199 N.E. 628 | NY | 1936
[EDITORS' NOTE: THIS PAGE CONTAINS HEADNOTES. HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.] *381 Baltimore Mail Steamship Company is a corporation organized under the laws of Maryland. It is engaged solely in interstate and foreign commerce. It operates five steamships for the transportation of passengers, mails and cargo between the ports of Baltimore, Maryland, and Norfolk, Virginia, and between those ports and Havre in France and Hamburg and Bremen in Germany. Michael Madsen was injured while working as a seaman on a steamship operated by Baltimore Mail Steamship Company. At the time of the accident the steamship was lying at a pier at Norfolk, Virginia. Madsen thereafter became a resident of the State of New York and began in this State an action against Baltimore Mail Steamship Company to recover damages caused by the injury suffered on its steamship.
Baltimore Mail Steamship Company moved in the Appellate Division for an order of prohibition against any further proceedings in the action. It claimed that prosecution of the action in this State "will impose an oppressive and unreasonable burden upon the interstate and foreign commerce in which it is engaged, in contravention of Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution of the United States, and that by reason of that fact the courts of the State of New York have not jurisdiction over the subject matter of the action." The motion was denied, and Baltimore Mail Steamship Company now appeals to this court as of right, on the ground that the construction of the Constitution of the United States is directly involved in the proceeding.
At the outset the question arises whether we have any jurisdiction to review the order of the Appellate Division, which recites that the "motion for an order of prohibition *383
be and the same hereby is denied in the exercise ofdiscretion." We may not review the discretion of the Appellate Division where there is room for the exercise of discretion. We have said in People ex rel. Cuvillier v. Hagarty (
We need not now attempt a general definition of the limits of judicial discretion. Doubtless the cases are rare where there is no element of discretion. At least in those rare cases where a writ or order of prohibition is the only available remedy against invasion of a right guaranteed by law, a refusal to grant that remedy is in effect a denial of the right. The appellant here contends that under the Constitution of the United States the exercise of jurisdiction by the courts of this State in the action brought against it here would violate a right guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. Since the State itself cannot deny rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, it is evident that the courts of this State must give protection to such a right. Refusal of the only possible means of protection of a constitutional right cannot, then, be justified upon the ground that it was made in the exercise of discretion. It is not within the power of a State to so regulate the jurisdiction of its courts as to prevent the effective assertion of a constitutional right. (Cf. Kentucky v. Powers, *385
The general jurisdiction of the courts of this State extends to transitory causes of action arising in another jurisdiction, even though the plaintiff may not have been a resident of this State when the cause of action arose, and the defendant may be a foreign corporation. (Gregonis v. Philadelphia Reading Coal Iron Co.,
Litigation against carriers "in states and jurisdictions remote from that in which the cause of action arose entails absence of employees from their customary occupations; and [that] this impairs efficiency in operation, and causes, directly and indirectly, heavy expense to the carriers." (Davis v. FarmersCo-operative Equity Co.,
In the recent case of International Milling Co. v. ColumbiaTransportation Co. (
A repetition of the analysis of the cases there collated would serve no purpose. In none of these cases did the *387
court base its decision upon any single factor. In the cases where jurisdiction was denied, the cause of action arose in another State, the defendant was an interstate railroad, which had no tracks and did no business other than soliciting traffic in the State where it was sued, and the plaintiff at the time the cause of action arose was not a resident of that State (Davis
v. Farmers Co-operative Equity Co.,
In the action brought by Madsen against this appellant, no circumstance exists which would justify a conclusion that the defendant may reasonably be compelled to submit to a suit here. The accident occurred in another State; the defendant carries on no activities here except to solicit business for commerce which does not touch this State. The plaintiff was not employed in this State or resident here when the cause of action arose. Thus the exercise of jurisdiction in the negligence action by the courts of this State would be an unreasonable burden upon the business of interstate and foreign commerce conducted by the defendant, which is not warranted by the requirements of "orderly, effective administration of justice."
The question remains whether an application for an order of prohibition is the only proceeding left open to the appellant for the assertion of its rights, and whether a denial of that application is in effect a denial of appellant's constitutional rights. The appellant has previously unsuccessfully challenged the jurisdiction of the courts of this State by motion to dismiss the complaint made after a special appearance for that purpose. That motion was denied, and upon appeal the Appellate Division affirmed the order denying the motion and refused leave to appeal to this court. The decision upon the motion to dismiss the complaint does not preclude the defendant from objecting thereafter on the same grounds to the jurisdiction of the court, even though that decision has not been reversed upon appeal. A court without jurisdiction of the subject-matter of an action can acquire no jurisdiction by erroneous decision that it has jurisdiction. (Cf. Bank of Jasper v. First Nat. Bank,
The carrier's grievance here is not that a judgment against it, granted by a court without jurisdiction, would be void and unenforceable under the "due process" clause of the Constitution. (Cf. Davis v. Farmers Co-operative Equity Co., supra.) If that were all, the ordinary proceedings of motion to vacate the judgment or of appeal from the final judgment, bringing up for review the interlocutory order denying its motion to dismiss, might furnish a remedy, though incomplete, and the Appellate Division might perhaps in the exercise of discretion refuse to decide the question of whether the trial court has jurisdiction until after that court has rendered judgment. The carrier's grievance here is that the defense of a cause of action for negligence in a State remote from the place where the alleged negligence occurred and remote from the place where it carries passengers or goods, constitutes an unreasonable burden upon its business of transportation. It challenges the right of the State to seize its property here and to compel it to defend such an action here. Answer to that challenge cannot be postponed till after trial, for then a belated decision that the courts of the State had no right to compel a carrier to defend an action would furnish no protection to the defendant's constitutional immunity from the burden of such a defense.
By motion to dismiss made in the action brought against it and by appeal from the order of denial, the appellant had exhausted all the ordinary remedies offered by the procedure of this State for the protection of the appellant's constitutional rights. Then only the extraordinary remedy of prohibition remained open. The way was not barred by the adverse decision of the motion made on the same ground. (Cf. Denver Rio Grande Western R.R. Co. v.Terte, supra.) The ordinary and extraordinary remedies provided by law for the protection of the *390 appellant's rights are not based on inconsistent theories; indeed, perhaps, an attempt to invoke the extraordinary remedy of prohibition might have been futile so long as it did not appear that the same relief could not be obtained by the ordinary remedy of motion in the action.
In that case (Denver Rio Grande Western R.R. Co. v. Terte,supra) no appeal was taken from the order denying the motion in the action before the defendant applied for a writ of prohibition. Under the practice and procedure of the State of Missouri, where the action was brought, no appeal can be taken from such an interlocutory order in an action until after final judgment. Here, as we have said, an appeal was taken to the Appellate Division and the order was affirmed; leave to appeal was denied by the Appellate Division, and under our practice and procedure no further appeal could then be taken to this court. Now it is urged that even though it has been authoritatively determined that a motion made in an action to vacate the process of the court or to dismiss a complaint does not bar subsequent application for an order of prohibition upon the same grounds, yet that when the motion has been denied, an appeal from the order of denial is inconsistent with and bars a subsequent application for an order of prohibition.
The jurisdiction of the courts of this State rests upon law, both statutory and constitutional. Erroneous decision as to its own jurisdiction of the subject of an action rendered by a court without jurisdiction is, as we have said, entirely void and has no conclusive effect upon the parties to the action, though the court might have jurisdiction of their persons. Here there is no room for distinction between final and interlocutory decisions or between decisions of a trial court and decisions of an appellate court affirming or reversing the trial court. The appellant here is not seeking a second review of the order denying its motion made in the action. It is seeking an extraordinary remedy where the ordinary remedy of appeal has been exhausted. *391
It is said, however, that after the appellant sought the remedy of appeal, it was bound to pursue that remedy as far as it could before it applied for an order of prohibition. We assume for the purposes of this appeal that the appellant has no absolute right to an order of prohibition unless it has exhausted its remedy by appeal. It has certainly exhausted every remedy by appeal now open to it under the laws of this State, but it is said that it did not seek a review by the Supreme Court of the United States of the order of affirmance of the Appellate Division. The order of the Appellate Division was not final under the procedure of this State, and no decision of the Supreme Court of the United States has been called to our attention which indicates that the order of the Appellate Division would be regarded by the Supreme Court as final for purposes of review. (Cf. Meagher v.Minnesota Thresher Mfg. Co.,
The order of the Appellate Division should be reversed, with costs in all courts, and the application granted.
CRANE, Ch. J., O'BRIEN, HUBBS, CROUCH, LOUGHRAN and FINCH, JJ., concur.
Ordered accordingly.