99 N.Y.S. 743 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1906
The defendant appears specially and moves to vacate the summons and dismiss the complaint on the ground that the court is without jurisdiction, and also to set aside the service of the summons and complaint on the ground that such service was not made upon an officer of the defendant then acting as such. The action is brought for the recovery of the sum of $500, with interest from July, 1902, for professional services rendered by the plaintiff in defending certain actions and proceedings pending in the courts of the Island of Porto Rico, to which this defendant was a party. The service of the summons and complaint was made upon Beekman Winthrop, who was temporarily within this State on his way to the. Island of Porto Rico, there to resume his duties as governor thereof. As stated above, there are two distinct branches of the motion, one being to vacate the summons and dismiss the complaint on the ground that the courts of this State have no jurisdiction in any event over the defendant, which is an independent civil government, and the other branch of the motion being to set aside the service of the summons and complaint on the ground that the person served, although the governor of the defendant, was not then acting as such. It will not be necessary to consider the second branch of the motion, because of the conclusion I have reached that the court is without jurisdiction, however service might have been made or attempted. The plaintiff, in a learned and able brief, recognizes the principle of the immunity of a sovereign nation from process issued out of the courts of a sister nation or of one of the States of this Union, but claims that the defendant does not possess such attributes of sovereignty as to bring it within this rule, but, on the contrary, is, and should be, treated as a foreign corporation doing business within this State, it being alleged and not disputed that it maintains an agency in this city for the sale of the products of the Island of Porto Rico. At this point it will be useful to advert to the act of Congress which created the defendant as a body- politic. That act constitutes chapter 191, passed April 12, 1900, and is entitled “ an act temporarily to provide revenues and a civil government for
Motion granted, without costs.