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117 U.S. 272

Jefferson v. Driver

Supreme Court of the United States

Submitted March 1, 1886.

Decided March 15, 1886.

Supreme Court of the United States · decided 1886-03-15

<p>APPEAL FROM' THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE EASTERN' DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS.</p> <p>The case is stated in the opinion of the court.</p>

2 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““As to the application of J. VV. Jefferson for a removal under the act of 1875, the rule in Cable v. Ellis, 110 U. S. 380 , 4 Sup. Ct. 85 , applies. lie was brought into the suit as a purchaser pendente lite, and the, relief asked against him is only an incident to the original controversy. The proceeding is merely ancillary to the suit pending when he bought the property in dispute, and under which he got possession. It is, in short, only a part of the machinery in the administration of the cause. By purchasing pendente lite he connected himself with the suit, subject to the disabilities of the other parties in respect to a removal at the time lie came in.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including Farmers' & Merchants' Nat. Bank of Waco v. Schuster

“[b]y purchasing pendente lite he connected himself with the suit, subject to the disabilities of the other parties in respect to a removal at the time he came in.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Eie Guam Corporation v. Long Term Credit Bank of Japan Ltd Eie

Relies on Cable v. Ellis · Bible Society v. Grove · Myers v. Swann

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · 9–0 · Decided 1886-03-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 46 later decisions (10 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2003 · most notably Cochran v. Montgomery County (1905), Rosenthal v. Coates (1893)

9 federal appellate · 3 district · 1 state decisions

1301886189019001910192019301940195019601970198019902000decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1APPEAL FROM' THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE EASTERN' DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS.

¶2A removal of a cause from a State court on the ground of local prejudice can only be had. where all the parties to the suit on one side are citizens of dif'ferent States from those on the other.

¶3The provision as to the removal of a separable controversy under the second subdivision of Rev. Stat.'§ 639 has no application to removals under the third subdivision ; and the similar provision in the act of March 3, 1875, applies only to removals under that act.

¶4A purchaser pendente lite of réal estate who becomes party to the suit is subject to the disabilities of the parties at the time he comes in, in respect of removing the cause from E State court to a Circuit Court of the United States. ■ '

¶5The case is stated in the opinion of the court.

¶6*273Mr. J. J. Horner, Mr. J. Q. Tcuppan, Mr. J). E. Myers, and Mr. W. M. Sneed for appellants.

¶7Mr. E. F. Adams for appellees.

¶8Me. Chief Justice Waite

¶9delivered the opinion of the court.

¶10This is an appe'al under § 5 of the act of. March 3, 1875, 18 Stat. 470, ch. 137, from an order of the Circuit Court remand-. ing a suit which had been removed from a State court. The ' case was here on a former appeal, and it was then decided that a former removal, to which J. T. Jefferson was a party, had been improperly accepted by the Circuit Court, and the cause was remanded to the State court by the order of this. court. Edrington v. Jefferson, 111 U. S. 770. Reference is made to the report of that appeal for the facts of the case as they appear in the record down to that time.

¶11That appeal, which was taken from a final decree upon the merits, did not operate as a supersedeas, and before the suit got back to the State court a sale of the property involved in • the litigation .was made, in accordance with the decree appealed from, under which J. W. Jefferson, a citizen of Tennessee, not then a party to the suit, became a purchaser and went into possession.

¶12After the case got back to the State .court Mrs. Edrington resigned her office as executrix of the will of James IJ. Edrington, and John B. Driver, a citizen of Arkansas, was appointed administrator with the will annexed: On the 16th of January, 1885, the administrator, who had been substituted as complainant for Mrs. Edrington as executrix, filed a petition against J. W. Jefferson, the purchaser of‘the property pending the former appeal, for an account of the rents and profits while he was in possession, and the next day Jefferson presented his petition for a removal of the suit to the Circuit Court of the United States, on the ground that, as to him, the suit was a new one ju&t begun, in which there was a controversy “wholly between citizens of different States, and which can be fully determined as between them without the presence or intervention *274of the parties thereto, to wit, a controversy between your petitioner, defendant J. W. Jefferson, who is a citizen and resident of the State of Tennessee, and the complainant in the original and amended bill, John B. Driver, . . . who is a citizen of Mississippi County, Arkansas.” He also petitioned for a removal, under § 639, subdivision 3, of the Revised Statutes, on the,ground of local prejudice. On the 15th of January, 1885, J. T. Jefferson, who was a party to the first petition for removal, presented his petition for another removal on the ground of local prejudice.

¶13When the suit was entered in the Circuit Court of the United States under these removals it was remanded to the State court, and thereupon this appeal was taken.

¶14So far as the removals on the ground of local prejudice are concerned, it is only necessary to say that such removals can only be had where all the parties to the suit on one side are citizens of different States from those on the other. Myers v. Swann, 107 U. S. 546. The language of the statute is, “ when a suit is between a citizen of the State in which it is brought and a citizen of another State, it may be so removed on the petition of the' latter, whether he be plaintiff or defendant.” The provision as to the removal of a separable controversy, under the second subdivision of Rev. Stat. § 639, has no appli- ' cation to removals under the third subdivision, and the similar provision in the act of 1875 applies only to removals under that act. Bible Society v. Grove, 101 U. S. 610. As in this case many of the defendants are citizens of the same State with Driver, the complainant, it follows that the suit was properly remanded under this branch of the applications for removal.

¶15As to the application of J. W. Jefferson for a removal under the act of 1875, the rule in Cable v. Ellis, 110 U. S. 389, applies. He was brought into the suit as a purchaser pendente lite', and the relief asked against him is only an incident to' the original controversy.' The proceeding is merely ancillary to the suit pending when he bought the property in dispute, and under which he got possession. It is, in short, only a part of the machinery in the administration of the cause. By purchas*275ing pendente lite he connected himself with the suit, subject to the disabilities of the other parties in respect to a removal at the time he came in.

¶16The order remanding the suit is

¶17Affirmed.

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