28 U.S.C. § 1401
Section 1401 · Stockholders derivative action
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 46 court decisions — leading case In re Josephson (1954)
Most recently applied in Genuine Enabling Tech., LLC v. Nintendo Co. (February 2019)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Any civil action by a stockholder on behalf of his corporation may be prosecuted in any judicial district where the corporation might have sued the same defendants.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §112 (part) (Mar. 3, 1911, ch. 231, §51, 36 Stat. 1101; Sept. 19, 1922, ch. 345, 42 Stat. 849; Mar. 4, 1925, ch. 526, §1, 43 Stat. 1264; Apr. 16, 1936, ch. 230, 49 Stat. 1213).
For disposition of other provisions of section 112 of title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., see reviser's note under section 1391 of this title.
Words “civil action” were substituted for “suit,” in view of Rule 2 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
Words “other than said corporation,” after “same defendants,” were omitted as superfluous. Obviously a corporation would not be suing itself.
Changes were made in phraseology.
Cross References
Citizenship of corporations for purposes of diversity of citizenship and removability of actions, see section 1332 of this title.
Process in stockholder's derivative action, see section 1695 of this title.