United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Provident Savings Life Assurance Society v. Ford, 114 U.S. 635 (1885)

Provident Savings Life Assurance Society v. Ford

Argued November 26, 1884

Decided May 4, 1885

114 U.S. 635

Syllabus

In a suit against a corporation in a court of the state from which its charter is derived to recover on a judgment recovered against it in a circuit court of the United States in a district within the limits of another state, a petition by the defendant for the removal of the cause into the circuit court of the United States which alleges that the defendant was not an inhabitant of the latter state, and was not personally served with process by itself or its officers, but does not allege that there was no service of process on an agent of the corporation in the district in which the judgment was recovered, and that there was no appearance of the defendant in the suit, is not sufficient to raise a defense of want of jurisdiction under Rev.Stat. § 739.

"An allegation by a defendant in a suit in a state court of New York that an assignment of the cause of action in the suit by a citizen of another state to a citizen of New York was colorable, and was made for the purpose of preventing a removal of the cause to a court of the United States, presents a defense of the action in the court of that state, but furnishes no ground for removal of the cause to a court of the United States."

The fact that a judgment was recovered in a court of the United States does not, in a suit upon that judgment, raise a question under the laws of the United States within the meaning of the Act of March 3, 1875.

This was a writ of error to the Supreme Court of New York to review a judgment of that court denying a motion for a removal

Page 114 U. S. 636

of the cause to the circuit court of the United States. The facts which make the federal question are stated in the opinion of the Court.