Peters v. Peters
Peters v. Peters
Opinion of the Court
By the Court—
delivering the opinion.
The record in this case discloses the fact that Mathew B. Peters, while a resident of the State of New York had a wife
The guardian answered the bill, setting forth the property of his ward, to the best of his knowledge, and stating the fact that he was incurring heavy expenses for his ward’s bills in the Lunatic Asylum, which he had no money to pay, and he averred that property must be sold to meet these expenses. He also set forth the fact that the present wife and child of the said Mathew B., claimed a homestead and support out of the lands belonging to the .estate of his ward, and prayed that Mrs. Anna Peters and her child be made parties. To this answer, in the nature of a cross-bill, Mrs. Anna Peters added her answer admitting the facts, and stating that she had no separate estate, and that she claimed a support for herself and child, and a homestead out of the estate of her said husband.
*At May Term, 1869, Best, the guardian, filed an amended answer, in the nature of a cross-bill, setting forth that he had been authorized by a decree of the Court to sell the estate, and stating that he had declined to do so. as he could not get such price for the lands, as, in his opinion, would justify the sale. He then set up the further fact that, on the 16th day of August then last, his said ward died; and that he, as guardian, had, in conformity to law. become his •administrator; and that he had obtained from the Court of Ordinary an order to sell the real estate. He then admitted the divorce in New York, and the judgment for $520 00 per
He then averred the insolvency of the estate, and prayed the direction of the Court in its administration. And he further prayed that all these conflicting claimants be made parties, and that they be enjoined from further proceedings till the judgment of the Court, setting their respective rights, and directing the distribution of the estate according to, the legal priorities between the parties. The injunction was granted as prayed, enjoining all the claimants from further proceeding till the order of the Court in the premises.
On the 18th day of December, 1869, the said Thalia made
Is this one of the class of cases contemplated by the Act of Congress, passed 27th July, 1866, (14 Statutes at Large, 306,) which may be transferred to the United States Circuit *Court, upon the affidavit of one of the defendants who is a citizen of another State? I think not.
If this had been an application to transfer the bill in equity, filed by Mrs. Thalia Peters, against Best, the guardian, now the administrator, to set up her claim against the estate, I do not say that might ■ not have been done, and if the original bill had been transferred it might possibly have carried with it, the answer and cross-bill and answers, as incidents springing out of the original bill.
But this was neither asked for by Mrs. Thalia Peters, nor was it ordered by the Court. She asked that the proceeding or suit, commenced by Mrs. Anna Peters, to which she has made herself a party, and which is enjoined by the order upon the cross-bill of the administrator may be transferred. This case is entirely a separate suit; distinct from the bill filed by Mrs. Thalia Peters, against the guardian and administrator of her late husband, and is only incidentally connected with the original bill, by the answer of the administrator to the original bill, which is in the nature of a cross-bill. Though the transfer of the original bill might have carried with it the incident, we are very clear that the transfer of the incident does not carry with it the original bill.
The Act of Congress above referred to, provides in substance, that when any suit is pending iñ a State Court, to which an alien, 'or a citizen of another State is a party defendant, and a citizen of the State when the suit is pending is also a party. defendant, the case may be transferred so far as the alien defendant or citizen of another State, who is a defendant, is concerned, on the filing of the affidavit and giving the bond and security required, if the suit is one in which there can be “a final determination of the controversy, so far as it concerns him, (the citizen of the other State.) without the presence of the other defendants as parties in the cause.”
Now suppose we admit for the argument, that the transfer of the case commenced in the Court of Ordinary, by Mrs.
But suppose the case is transferred as between these two ladies, that does not withdraw the bill filed by the administrator for direction from the State Court, nor does it remove into the Federal Court, that bill as against any of the other defendants.
The Act of Congress in express terms declares: “Such removal of the cause as against the defendant petitioning therefor, into the United States Court, shall not be deemed to prejudice or talce away the right- of the plaintiff to proceed at the same time with the suit in the State Court, as against the other defendants, if he shall desire to do so.” Now suppose we order the litigation, sG far as it exists between Thalia and Anna Peters, transferred, and, in the meantime, Best, the administrator, proceeds with his bill for direction and settlement of the estate, in the State Court, as against the other defendants, who have liens claimed to be of the highest dignity against the estate, and suppose when the estate is sold, it is found that those liens are large enough to cover the whole amount, and the State Court orders it distributed among them, what will be the effect of the judig-1 ment of the Federal Court? If it decides in favor of Anna, it can *not, by its judgment, compel the Court of Ordinary, of Bibb county to approve the return of the Commissioners and allow her the year’s support, nor can it compel the administrator to pay her the amount found to be due; for the reason that he has, pending the litigation in the Federal Court, distributed, among the other creditors of the highest lien, under the judgment of the State Court, the entire estate, leaving nothing to meet the claim. If, on the other hand, it decides in favor of Thalia, there will be no
Again, to show the absurdity of this transfer, suppose when Anna and Thalia Peters appear in the Federal Court, Anna dismisses her application for the year’s support, this ends the litigation in that Court, but it is not a final disposition of the controversy, by any means; because Best, the administrator, is at liberty to proceed with his bill for direction and settlement in the State Court; and the claim of Anna in the Federal Court having been dismissed, she may come in and again be made a party defendant to the bill in the State Court; and if she has the highest lien on the fund by the final decree on the bill, it would be adjudged to her by the State Court. The fact that she had dismissed her application for the year’s support in the Federal Court, where she was plaintiff, would be nothing in the way of her answering the bill of the administrator in the State Court, to which she is defendant, and having her rights adjudicated at the same time with her other co-defendants.
But it must not be forgotten that this is a motion to transfer *only the litigation growing out of the application of Anna Peters for the year’s support to the Federal Court, and not a motion to transfer the bill in equity, filed by Thalia Peters, against Best, guardian, or the cross-bill of Best, administrator, against both Anna and Thalia, and numerous other defendants. It could never have been the intention of Congress, that in case of a bill filed by an administrator against numerous legatees and creditors, for direction in the administration of the estate of a deceased person, a single creditor or legatee, who may chance to live in another State, by coming in and making himself or herself a defendant to the bill, can in this way transfer the whole litigation from the State Court to the Federal Court. The effect of' such a ruling would be to . transfer almost the entire jurisdiction of estates to the Federal Courts, as, in most cases, some one who is a proper party to the bill, resides in a different State, and could compel the transfer. The fact that the Act of Congress authorizes the plaintiff to proceed in the State Court against the other defendants, after the transfer, negatives the idea that it was the intention that the whole litigation should be transferred. And
If the Federal Court in this case should hold that the judgment in favor of Thalia Peters in the New York Court is, under the laws of that State, a lien- of the highest dignity, it does not follow that the Courts of Georgia are bound to enforce that lien, when it comes in conflict with her own laws regulating liens. The judgment rendered in New York is entitled to full faith and credit in the Courts of Georgia, but it can only be enforced in Georgia by suit. An execution issued by the New York Court could not be levied by a *sheriff in Georgia. And a New York judgment, older than a judgment rendered in,a Georgia Court, would not take lien over a Georgia judgment rendered prior to the judgment in the Georgia Court upon the New York judgment. The lien is regulated, in other words, according to the date of the judgment in our own Courts. It follows, therefore, in case this ransfer is made, and the Federal Court determines that Thalia Peters has a valid judgment against her late husband which, by the laws of New York, is of the highest dignity, and would bind the defendant’s property in that State, in preference to any other claim, that the Court could not still determine the whole controversy between the parties to this bill, without having the Georgia claimants to the fund before it, that the priority of all liens upon the fund may be considered and determined together, according to the law regulating liens in such cases.
I do not agree with the counsel for the plaintiff in error, that the injunction granted by the State Court in this case, was any good objection to the transfer. In such case the injunction goes up to the Federal Court with the other proceedings had in the State Court, and remains in force there till it is modified or dissolved by order of the Federal Court.
There is a broad distinction between a case where a party to a bill in a State Court, proceeds in the Federal Court in violation of an injunction, and a case like the present, where a party under an injunction in the State Court applies to that Court to grant him an order of transfer under the Act of Congress, authorizing and requiring a transfer when a proper case is made.
Nor do I think the rule of law that the Court of competent jurisdiction which first obtains control of the case, has a right to hold it till final judgment, has anything to do with this case. The very object of the Act of Congress is to compel
Judgment reversed.
Concurring Opinion
concurring.
The several Acts of Congress, upon the subject of the transfer of cases from the State Courts to the Federal Courts, are to be construed in reference to the jurisdiction, of the Federal Courts under the Constitution. These Courts have no jurisdiction over' controversies between citizens of the same State.
The Act of 1789 allowed the defendant in any case, in a suit brought against him in a State Court, if he was an alien or a citizen of another State, to transfer his case. But this Act made no provision for the case of one of several defendants.
The Act of 1867 allows either the plaintiff or defendant to remove the case on complying with certain requisites. But neither does this Act provide for the case of one of several defendants or plaintiffs. And this for the plain reason that generally when a citizen of another State is either a plaintiff or defendant, joined with other plaintiffs or defendants who live in the State where the suit is pe'nding, his rights are necessarily so blended with his co-plaintiff’s or co-defendant’s rights, as that the decision of them necessarily involves the decision of a controversy between citizens 'of' the same State.
The very fact that one is a co-defendant or co-plaintiff, ordinarily involves the idea that'his rights are so blended with the rights of his co-parties on the same side, that, to do justice, they must be decided together. It sometimes, however, *does happen that one is a co-plaintiff or co-defendant, under such circumstances as that it is possible to separate his controversy from that of his fellows, so that it can be settled without their presence. It was to meet this case, a rare one, that the Act of 1866 was passed.
Is this such a case? Mrs. Anna Peters, for herself and child, applied to the Ordinary of Bibb county for a year’s support out of the effects .of her deceased husband, Mr. Peters, in the hands of Mr. Best, his administrator. Notice was given to the administrator, and commissioners were
Mrs. Anna Peters and child appealed to the Superior Court,, and the case, to-wit: Anna Peters and her child v. Best, the administrator, and Thalia Peters for her two children, is there pending*.
Mrs. T. Peters, as guardian and next friend of her children,, makes the affidavit and motion to move this appeal case to the Circuit Court. To this it was replied: 1st. That this was not such a case as one of several defendants could move. 2d. That this case had been absorbed in and was enjoined by a case in equity pending in Bibb Superior Court, to-wit: A case in favor or Thalia Peters, in her own right, filed in the life-time of Peters; but, in answer to which, Best, his administrator, had filed a cross-bill against Thalia Peters and her children, Anna Peters and her child, E. E. Brown, and various other parties, alleging that the estate could not pay all the claims, and praying that Court to settle their conflicting interests.
Were this a motion to transfer to the Circuit Court the casein eauity between Mrs. Thalia Peters and Best, the administrator, I am inclined to think, though I am not clear, that the motion ought to have been granted. The filing of the answer, including the cross-bill set up therein, in which new parties are-introduced into the controversy, and who are made defendants, but whose interests are all antagonistic to *Mrs. Thalia Peters, may not so alter the controversy which she-has with the administrator, as set forth in her'bill, as to make her other than a sole plaintiff, and such a party as, by the Act of Congress, may move his case to the Circuit Court.
But the motion, as set forth in this record, is not to move the bill, but the appeal cause from the Court of Ordinary, between Anna Peters and her child, against the administrator, Best, to which Mrs. Thalia Peters, as guardian or next friend of her children, has made herself a party. ■
That is the case described in her motion; that is the case mentioned in her affidavit, and that is the case transferred by the-order of the Court. In my judgment that case cannot be transferred. The controversy there, is in fact, between Anna Peters and the administrator.
If it were to be transferred without the administrator, who is the principal defendant, the United States Court could give no judgment in the case at all. Thalia Peters only appears in it in the administrator’s behalf. The only judgment of the Court that can be had in favor of the plaintiff, is a judgment against, not Mrs. Thalia' Peters, but against the administrator, and without his presence as a partv, the rights of neither Anna Peters and her child, nor Mrs. Thalia Peters
I am inclined to think, that a motion to move the bill, would ■carry this case, because as the bill now stands, this case is included in and has been absorbed by it. But I am not able to see how a motion to move this case includes the bill. In tbe bill, Mrs. Thalia Peters is the sole plaintiff, and the issues *of the bill are various, including, not only the controversy with Mrs. Anna Peters, which is this case, but controversies with various other persons, all of whom named, have a right to be heard, and would be entitled'to notice.
Take for instance, the Lunatic Asylum. You transfer a case, to which that Asylum is a party, to the United States Court, by •a motion made in another case to which it is not a party, of which it has no notice. It seems to me absurd to say, that a motion in a case at law, to-wit: An appeal from the Ordinary, can carry with it a bill in equity, merely because that bill includes in it, with other and distinct controversies, the appeal cause. On the filing of the cross-bill, this appeal case, this controversy about the year’s support, was transferred to the equitable side of the Court, became one of the issues involved in the bill, and can only be got at, by a motion made on the equity side of the Court, in that case. It is only in that way, that the parties to the bill •can get notice of the motion.
In the shape in which this motion is made, if it is to' affect the bill and the parties to it, you undertake to affect the rights of parties without notice to them. By moving in a case in which they are not parties, you cannot transfer to the Circuit Court a ■suit in which they are parties.
It is upon this ground I place my concurrence. It is clear to me that the appeal from the Ordinary cannot be transferred to the United States Court,’ for the simple reason that in the appeal case, Mrs. Thalia Peters is only one of two defendants, and ■neither her rights nor the rights of Mrs. Anna Peters can be settled without the presence of the administrator, against whom alone any judgment can be rendered.
The motion being, as I understand it, to move that case, and that case only, and not the bill, ought to have been refused.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
It appears from the record in this case, that Mathew Peters
It is alleged in the cross-bill that the estate will be insolvent as to the allowance claimed by either of the contending parties. And he prays the direction of the Court: First, as *to the claim of. said Thalia Peters and children, and the status and dignity of said judgment, and their rights under said decree. Secondly, as to the rights of said Anna Peters and her child, and that the said Thalia Peters and her children, and the said Anna Peters and her child, be required to prove and be heard upon their several claims, and that the defendants respectively be enjoined and restrained until the several matters aforesaid can be fully settled. At this stage of the case in the Court below, Mrs. Thalia Peters, one of the defendants in the cross-bill, petitioned
The first of these Acts of Congress provides for the removal of the suit, when the suit has been instituted or prosecuted for the purpose of restraining or enjoining a non-resident defendant; or, if the suit is one in which there can' be a final determination, of the controversy so far as it concerns him, without the presence of the other defendants as parties in the cause; that is to say, if the non-resident defendant is restrained by an injunction, he may remove the suit; or, if the suit is one in which there can be a final determination of the controversy so far as concerns him, without the presence of the other defendants as parties in the cause, then he may remove it into the Circuit Court. The amendatory Act of 1867, is much broader in its terms, and provides that where -a suit is now pending, or may hereafter be brought in any State Court in which there is a controversy between a citizen of the State in which the suit is brought and'a citizen of another State, and the matter in dispute exceeds the sum of five hundred dollars, exclusive of costs, such citizen of another State, whether he be plaintiff or defendant, if he will *make affidavit, stating that he has reason to and does believe that from prejudice or local influence, he will not be able to obtain justice in such State Court, may, at any time before the final hearing or trial of the suit, file a petition in such State Court for the removal of the suit into the next Circuit Court of the United States, etc., and upon compliance with the terms of the Act, it is made the duty of the Sfate Court no* to proceed any further in said suit. These two Acts of Congress-are remedial statutes, and should receive- a liberal construction.
The argument that the motion) to remove only applied to the appeal from the Court of Ordinary, is merely technical, in view of the facts in the record. When the cross-bill was filed,, it embraced all the matters in controversy between the parties, and the Court of Equity had acquired jurisdiction of them for the purpose of adjudicating' the same, and the whole matter was before the Court below, the cross-bill and all the other proceedings, involving the rights of Thalia Peters, the non-resident defendant, who was enjoined, as well as the rights of Anna Peters, who claimed her year’s support, and the motion to remove was resisted, because the cross-bill had been filed, and all the matters in controversy between the parties had been merged in it, and that they had1
Reference
- Full Case Name
- ANNA M. PETERS AND CHILD, in error v. THALIA PETERS, in error
- Cited By
- 2 cases
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- Published