12 F. Cas. 781 | U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Vermont | 1853
The judicial power of the United States is, by the constitution, vested in one supreme court, and in such inferior courts as the congress may, from time to time, ordain and establish. And here I cannot forbear saying, what is naturally suggested to the mind by this reference to the constitution, though it may-have no direct or immediate bearing upon the particular matter in question, that the more closely any one studies the constitution of the United States, and the greater his experience and opportunities of observation in civil life, the more he will be brought to admire the wisdom, the sagacity, and the enlightened patriotism of the authors of that instrument. None of its provisions present higher evidence of intelligence, judgment, and inflexible devotion to principle, than those concerning the judiciary — giving it, as they do, a limited, yet adequate, jurisdiction, extending to, but not going a jot beyond, what the wants, necessities, and exigencies of the government of a nation, formed by a union of states, retaining in severalty a distinct but qualified sovereignty, require, with a tenure of office during good behavior, determinable only by misconduct — thus securing, as far as any organic law can do, consistently with subjection to just responsibility, that independence of opinion and action which is indispensably requisite to preserve rectitude, impartiality-, and firmness in the administration of justice.
Under and pursuant to the constitution, congress, besides a supreme court, has established certain courts inferior to that court, called and known as the circuit and district courts. In erecting these courts, congress might have given them such jurisdiction as it thought proper, keeping within the limits prescribed in the constitution. It. might
The plaintiffs are joint administrators, un-. •der letters of administration granted by a ■court of probate in this state, the intestate •having had his domicil here. One of the •plaintiffs, Hubbard, is a citizen of New Hampshire; and the other, Downer, a citi.zen of this state. The defendant is a cor-poiation, created, established, and performing its corporate functions in New York. The suits were regularly commenced in the •state court, according to the laws of the state, service being made upon the defendant, in one case, by attaching a large amount of personal property; and, in the other, by attaching personal property and also certain debts owing the defendant by certain persons summoned in as trustees.
The language used by congress, in provid-' ing for and regulating the removal of causes, .at the instance of the defendant, from a state court to the circuit court, is not the same, in reference to the character or residence of the parties, as that employed in suits originally brought in the circuit court 'There is a marked difference, in the particular mentioned, in the phraseology of the two provisions — one being much more restrictive than the other. In that giving original jurisdiction, the words are. “where the suit is between, a citizen of the state where the suit is brought, and a citizen of another state.” In that giving jurisdiction of suits originally commenced in a state court and regulating their removal, the words are. “commenced by a citizen of the state in which the suit is brought, against a citizen of another state.” •Of course, jurisdiction, which is excluded, in both classes of cases, where neither party is .a citizen of the state in which the suit is brought, is not coextensive, in the latter class, with that in the former; for, no suit, for instance, commenced in a state court by .a citizen of another state, against a citizen •of the. state where the suit is brought, can •be removed to the circuit court, although it might have been originally brought there. But the difference between the two provisions, so far as concerns the single isolated question here presented, is not material, the construction, in that particular, being alike as to both.
If Downer were the sole plaintiff in these actions, he being a citizen of this state, and' the defendant resident in New York, the cases, it is obvious, would be within the very terms of the act of congress; but, if Hubbard were the sole plaintiff, he not being a citizen of this state, the cases, it is equally obvious, would not be within the act The question, therefore, simply is, whether, there being two plaintiffs, it is sufficient to bring the cases within the provisions of the act of congress, and give jurisdiction, that one of the plaintiffs is a citizen of this state, or whether it is necessary that both should be.
Though there may be no adjudged case exactly in point upon this particular provision of the act there are several cases upon the provision relating to original jurisdiction, which, from just analogy, would seem to decide the present question. In the case of New Orleans v. Winter, 1 Wheat. [II U. S.] 91, where the plaintiffs below brought their suit in the circuit court for Louisiana, one of them .being a citizen of the state of Kentucky, and the other a citizen of the Mississippi territory, it was held, that a citizen of a territory cannot sue a citizen of a state m ■the courts of the United States, nor can those courts take jurisdiction by other parties being joined -who are capable of suing. Marshall, O. X, after stating that Winter, being .a citizen of the Mississippi territory, was incapable of maintaining a suit alone in the circuit court of Louisiana, asks: “Is this case mended, by being associated with others who are capable of suing in that court?” And he decides the question, by saying: “In the case of Strawbridge v. Curtis, 3 Cranch [7 U. S.] 267, it was decided, that, where a joint interest is prosecuted, the jurisdiction cannot be sustained, unless each individual be entitled to claim that jurisdiction.” The sum of the matter seems to be, that in every cáse brought before a circuit court by original process, each of the persons prosecuting must be competent to sue, and each of the persons defending must be liable to be sued, in such court. Here, one of the plaintiffs as well as the defendant, residing out of this district, it is quite evident that the cases between these parties, though between citizens of different states, are not of a character to be within the original cognizance of this court, and. of course, could not have been instituted therein.
From the rule so laid down at an early day, and thus reconsidered and re-affirmed at an after period, in respect to the jurisdiction of suits originally brought in the circuit court, it must follow, unless a distinction be made wliere there is no perceptible ground
Such appearing to be the construction, not only authorized but called for, by determinations of the highest judicial authority, it forms the law for the decision of the question here pending; and, according to it, one of the plaintiffs not being a citizen of this state, this court has not jurisdiction. The consequence is, that the motion to dismiss must be allowed, and the causes be remanded to the state court.