceeds to judgment, such judg
Unless good reason be shown for a practice which makes it possible to keep litigation in one suit in two different courts at the same time, it should not prevail. We are well aware that in a majority of the states the question has been determined contrary to the position we take. Dickenson v. Heeb Brewing Co. 73 Iowa, 705, 36 N. W. 651; Akerly v. Vilas, 24 Wis. 165, 1 Am. Rep. 166; Stone v. Sargent, 129 Mass. 503; Mecke v. Valleytown Mineral Co. 122 N. C. 790, 29 S. E. 781; Western Union Tel. Co. v. Griffith, 104 Ga. 56, 30 S. E. 420; State v. Mosman, 231 Mo. 474, 133 S. W. 38, and in others.
We, however, think it more in accord with the Federal act, and with good practice under our statutes, to hold that no appeal lies from an order transferring a cause to the Federal court. There should be no conflict between state and Federal courts. The proper procedure for the state court is thus indicated in Chesapeake & Ohio Ry. Co. v. McCabe, 213 U. S. 207, 29 Sup. Ct. 430, 53 L. ed. 765: “In order to prevent unseemly conflict of jurisdiction it would seem that the state court in such cases should withhold its further exercise of jurisdiction until the decision of the circuit court of the United States is reviewed in this court. If the Federal jurisdiction is not sustained, the case will be remanded with instructions that it be sent back to the state court as if no removal had been had.” Moon on Removal of Causes states in section 177: “Whether there may be an appeal to the supreme or other appellate court of the state from an order of the trial court ordering a removal has been variously decided. By reason of certain amendments to the statutes of the United States, the question has lost nearly all the importance which it once possessed.” The author refers to the change making the order remanding a case final and conclusive and the refusal to remand reviewable, so that parties are not now subject to the predicament pictured in Stone v. Sargent, supra. In Le Roux v. Bay Circuit Judge,
Our determination that the order transferring the cause to the
It also follows that, the cause having been removed and the files transferred, it should not have been placed on the district court calendar of Waseca county for trial, and the court rightfully struck it therefrom.
The appeal from the order transferring the cause is dismissed and the order striking it from the calendar is affirmed.