In re Lehigh Mining & Manufacturing Company

The Lehigh Mining & Manufacturing Company, alleging itself to be 'a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the state of Pennsylvania, and a citizen and resident of the said state of Pennsylvania,' brought its action of ejectment in the circuit court of the United States for the Western district of Virginia against J. J. Kelly, Jr., and others, tenants and lessees of Kelly, to recover the land described in the declaration. The defense pleaded not guilty, and also filed two pleas to the jurisdiction of the court. These pleas averred that, for 10 years prior to the commencement of the action in ejectment, the Virginia Coal & Iron Company, a corporation existing under the laws of Virginia and a citizen of Virginia, had been claiming title to the lands of the defendant Kelly described in the declaration; that, immediately preceding the commencement of the action, the Virginia Coal & Iron Company, its stockholders, officers, and members, organized, under the laws of the state of Pennsylvania, the Lehigh Mining & Manufacturing Company, to which the Virginia Company conveyed said land, in order to enable the Lehigh Company to institute suit in the circuit court, said Lehigh Company being simply another name for the Virginia Company, being composed of the same parties, and organized alone for the purpose of taking a conveyance of the land from the Virginia Company, and the Virginia Company making the conveyance, fraudulently and collusively, for the purpose of conferring jurisdiction on the circuit court. Issue was joined upon the pleas, and on the 30th day of May, 1894, was tried by the court, Hon. John Paul, district judge, holding the circuit court, presiding, upon an agreed statement of facts, which recited, among other things, that the Lehigh Company in the month of February, 1893, was organized under the laws of Pennsylvania by the individual stockholders and officers of the Virginia Company, a corporation organized and existing under the laws of Virginia and a citizen of that state, and that the land in controversy was conveyed by the Virginia Company to the Lehigh Company; 'that the purpose of organizing said Lehigh Mining & Manufacturing Company, and in making to it said conveyance, was to give to this court jurisdiction in this case; but that said conveyance passed to said Lehigh Mining & Manufacturing Company all of the right, title, and interest of said Virginia Coal & Iron Company in and to said land; and that, since said conveyance, said Virginia Coal & Iron Company has had no interest in said land, and has not and never has had any interest in this suit; and that it owns none of the stock of the Lehigh Mining & Manufacturing Company, and has no interest therein whatever.' The court, being of opinion that 'the organization by the individual stockholders and officers of a corporation existing under the laws of one state of a corporation under the laws of another state, for the express purpose of bringing a suit in the federal court to try the title to a tract of land claimed by the former corporation, and conveyed to the latter after its organization, and before suit brought, will not enable the grantee to maintain a suit in ejectment in such court'; that the suit did not really and substantially involve a dispute or controversy properly within the jurisdiction of the court; and that the plaintiff had been collusively made a party to it, for the purpose of making a case cognizable in the federal court, sustained the pleas and dismissed the action. 64 Fed. 401.

The judgment of the court was as follows:

'This day came again the parties by their attorneys, and on motion of the defendants to dismiss this suit, because instituted and prosecuted in fraud of the jurisdiction of the court, by consent of the parties the cause came on to be heard upon the two pleas in writing to the jurisdiction heretofore filed in the case, at the proper time, and general replication thereto, and the agreed statement of facts, signed by the attorneys and filed therein, the exceptions indorsed thereon; and the court having fully considered the said two pleas, the agreed statement of facts aforesaid, and the exception to a certain paragraph in the said agreed statement of facts, and argument of counsel, doth consider that the said exceptions are not well taken, and overrule the same. And the court further considers that the said pleas be, and they are hereby, sustained. And for reasons in writing filed herewith, as part of this order, the court doth further consider that it has no jurisdiction of this case, and that the said action of ejectment be, and the same is hereby, dismissed for want of jurisdiction, but without prejudice to the parties to this suit.'

Thereupon the plaintiff, upon the same day (May 30, 1894), tendered the court a bill of exceptions, which was that day signed, sealed, and made part of the record by the district judge. This bill of exceptions contained the two pleas and the agreed statement of facts, and declared that the court 'held that the court did not have jurisdiction of this suit, and ordered the same to be dismissed, to which opinion and action of the court the plaintiff did then and there except.' The plaintiff thereupon prayed for a writ of error from the supreme court of the United States, which was allowed by the following order, under the hand of the district judge, and entered of record:

'The plaintiff, considering itself aggrieved by the rulings of said court in the said case, in which final judgment was rendered at the May term, 1894, to wit, on May 30, 1894, of said circuit court held at this place, dismissing the said case because the said court, in its opinion, did not have jurisdiction thereof, and having on the thirtieth day of May, 1894, filed its bill of exceptions, and having on this day filed its assignment of errors and its petition praying for a writ of error to said judgment and proceedings to the supreme court of the United States upon the said question of jurisdiction, and praying that said writ of error be allowed it to the said supreme court of the United States, and that a full transcript of the record and proceedings in said cause, duly authenticated, be sent to said supreme court.

'Now, on this day, to wit, May 30, 1894, it is ordered and considered by this court that said writ of error be allowed and awarded as prayed for. * * *'

On November 23, 1894, at a subsequent term of the court to that at which the judgment dismissing the cause for want of jurisdiction had been entered, the Lehigh Company applied to the district judge holding the circuit court for the Western district of Virginia to enter an order certifying the question of jurisdiction to the supreme court of the United States, pursuant to the fifth section of the judiciary act of March 3, 1891. This application was denied, upon the ground that the question of jurisdiction had already been sufficiently certified, and, further, that, if not, the court had then no power to enter the order requested.

The Lehigh Mining & Manufacturing Company applied to this court for leave to file a petition, setting forth the foregoing facts in substance, for a mandamus requiring the district judge for the Western district of Virginia, holding the circuit court of the United States for that district, to certify the question of jurisdiction, and to enter the order tendered by petitioner, November 23, 1894.

R. A. Ayeres, for petitioner.

F. S. Blair, for respondent.

Mr. Chief Justice FULLER, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.