Ehrhardt D. Franz loft a testate estate to his wife, Sophie, and their ten children. A portion thereof later passed into a trust with the same persons as beneficiaries. Extended litig’ation developed, wherein three and one-third of the ten interests represented by the children were arrayed against Sophie, the trustees, and six and two-thirds of the children interests. The history, issues, and results of that litigation, are set forth in opinions in the various appeals to this court.
Claiming that these six and two-thirds interests in the Burroughs stock held in the trust estate were subject to inheritance taxes as part of the estate of Sophie, that they had not been inventoried in her estate, and that the state had a lien thereon for such taxes, the state was given leave to intervene in this litigation. It filed its petition in intervention wherein it prays that a portion of this stock be transferred from the trustees to the court registry to secure the inheritance taxes thereon and be held “until it may ho determined in the Probate Court of the City of St. Louis whether such stock should have been inventoried therein” as part of the Sophie Franz estate.
Shortly after the petition in intervention was filed, the representatives of five of the above six and two-thirds children interests filed their “Ancillary and Supplemental, Bill of Complaint for an Injunction.” This bill was directed at “the State of Missouri, Stratton Shartel, Attorney General of the State of Missouri, Franklin Miller, Circuit Attorney of the City of St. Louis, State of Missouri, Richmond C. Coburn and Henry II. Stern”— the last two being attorneys for the state in connection with inheritance taxes in the Sophie Franz estate. This hill alleged that the state and the other parties, as its attorneys, had caused to he served on the executor of the Sophie Franz estate a citation from the probate court intended to discover and have inventoried as a part of such estate the Burroughs stock in the trust estate belonging to them; that such action was contrary to the decree of the trial court adjudging them entitled to receive this stock from the trustees; and that the respondents would attempt to obtain orders in the probate court which would he “adverse and prejudicial to the rights and interests of the above named plaintiffs in this cause in this Court and orders, decrees and judgments which will prejudicially affect, impair and defeat the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court and the decree rendered by it in the premises.” The prayer for restraint was from “directly or indirectly prosecuting further the said citation * * * and particularly from seeking or obtaining any order, decree or judgment therein until the further direction of this Honorable Court,” and for temporary relief.
Thereafter the state, specially appearing, filed its motion to dismiss the ancillary and supplemental hill on the grounds that; it failed to state facts warranting the relief;, that it
The trial court sustained the motion on the ground that the Eleventh Amendment prevented the action without the eoüsent of the state, and that the state had neither consented nor waived its rights to such immunity. Declining to plead further, an order was entered dismissing the ancillary and supplemental bill. This appeal is from that order.
Three issues are presented on this appeal, as follows: Did the intervention proceedings constitute a waiver by the state of its immunity under the Eleventh Amendment? If no waiver, is this abtion within the immunity of the amendment? Is this action within the protection of section 265 of the Code?
Waiver.
The immunity from suit of a state under the Eleventh Amendment is a personal privilege which may be waived (Gunter v. Atlantic Coast L. R. Co.,
Interference with Federal Jurisdiction.
The basis of appellants’ bill is that the respondents are seeking to invade the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal eourt and affect the decrees therein injuriously to their rights thereunder. Respondents deny any such intention or effect. It is necessary to determine this matter before we take up the effects of the Eleventh Amendment and of section 265 of the Judicial Code.
The ancillary bill alleges, and the motion to dismiss admits, for the purposes of the motion, that the rights and interests of these appellants in this Burroughs stock have been adjudicated in the federal court, and they are entitled to distribution from the trustees after certain charges in connection with the trust are satisfied. There is a similar admission 'that the proceedings in the probate court are designed to and may result in a determination of these same rights and interests which will be contrary to the result in the decrees of the federal court. These legal admissions are sufficient to establish, for the purposes of this appeal, that the state is claiming the right to relitigate in the probate eourt issues determined in the federal court. However, the state contends here it is doing nothing of the kind. It contends that the rights of only the plaintiffs in the main case were determined. Both parties have gone beyond the immediate pleadings in their presentation of this matter. Possibly we should abide by these pleadings, but, since the parties have taken this excursion, and since the questions here are of grave public consequence, we think it well to follow them so that our determination may rest upon the actualities of the real situation. We are further encouraged to do this because we can find the solution in our own opinions in various of the appeals in the main ease. Therefore we will inquire whether the contemplated action of the state in the probate eourt is designed to relitigate issues concerning the interests of these appellants in this stock which have already been determined in the federal court. It is entirely true that the interests of these appellants are not formally and specifically declared in any of the decrees brought to our attention in the litigation, and that prior to the third appeal [Bud-er v. Franz (C. C. A.)
When this litigation started, none of these remaindermen were parties thereto. On the first appeal (Franz v. Buder,
Having established the jurisdiction to the res, and the litigation being over the rights of all parties thereto in the res, it was inevitable that the basis of the court’s determination should apply with equal force to all parties. This situation is not only self-evident, but it is directly expressed in several of the opinions in these various appeals. In the second appeal (Franz v. Franz,
Also several times there have been direct expressions concerning the effect of our decision on the merits upon the question of administration of any part of this Burroughs stock as a part of the estate of Sophie Franz. On the third appeal (Buder v. Franz,
From this history of the main litigation, it is clear that the rights and interests of these appellants in this stock were involved in and determined in the federal court. Therefore it must be evident that the contemplated action of the state in the probate court must have the purpose to relitigate this very matter. Unless the state can there obtain a result directly opposed to the determination of the federal court, it will completely fail in its purpose. There could be no plainer ease of interference with the jurisdiction of a court and defeat of its decrees entered within its jurisdiction.
The Eleventh Amendment.
The question here is: Dpes the Eleventh Amendment deny jurisdiction to a federal court in an action by individuals against a state where the sole purpose and effect of such action is to protect the decrees of the federal court entered in a cause wherein it had jurisdiction?
This involves examination of the scope of that amendment. The amendment does not stand alone, and no construction of its meaning based upon such hypothesis can be sound. It is only a part of the Constitution, and must be construed as such. Like all instruments, the Constitution is subject to the rational rule of construction that the parts must be understood in relation to each other and to the entirety in order to preserve the fullest vitality of the whole instrument in all of its' parts. “It cannot be presumed that any clause in the constitution is intended to be' without effect * * * unless the words require it.” Marbury v. Madison,
The instant ease presents the same character of situation. As that ease was an examination of the scope of tho amendment in view of a portion of clause 1, section 2, of article 3 of the Constitution, so this case is an examination of the scope of the amendment in view of certain portions of sections 1 and 2 of article 3 of the Constitution. The parts of article 3 involved are “tho judicial Power of the United States, shall bo vested in one supremo Comí, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish” (section 1), and “the judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, * * * between citizens of different States” (section 2). Under these constitutional sanctions, Congress has created the inferior federal courts and prescribed the extent to which and the conditions under which they shall exercise this “judicial power.” Among these prescriptions of judicial power by Congress under the above constitutional provisions are the grant of jurisdiction to the District Courts “of all suits of a civil nature, at common law or in equity, * * * where the matter in controversy exceeds, exclusive of interest and costs, the sum or value of $3,000, and * * * is between citizens of different States * * * ” (28 USCA § 41 (1), Judicial Code, § 24 (1) amended), and that “the Supreme Court, the circuit courts of appeals, and the district courts shall have power to issue all writs not specifically provided for by statute, which may be necessary for the exercise of their respective jurisdictions, and agreeable to the usages and principles of law” (28 USCA § 377, Judicial Code, § 262).
These grants of jurisdiction are within the power given Congress under the clauses of the Constitution above quoted. A part of that granted jurisdiction is the power and the duty to protect that jurisdiction. Kline v. Burke Construction Co.,
A long unbroken lino of decisions in the Supreme Court has put these rules of law beyond challenge. They have been, applied in every situation necessitating this protection and to all parties attempting to interfere with an exclusivo jurisdiction in tho federal courts. There have been two applications (by this court) in the litigation of the main case here. Franz v. Franz,
The situation here is that a state is- seeking to have a federal court, which has full jurisdiction over a res and which has entered its final decrees fully adjudicating the rights of these appellants in that res, transfer to and hold in its registry the property representing the interests of appellants in that res until the state can relitigate, in its own courts, the very issues of interest and title already determined by the decrees of the federal court. Tho state is not seeking permission of the federal court to allow this relitigation. Obviously it contemplates such relitigation. Its purpose in coming into the federal court having the res in jurisdiction is to have that court retain possession thereof, so that, if the state litigation results in a, determination contrary to that of the decrees in the federal court, tho state will have within its territory property from, which it can realize upon this adverso determination. Faced with this threatened violation of their rights under the federal court decree, appellants have filed their ancillary proceeding to enjoin the state from thus disturbing their rights adjudicated and settled in the federal court. To this relief the state interposes the proposition that the court cannot act because tho Eleventh Amendment denies it jurisdiction to act.
Baldly stated, the proposition is that a federal court is stopped by the amendment from preventing a state going into its own courts and overthrowing a decree which the federal court had jurisdiction to enter and has entered. This is a startling proposition. It
Here the state is seeking by action of its executive branch through its courts to annul in part the decrees of a federal court. With this in mind, we may well paraphrase the language of Chief Justice Marshall merely by substituting “executives and courts” for “legislatures” when he said: “If the legislatures [executives and courts] of the several states may, at will, annul the judgments of the courts of the United States, and destroy the rights acquired under those judgments, the constitution itself becomes a solemn mockery; and the nation is deprived of the means of enforcing its laws by the instrumentality of its own tribunals. So fatal a result must be deprecated by all; and the people of Pennsylvania [Missouri], not less than the citizens of every other state, must feel a deep interest in resisting principles so destructive of the union, and in averting consequences so fatal to themselves.” U. S. v. Peters,
If this amendment may be fairly construed so as to preserve the full vitality of its purpose without producing the unfortunate result apprehended by the great Chief Justice and evident to all, that should be done. To do so is but applying the rule that all provisions of the Constitution are of equal validity. Prout v. Starr,
Section 265 of the Code.
This section provides that no court of the United States shall grant an injunction to stay proceedings in a state court, except where authorized in bankruptcy proceedings. 28 USCA § 379. The relief sought by the ancillary bill is to enjoin the state and its attorneys from proceeding in the probate court —obviously, an injunction “to stay proceedings” in a state court. The Supreme Court, has said: “The restrictions embodied in the-section [this section] were, therefore, but a partial accomplishment of the more comprehensive result effectuated by the prohibitions of the 11th Amendment. Both the statute and the amendment relate to the power off courts of the United States to deal, against the will and consent of a state, with controversies between it and individuals.” Gunter v. Atlantic Coast L. R. Co.,
Conclusion.
Our conclusion upon the effect of the Eleventh Amendment and of 0 section 265 of the Judicial Code fits accurately into an expression in the Gunter Case that, “indeed, the proposition that the 11th Amendment, or § 720 of the Revised Statutes [section 265 of the Code], control a court of the United States in administering' relief, although the court was acting in a matter ancillary to a decree rendered in a cause over which it had
Since the only issue on this appeal is jurisdiction to entertain the ancillary and supplemental bill, we might rest here. However, it is well to state that the extent to which this jurisdiction should be exercised—possibly, the extent to which it exists—is the protection of the jurisdiction and decrees of the trial court. This cautionary statement is prompted by an allegation in the petition in intervention. In addition to allegations that appellants had “by pleadings filed in this cause” (the main ease) transferred their interests to Sophie Franz, there is the allegation that this was also done “by diverse acts.” What “acts” are meant is not stated. If this means conveyances or anything not considered in the main ease, the determination thereof in some other court would not affect the jurisdiction in the main ease. It would be foreign to that litigation. However, if all that is meant is something involved in this main litigation (such as the instruments dated January 7 and 30, 1920 [referred to in Buder v. Franz (C. C. A.)
The cause will be reversed, with directions to set aside the orders sustaining the motion to dismiss and dismissing the ancillary and supplemental bill and otherwise to proceed thereafter in accordance with this opinion.
Notes
Franz v. Buder,
