30 F. Cas. 253 | U.S. Circuit Court for the Southern District of Illnois | 1879
This case is of importance, as it involves the question whether process can be served upon a foreign corporation doing business in this state, because it is found in the state.
The acts of 1789 [1 Stat. 73] and 1875 [18-Stat. 470] declare that no suit shall be brought against any person in any other district than that in which he is an inhabitant, or where he is found, so that where suit was brought against any person in a district other than that in which he resides, or in which he is an inhabitant, he must be found there, in order to enable the courts of the United States to have jurisdiction; so there has always been a rule in relation to suits brought against any persons in the federal courts. When the supreme court declared that a corporation was*a person within the meaning of the law, which authorized suit to be brought by and against persons, then, of course, the question arose at once where this person was to be found or was found. The case of Bank of Augusta v. Earle, 13 Pet. [3S U. S.] 517, decided the question as to where a corporation could make a contract. The question did not arise there under the clause of the law as to where a corporation was found. The court held that although a corporation could not
The allegation in the bill that the St. Louis Beef Canning Company—this corporation created under the laws of Missouri—own» and possesses a slaughter house and stock yard in the city of East St. Louis, Illinois, where beef to be canned by the company is slaughtered and dressed, preparatory for, and in the name of, such company, is not denied in the plea, and it must be considered as admitted. Now, in the Case of Harris, supra, the only ground upon which the court took jurisdiction of the case was under the acts of congress. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was authorized to construct a railroad within the District of Columbia; the service of process was upon the president of the company; he was found within the district;' the person— the corporation—was there through its president, and it was the only way that the court could by any possibility take jurisdiction. The person—the defendant—the corporation, must be found within the district in order that the court may take jurisdiction, and it was found there in consequence of the acts of congress, which authorized it to construct a branch road within the district, and because the president was there within the district. At the time the writ was thus served there was no act of congress authorizing suits against corporations doing business in the district, and of course no act which authorized service of process upon foreign corporations, though the court took jurisdiction of the case, as I have said, on the ground that the corporation was there found. It is said that if this position be maintained, that every officer of every foreign corporation who comes within the limits of the state of Illinois is liable to service of process, and that the corporation would be found here because the officer or president was nere. That does not follow. On the contrary, I think that it is to be said only of foreign corporations that should be thus found here, in the absence of any express legislation authorizing service of process. It is necessary that the foreign corporation should do business in the state in order to be found here, and in order to warrant service on the president when within the limits of the state. The mere fact of its president or other officer passing through the state, and process being served upon him, would not bring the case within the meaning of the act of congress. A foreign corporation would not in that way be found within the limits of the state, and it seems to me that independent of the authority of the case of Harris, sound reasoning leads us to the same result. As soon as it was determined that a corporation was a person liable to sue and be sued, it must of necessity be brought within the jurisdiction of the federal courts. As the law is now understood and has been decided by the supreme . court of the United States, a foreign corporation cannot do business outside of the territory where created, except by the consent of the state where it desires to do business. Of course, that being so, the state has a right to prescribe upon what condition it may do business. As to foreign insurance companies, Illinois has legislated upon that subject because the agents are so numerous; their names are legion. The statute, therefore, declares that before a corporation of that kind can do business here, it must consent to service of process upon its agent.
There is no such legislation as to this particular kind of corporation; but does it follow that the state must legislate upon the Beef Oanning Association of Missouri, or that otherwise it cannot be served with process'? I do not think that because it has legislated in relation to foreign insurance companies, it
NOTE. A national hank cannot be sued in the federal court outside of the district where it is located, and service on the cashier, when found within another district, does not give jurisdiction. Main v. Second Nat. Bank [Case No. 8,976]. The acts of congress confer no jurisdiction over a defendant who is served with process, while temporarily in a district in which he does not reside. Smith v. Tuttle [Id. 13.120], In a suit against a corporation, in the United States circuit court in one state, by a citizen of another state, service of process within the state upon a joint defendant, a citizen of a third state, gives the federal court jurisdiction over him. Mowrey v. Indiana & G. It. Go. [Id. 9.891], Under the act of congress of March 3, 1875, a corporation cannot be served with process outside of the state where it was created, and the presence of an agent of a foreign corporation is not the presence of the corporation within the meaning of the act. Hume v. Pittsburgh. C. & St. L. R. Co. [Id. 6,-865.]