Kilpatrick v. Texas & P. Ry. Co.’s Empirical Analysis
166 F.2d 788 · 1948
Citation profile
31 federal appellate · 6 district · 12 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 93 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2018 · most notably Harvey Aluminum, Inc. v. American Cyanamid Co. (1953), L. D. Reeder Contractors of Arizona, an Arizona Corporation v. Higgins Industries, Inc., a Louisiana Corporation (1959)
31 federal appellate · 6 district · 12 state decisions — followed in 10 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on International Shoe Co. v. Washington · Gulf Oil Corporation v. Gilbert · Pennoyer v. Neff · Hess v. Pawloski · Green v. Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway Co.
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 93 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“* * * It is settled that, given the proper procedural support for doing so, a state may give judgment in personam against a non-resident, who has only passed through its territory, if the judgment be upon a liability incurred while he was within its borders. That, we conceive, rests upon another principle. The presence of the obligor within the state subjects him to its law while he is there, and allows it to impose upon him any obligation which its law entails upon his conduct. Had it been possible at the moment when the putative liability arose to set up a pie-powder court pro hac vice, the state would have had power to adjudicate the liability then and there; and his departure should not deprive it of the jurisdiction in personam so acquired. On the other hand, in order to subject a non-resident who passes through a state to a judgment in personam for liabilities arising elsewhere, it would be necessary to say that the state had power so to subject him as a condition of allowing him to enter at all, and that for this reason his voluntary entry charged him generally with submissions to the courts. As a matter of its own law of conflicts of law, no court of one country would tolerate such an attempt to extend the power of another; and, as between citizens of states of the United States, constitutional doubts would arise which, to say the least, would be very grave, and which we need not consider.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“oppress” the defendant by inflicting upon him expense or trouble not necessary to his own right to pursue his remedy. But unless the balance is strongly in favor of the defendant, the plaintiff’s choice of forum should rarely be disturbed. (Italics added.) (While unsaid, the court assumes that the litigants are probably mindful of money considerations in contending the issue of transfer: no matter. As to plaintiffs, Judge Learned Hand once commented "that a plaintiff might, as here, select that jurisdiction which promised the richest harvest, and the railroad must meet him on his chosen ground.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“a new explanation to corporate “presence”, for it held that in order to determine that question the court must balance the conflicting interests involved: i. e., whether the gain to the plaintiff in retaining the action where it was, outweighed the burden imposed upon the defendant; or vice versa. That question is certainly indistinguishable from the issue of “forum non conveniens.’’ Therefore, as we understand it, when a railroad is “doing business” continuously outside the state of its incorporation, § 6 makes irrelevant any question of “forum non conveniens”; but, when a railroad or any other corporation is doing business continuously outside the state of its incorporation, that “presence” which subjects it to personal service in actions for which no venue is specifically provided, depends upon the issue of “forum non conveniens”. The necessity that the corporation shall be “present” at all arises from the territorial limitations of the power of a state — legislative, executive or judicial — in dealing with the legal relations of a person not in allegiance. In the case of individuals it has of course been long recognized that the defendant must, ordinarily, be subject to a capias when the action is begun, if a judgment against him in personam is to be valid. The same doctrine applies to corporations; but, since a corporation — whether it be regarded as a fabricated jural person, or an aggregate — is not identical with its members, spatial attributes can be ascribed to it o”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.