Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. v. Lake Street Elevated Railroad
177 U.S. 51
SCOTUS
1900
Check Treatment
Mr. Justice Shirks,

after stating the case, delivered the opinion of the court.

Whether the state courts erred in refusing to accept the peti tion and bond filed by the plaintiff in error, the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company, for removal of the cause to the Circuit Court of the United States, and whether the Lake Street Elevated Eailroad Company, the American Trust and Savings Bank and the Northern Trust Company, by appearing in the Circuit Court, by moving to remand, by demurring to the bill, after such motion had been overruled, and by appealing to the Circuit Court of Appeals, were estopped from proceeding in the state court, are questions which have been argued at length before us, but which, for reasons presently to be stated, we have not found it necessary to decide.

Apart from those questions, the principal matters in dispute are the legal competency of the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company to act as trustee under the mortgage, and whether, in view of the controversy between the two sets of bondholders in regard to the right and expediency of a foreclosure proceeding, the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company can proceed to enforce the provisions of the mortgage. And these are matters which are necessarily involved, and can be properly raised and determined in the Circuit Court of the United States whose jurisdiction had attached by the filing of the bill.of foreclosure before the commencement of the suit in the state court.

The contention that the jurisdiction of the state court first attached because, although the suit therein was not commenced till after the commencement of the suit in the Federal court, the summons issued by the state court Avas served before the service of the writ of subpoena issued by the Federal court, is not well founded.

A suit in equity is commenced by filing a bill of complaint. Story’s Equity Pleading, sec. 7, fourth edition.

Such is also the rule by statute in Illinois. Rev. Stats. Illinois, 1874, c. 22; Hodgen v. Guttery, 58 Illinois, 431.

It is true that in applying the doctrine of lis pendens to the case of a third person who is a Iona fide purchaser, notice is held to begin from the date of service of the subpoena and not from the filing of the bill. Miller v. Sherry, 2 Wall. 237, 250; 2 Maddock’s Ch. Pr. 325; Haughwout v. Murphy, 22 N. J. Eq. 536, 545; Grant v. Bennett, 96 Illinois, 513.

But here no question is presented relating to rights acquired by any third person after the commencement of the suit and before the service of process on the defendants. As between the immediate parties, in a proceeding in rem, jurisdiction must be regarded as attaching when the bill'is filed and process has issued, and where, as was the case here, the process is subsequently duly served, in accordance with the rules of practice of the court.

The defendants could not defeat jurisdiction thus acquired, and supplant the case, by bringing suit in another court and procuring an ex parte injunction seeking to restrain the service of process already issued.

As, then, the bill of foreclosure had been filed in the Circuit Court of the United States, and the jurisdiction of that court had thus attached before the commencement of the suit in the state court, it follows upon principle and authority that it was. not competent for the State court to interfere by injunction or otherwise with the proceedings in the Federal court.

The possession of the res vests the court which has first acquired jurisdiction with the power to hear and determine all controversies relating thereto, and for the time being disables other courts of coordinate jurisdiction from exercising a like power. This rule is essential to the orderly administration of justice, and to prevent unseemly conflicts.between courts whose jurisdiction embraces the same subjects and persons.

Nor is this rule restricted in its application to cases where property has been actually seized under judicial process before a second suit is instituted in another court, but it often applies as well where suits are brought to enforce liens against specific property, to marshal assets, administer trusts or liquidate insolvent estates, and in suits of a similar nature where, in the progress of the litigation, the court may be compelled to assume the possession and control of the property to be affected. The rule has been declared to be of especial importance in its application to Federal and state courts. Peck v. Jenness, 7 How. 612; Freeman v. Howe, 24 How. 450; Moran v. Sturges, 154 U. S. 256; Central Bank v. Stevens, 169 U. S. 432; Harkrader v. Wadley, 172 U. S. 148.

Our conclusion is-that the Superior Court of Cook County erred in its decree perpetually enjoining and restraining the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company, the plaintiff in error, from proceeding with or prosecuting the said foreclosure suit in the Circuit Court of the United States, and - from acting in any manner whatsoever under and by virtue of the terms, provisions and conditions of the said mortgage; that the Appellate Court of the First. District of Illinois erred in affirming said- decree, and that the Supreme Court of Illinois erred in affirming the judgment of the said Appellate Court.

Accordingly, the judgment of the Supreme Court of Illinois is reversed, and the cause is remanded to that court for further proceedings not i/nconsistent with this opinion.