218 F. 713 | D. Idaho | 1914
By the affidavit of O. J. Parrott, filed on behalf of the defendant, it is shown that the partnership operations of the plaintiff and defendant were limited to different jobs of construction work, aggregating in value an amount approximating $100,000. So far as appears, the partnership is not indebted to any person, nor is any person indebted to it; all contracts having been fully completed and paid for, and the indebtedness of the partnership having been discharged. Furthermore, it appears that the partnership owns no property, at least no property other than such claims as it may have against the defendant and the plaintiff for moneys received by one or both of them on account of partnership transactions for which they have not accounted.
Iii his complaint the plaintiff does not allege or intimate what amount he claims to be due from the defendant to the partnership or to him as one of the partners. The prayer is for an accounting and for judgment for such amount as may appear to be due. On the other hand, in the amended answer, which the defendant proposes to file, it is suggested that there may be something due from the plaintiff to the partnership, on account of two of the contracts which constituted a part of the partnership business. In an affidavit supporting his objection that the suit does not involve a dispute of the requisite value, the plaintiff definitely specifies the matters on account of which, and the amounts for which, he claims credit, and, according to the statement, there is due to him the sum of only $1,432.34. He claims no more. In the amended answer of the defendant, already referred to, the statement or suggestion that the plaintiff may be indebted to the defendant is of a very general character, and is of such an indefinite nature that I am inclined to think it can serve no useful function in the consideration of the motion to remand.
To sustain the jurisdiction of this court the defendant relies very largely upon the case of Rogers v. Lawton (C. C.) 162 Fed. 203, where, in a suit for a partnership accounting, a plea was filed to the jurisdiction, on the ground that the amount in controversy did not exceed $2,000. The following is all that the court said upon the subject:
“Assuming tlie plea to be true, it appears therefrom that the common personal property considerably exceeds $2,000, and I shall assume, without particular examination of the question, that the whole of the common property constitutes the amount in controversy, and that the court has Jurisdiction.”
By the plaintiff here it is suggested that there is no palpable fund, and hence the rule assumed to be correct in the Rogers-Lawton Case