Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/146

 134 FBDBBAL REPORTER. �zens of different states, and which oan be fully determined as between them, then either one or more of the plaintiffs or defendants actually interested in such controversy may re- move said suit into the circuit court of the United States for theproper district." To be a suit mentioned in said section the suit must be a "suit of a civil nature, at law or in equity, now pending or hereafter brought in any state court." �The averment in the complaint that a majority of the stockholders and bondholders of the Atlanta Company, by resolution, authorized the president and board of directors of that Company to make the contract of lease in question, is nothing more than an averment that the resolution was one authorizing that company to make such contract by the action of its president and board of directors. The corpora- tion is to make the contract. The president and the direct- ors are its agents. The complaint avers that it is the corpo- ration that is to lease its road and property, and to make the transfer spoken of ; that the corporation is not authorized to do so ; and that the contract is to be executed by the corpo- ration, although it and the transfer are to be consummated by the action of the president and the board of directors. The prayer of the complaint is that all aiid each of the de- fendants be enjoined from executing the lease and from deliv- ering over the property or its possession, and from making or carrying out any agreement between the two companies. No relief is prayed for against any individual defendant which is not prayed for against the Atlanta Company. The directors are made defendants merely because they are agents and officers of the Atlanta Company. The entire scope of the suit, as respects the Atlanta Company, is to restrain it. AU the relief that is prayed foris by injunction. AU the relief by injunction is prayed for in respect to all of the defendants. No such relief is prayed for in respect to any defendant other than the Atlanta Company that is not prayed for in respect to that company. The president and the directors are its servants, through whom, necessarily, it acts. They are not necessary or substantial parties, in considering the question of parties as to removal. They are not real ��� �