83 F. 889 | U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern Virginia | 1897
The bill in this case, among other tMngs, alleges, that, in consequence of a pooling agreement made between certain shareholders in the Seaboard & Roanoke Railroad Company, one Theodore Cooke, a subscriber thereto, forwarded to Louis McLane, chairman of the committee, original certificate No-. 754, for 153 shares in this company; that he executed in blank an assignment on the back of the certificate; that subsequently he, for value, sold, and by a proper instrument in writing assigned, the certificate No. 754 to complainant; that after his purchase of the certificate complainant demanded the certificate No. 754 from McLane; that McLane refused to return it to him. It then charges that, after such demand for the return of the certificate, the committee,
The defendants file their pleas to the jurisdiction upon the ground that Richard Curzon Hoffman, Louis McLane, Andrew C. Trippe, J. Livingston Minis, and Charles D. Fisher are citizens of the state of Maryland, nonresident in this district, and that the Raleigh & Gas-ton Railroad Company is a citizen of the state of North Carolina, and nonresident in this district. A press of engagements prevents an extended discussion of this matter. So far as the claim for the delivery of the certificate No. 754 is concerned, inasmuch as that is within the district, personal property, the title to which is clouded and possession of which is sought, the bill is within the act of 1875. As Mr. Hoffman is president of the company,1 holding the certificate whose action is necessary to obtain full relief respecting it, and as Mr. McLane has a certificate issued upon surrender of this certificate No. 754, they are parties who can be served notwithstanding their nonresidence. The pleas based upon their presence as parties are overruled, and the defendants have leave to answer over. With regard to the other defendants, the pleas are sustained, and the bill as to them dismissed.