Jurisdiction Commons^™

Process In Actions Against Non-Resident Motorists, Maurice S. Culp

Michigan Law Review

Personal service on the defendant within the jurisdiction of a State is the conventional form of process in personal actions. But considerations of convenience and public need have resulted in recognizing an additional form of process in personal actions against nonresident motorists. Statutes in 35 States authorize the commencement of suit against the non-resident motorist by substituted service on a public official of the State where the cause of action arises; the official is made for this purpose the agent or attorney of the non-resident motorist.

It is proposed herein to discuss (1) the constitutional basis of such legislation, and …

Admiralty-Venue Of Action Brought In State Court Under Jones Act

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff brought suit in a county court of Pennsylvania to to recover damages for injuries sustained by her while a member of the steamship crew of the defendant. The action was based on the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 which provided: "Jurisdiction in such actions shall be under the court of the district in which the defendant employer resides or in which his principal office is located." Defendant corporation moved to dismiss the action on the ground that the court had no jurisdiction since defendant's principal office was in Baltimore. The motion was granted and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court …

Federal Practice - Appeal And Error - Dismissal Of Counterclaim Because Of Improper Venue Appealable As Interlocutory Order Denying Injunction

Michigan Law Review

To plaintiffs' suit for patent infringement defendants counterclaimed upon an unrelated patent asking for an injunction and an accounting. Plaintiffs' motion to dismiss on the ground of improper venue was sustained by the district court. Defendants appealed and plaintiffs moved to dismiss on the ground that dismissal of a counterclaim was not a refusal of an injunction and therefore not appealable under Sec. 129, Judicial Code. The circuit court of appeals allowed the appeal and this decision was affirmed by the Supreme Court. General Electric Co. et al. v. Marvel Rare Metals Co. et al., 287 U.S. 430, 53 …

Federal Practice -Venue - Plaintiff's Privilege In Respect To Defendant's Counterclaim On An Unrelated Patent

Michigan Law Review

Petitioners brought suit in the federal court for the northern district of Ohio against defendant corporations having regular and established places of business in that district and against two individual defendants resident there alleging infringement of patent rights and asking for injunction, damages, and an accounting. Defendants' answer denied infringement and set up a counterclaim based on a patent granted one of the defendants praying for an injunction against infringement and an accounting. Defendants' counterclaim did not allege that petitioners were inhabitants of the district where the counterclaim was to be tried or that they had regular and established places …

Trial Practice - Special Appearance To Contest Garnishment

Michigan Law Review

The proceeds of an insurance policy payable to the defendant, a non-resident, were attached by garnishment. The defendant, who was served by publication, filed a paper entitled "Special Appearance" to question the jurisdiction of the court over his person and property. The lower court sustained the special appearance on the ground that the proceeds of the policy were exempt from garnishment. Held, that the exemption of the proceeds was not material to the question of jurisdiction in rem, so it should not have been considered on special appearance. Reversed with leave to the defendant to enter a general …

Wills And Administration - Jurisdiction Over The Probate Of Lost Or Destroyed Wills

Michigan Law Review

Under Mich. Comp. Laws (1929), sec. 15547, a will lost, suppressed or destroyed may be admitted to probate upon its being established in a prescribed manner in the probate court. And under sec. 15543 no will is effectual to pass title to property unless probated as required by law. Plaintiff coal company, apparently under the direction of its manager, King, filed a bill of interpleader for a judicial determination as to whether it should pay rent as lessee of certain property to the administrator of the estate of the deceased lessor, or to King, who claimed as devisee of the …

Corporations - Interference With The Internal Affairs Of A Foreign Corporation

Michigan Law Review

The quaint cliché, "interference with the internal affairs of a foreign corporation," has sufficiently dominated judicial decisions to merit an exalted place in what Justice Cardozo has called "the tyranny of tags and tickets." A frequently adopted analysis for the purpose of determining whether the court will hear the cause allegedly involving internal affairs confines the inquiry of the court to the application of a test laid down by the Maryland court about a half century ago.

Constitutional Law-Res Judicata In Federal Courts

Michigan Law Review

In American Surety Company v. Baldwin the Surety Company had chosen the state courts of Idaho as its forum for determining the issue of liability upon the supersedeas bond and had pursued its remedy to the Supreme Court. Then it sought to re-open the issue and inject a federal question by bringing an action to enjoin the enforcement of the judgment in the federal courts in Idaho. It was held that the doctrine of res judicata prevented a resort to an independent hearing in the federal courts in that State. American Surety Company v. Baldwin, (U.S. 1932) 53 Sup. …

Constitutional Law - Requirements Of Due Process In State Procedure

Michigan Law Review

In American Surety Company v. Baldwin the Surety Company complained that the procedure in Idaho deprived it of a hearing upon its liability on a supersedeas bond. After judgment was given on the bond the Surety Company moved to vacate the order and the motion was granted. Baldwin took an appeal from this order to the Supreme Court of Idaho which reversed the trial court. The sole question raised by the motion was whether the trial court had jurisdiction to give judgment. Under the Idaho practice an appeal from the judgment of the court was the proper method to review …

Practice And Procedure - Declaratory Judgment

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff brought an action under the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act to be adjudged the lawful child of J. C., deceased. A demurrer upon the grounds that no cause of action was stated and that the court lacked jurisdiction of the subject matter was sustained. On appeal, held, error. The question of status can be determined under the Act independent of any controversy relating to other rights. Miller v. Currie, (Wis. 1932) 242 N. W. 570.

Constitutional Law - Federal Questions Reviewable By The Supreme Court

Michigan Law Review

Two cases decided by the Supreme Court at the October, 1932, term of Court raised important questions of federal practice and due process of law. Judgment was rendered, on motion, without notice, pursuant to the terms of the bond, against the American Surety Company on a supersedeas bond given in an action in which the Singer Sewing Machine Company and one Anderson were the defendants in the trial court after the Supreme Court of Idaho had affirmed the judgment of the trial court as to Anderson and reversed it as to the Sewing Machine Company. An order of the trial …

Injunctions Of State Courts Restraining Parties From Proceeding In The Tribunals Of Other States

Michigan Law Review

It has long been accepted that a court of equity, acting in personam, can enjoin one over whom it has jurisdiction from bringing an action in a foreign tribunal. A nice question is presented when an effort is made to determine on what occasions the court will exercise that power. It is frequently said that it will be exercised but sparingly, and then only where a clear equitable right is established by the petitioner. This, in spite of the strong language commonly accompanying such statements, is no more than that which the court requires for the issuance of any …

Limiting Jurisdiction Of Federal Courts-Pending Billscomment By Members Of Chicago University Law Faculty

Michigan Law Review

At the time the last session of Congress adjourned four important bills affecting the jurisdiction of federal district courts were being considered. The Norris-La Guardia bill would abolish the jurisdiction of federal district courts in suits of a civil nature "between citizens of different states." The Attorney General's bill would not eliminate any of the language of the first paragraph of section 24 of the Judicial Code but would add a provision that a foreign corporation carrying on business in a state other than the one wherein it was organized shall be treated as a citizen of the state wherein …

Federal Injunction Against Proceedings In State Courts: The Life History Of A Statute, Edgar Noble Durfee, Robert L. Sloss

Michigan Law Review

The Judicial Code provides, in section 265, that "the writ of injunction shall not be granted by any court of the United States to stay proceedings in any court of a State," except where authorized by the Bankruptcy Act. This provision, minus the bankruptcy exception, first appeared in an act of 1793, amending the Judiciary Act of 1789. We know next to nothing of the parliamentary history of this statute. We do, however, know that the basic political issue in the framing of the Constitution was that of states' rights, the question how far the new government should be a …

Labor Injunctions-Federal Statute Defining And Limiting The Jurisdiction Of Courts Sitting In Equity

Michigan Law Review

The latest effort of organized labor to protect itself against judicial interference in industrial disputes is to be found in the Norris anti-injunction bill, passed by Congress early this year and signed by the President on March 23, 1932. Its object is to limit the powers of federal courts at law and in equity, and chiefly to regulate the grant of federal injunctions in labor disputes. Similar legislation, state and federal, has encountered many obstacles, either by way of restrictive interpretation or through constitutional limitations. It is, therefore, interesting to examine not only the main provisions of the Norris Act …

Federal Jurisdiction - Diversity Of Citizenship - Suit Under Death Act

Michigan Law Review

The decedent, a citizen of Oklahoma, died as the result of injuries alleged to have been negligently inflicted by the respondents, citizens of Louisiana. An Oklahoma statute, creating a cause of action for death by wrongful act, requires that the administrator maintain the suit, the proceeds of which are to be divided between the widow and children and are not to be assets of the estate. Okla. Comp. Stat., 1921, secs. 822-825. The petitioner, a citizen of Louisiana, was duly appointed administrator for the obvious purpose of preventing removal of the cause to the federal court on the ground of …

Corporations-Service Of Process On Subsidiary To Bind Parent

Michigan Law Review

In a suit against the defendant the only service was that on a domestic subsidiary of the defendant. The defendant challenges the jurisdiction of the court on the ground that it has no "place of business" within the district. Held, whether the service was good raises a fact question; on the evidence the defendant so far ignored the separate entity of its subsidiary as to permit it to be served with process by service on its subsidiary as its agent. Gray v. Eastman Kodak Co., 53 F.(2d) 864 (1930).

Evidence -The Possibility Of Incrimination In A State Jurisdiction Does Not Warrant The Assertion Of The Constitutional Privilege In Federal Proceedings

Michigan Law Review

On indictment for the refusal to give information requested by the authorized revenue agent, the appellee interposed a special plea averring that it would compel him to become a witness against himself in violation of the Fifth Amendment of the federal Constitution which reads, "nor shall any person be compelled to be a witness against himself." Held, the danger of incrimination in a state court was not grounds for asserting the constitutional privilege. United States v. Murdock, 284 U. S. 141, 52 Sup. Ct. 63, 76 L. ed. 83 (1931).

Patents - Right To Personal Service In Contempt Proceedings

Michigan Law Review

Complainant obtained in the district court of Massachusetts a final injunction against the manufacture and sale of a device by defendant, a Michigan corporation. In a subsequent term of court, complainant brought contempt proceedings for an alleged violation of the injunction. Copies of the petition, motion, and order to show cause were sent by registered mail to the defendant's place of business. Objection to the jurisdiction of the court was raised upon the ground that the term in which the injunction had issued had expired and the decree, as to compensation, had been satisfied; hence personal service as in a …

Legal Aid Clinics In Less Thickly Populated Communities, John S. Bradway

Michigan Law Review

Legal aid work, whether performed by independent societies, or by clinics connected with law schools, has ceased to be a novelty in large cities, especially in the northeastern and extreme western parts of the United States. When one comes to examine the progress of this charitable aspect of law practice in less thickly settled communities, a definite orientation is necessary. There is little literature dealing either with the need in rural sections and the smaller cities for definite organizations or the question as to whether there is enough clinical material to make possible a law school course in this field. …

Expanding Principles Of Jurisdiction

Michigan Law Review

In the recent case of Frank S. Young Co. v. McNeal-Edwards Co., the plaintiff, a Massachusetts corporation, purchased a quantity of oil from the defendant, a Virginia corporation, the vendee to return the oil drums. Alleging a breach of warranty, the plaintiff filed suit in Massachusetts, gaining jurisdiction by attachment of the oil drums. Subsequently the defendant filed suit for conversion of these oil drums, upon which the plaintiff dropped his first suit and started this suit in the federal court by a service of process upon the attorney of record of the defendant in its suit as provided …

Limitation Of Diversity Jurisdiction In Cases Affecting Foreign Corporations, Gustavus Ohlinger

Michigan Law Review

On February 29, 1932, President Hoover sent to the Senate and House of Representatives a message recommending that the jurisdiction of federal courts based on diversity of citizenship be modified by "providing that where a corporation, organized under the laws of one State, carries on business in another State it shall be treated as a citizen of the State wherein it carries on business as respects suits brought within that State between it and the residents thereof arising out of the business carried on in such State."

Foreign Consul - Exemption From Suit In State Courts, Julius I. Puente

Michigan Law Review

In a recent case decided in California the defendant, De Besa, and others, were licensed brokers, and in that character acted as fiscal agents for the sale of the stock of a certain California corporation. Plaintiff sued to rescind the contract for misrepresentation. Neither at the time suit was filed, nor at any time prior to the day when he testified at the trial was the defendant, De Besa, a recognized consular officer; but it seems (on this point the facts of the case are very vague) that on the date of the trial and at the time of the …

Taxation - Jurisdiction To Tax Intangibles Of Nonresident Decedents - Corporate Stock

Michigan Law Review

The decedent, a resident of Massachusetts, died in 1924 owning a large block of stock in a Maine corporation. After Massachusetts had already collected an inheritance tax assessed against these shares, the Maine tax authorities levied a similar tax, basing their claim on the fact of incorporation under Maine law. The state supreme court, 130 Me. 123, 154 Atl. 103 (1931), held that such shares were within the jurisdiction for taxing purposes even though their owner was a nonresident decedent. An appeal was taken to the United States Supreme Court. Held, the rule in Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. …

Courts-Discretion To Refuse Jurisdiction-Forum Non Conveniens

Michigan Law Review

In these days of frequent travel and of corporations doing business in many states, a plaintiff with a transitory cause of action often can get personal service on defendant in more than one jurisdiction. This privilege may be abused, and to meet such abuse a plea of forum non conveniens is proper, the substance of which, as its name implies, is that the forum is not appropriate for the trial of the suit. Where either of the parties is a resident, or where the cause of action arose within the jurisdiction, the forum will usually be as appropriate as any, …

Corporations - Service Of Process On A Subsidiary Corporation Doing Business In The State In An Action Against A Foreign Corporation

Michigan Law Review

The Freeport Texas Company, a Delaware corporation, owned all of the stock of the Freeport Sulphur Company, a Texas corporation, except a few qualifying shares. The directorates of the two corporations were interlocking; officers of the parent corporation occupied identical positions in the subsidiary; and common offices were occupied in New York. It also appeared that the board of the Texas corporation only passed on local operating matters and ratified ordinary contracts. The sales end of the organization was operated from New York and the board had no control over it. The fixing and payment of salaries, the amount of …

Conflict Of Laws - Contracts - Public Policy

Michigan Law Review

The decedent, in Florida, became the grantee of Florida land by a deed which recited that it was made subject to a mortgage held by one Key, in the sum of $9,000, securing a note for that amount. The deed stipulated that "the grantee herein assumes and agrees to pay the above mortgage and notes." By Florida law the grantee was effectually bound by such a clause. Upon the death of the grantee, Key entered a claim against the estate in Pennsylvania. The lower court disallowed the claim on the basis of a Pennsylvania statute which held a grantee of …

Criminal Jurisdiction And The Territorial Principle, Wendell Berge

Michigan Law Review

The authority of legislatures and courts in criminal matters is supposed to be circumscribed by the territorial boundaries of the state. That as a general proposition the criminal law of a state has no extraterritorial operation, few lawyers would question. But an uncritical acceptance of the proposition is not warranted. Merely to assert that the authority of a state over crime ends at its territorial boundaries is of no help in settling jurisdictional questions in complicated crime situations in which the constituent acts of the crime occur in different states. Modern criminals have little concern for political boundaries except as …

Conflict Of Laws - Jurisdiction On Service By Publication In A Suit For Maintenance

Michigan Law Review

A wife whose matrimonial domicil was in Washington, D. C., moved to Reno, Nevada, and there obtained a decree of divorce. Nine years later she filed a bill in the supreme court of the District of Columbia asking that the Nevada decree of divorce be declared void on the ground that she was induced to secure it by fraud and coercion; that a decree be entered requiring defendant to provide "maintenance and support"; and that his property within the jurisdiction of the court be sequestered to insure payment of the same. Sections 70 and 75 of title 14, Code D. …

Divorce - Domicil - Recognition Of Foreign Decrees, Florence K. Frankel

Michigan Law Review

The New York Court of Appeals has re-emphasized some well-established principles of divorce jurisdiction in the recent case of Fischer v. Fischer. In a suit involving the validity of a second marriage, W proved a Nevada divorce from her first husband, a citizen of New York, who had been served in New York but had not appeared to defend the litigation. The court denied recognition to the Nevada decree because W's residence in Nevada, while it conformed with the statutory requirements of that forum, was proved to have been acquired solely for the purpose of securing a divorce. The …