State Bank of Swea City v. Chicago & N. W. Ry. Co.
State Bank of Swea City v. Chicago & N. W. Ry. Co.
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff, State Bank of Swea City, Iowa, an Iowa corporation, brought this action against the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, an Illinois corporation, in the district ■court of Iowa for Kossuth county, and demanded judgment in the sum of $3,593.45 as damages. Plaintiff alleges as cause of action; That prior to April 26, 1921, it advanced certain moneys to the Smith Produce Company for the purchase of eggs. That said Smith Produce Company purchased said eggs and delivered them to the defendant, loading same into one of defendant’s cars for transportation from Swea
The defendant by counsel appeared in the state district court, and within proper time gave notice and filed its petition for the removal of said cause to the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of Iowa, and in its petition alleged that the plaintiff was a citizen of Iowa, and that the defendant was a citizen of Illinois, and that the amount in controversy exclusive of interest and costs exceeded the sum or value of $3,000. Thereupon an order of removal was made and transcript of the record duly filed in this court. Upon the docketing of said cause the plaintiff by counsel appeared and filed a motion to remand “for the reason that the record fails to show that the case is removable or one of which this court would have original jurisdictioñ.”
The motion to remand was submitted without argument or brief. The court, however, assumes that the motion is directed at defendant’s failure to allege in its petition for removal diverse citizenship of the original parties to the bill of lading.
“No District Court shall have cognizance of any suit (except upon foreign bills of exchange) to recover upon any promissory note or other chose in action in favor of any assignee, or of any subsequent holder if such instrument be payable to bearer and be not made by any corporation, unless such suit might have been prosecuted in such court to recover upon said note or" other chose in action if no assignment had been made.”
The suit in question is not on a promissory note. The question therefore remains whether it is on an “other chose in action in favor of an assignee” within the meaning of the prohibition above quoted, If it is such chose in action, then this court cannot take jurisdiction, unless such suit might have been prosecuted in this court, if no assignment had been made. In Bushnell v. Kennedy, 9 Wall. 387, 19 L. Ed. 736, the Supreme Court of the United States said:
“That the indebtedness of Bushnell to Mills & Frisby was a chose in action cannot be doubted; for under that comprehensive description are included all debts, and all claims for damages for breach of contract, or for torts connected with contract.”
“Nor can it be denied that every suitor who brings an action in a court of the United States must aver in his pleadings a state of facts which, under the National Constitution and laws, gives to the court jurisdiction of his suit.”
In the opinion of this court the federal courts have consistently adhered to the proposition first above quoted, and in the opinion of this court the action at bar is one upon a chose in action within the meaning of the prohibition contained in section 24 of the Judicial Code referred to.
Order.
Upon consideration of the plaintiff’s motion to remand and due examination of the record, it is ordered that this cause be remanded to the district court of the state of Iowa in and for Kossuth county, at defendant’s cost.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE BANK OF SWEA CITY, IOWA v. CHICAGO & N. W. RY. CO.
- Status
- Published