United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Seaboard Rice Milling Co. v. Chicago, R.I. & Pac. Ry. Co., 270 U.S. 363 (1926)

Seaboard Rice Milling Co. v. Chicago,

Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company

No. 311

Motion to affirm submitted January 25, 1926

Decided March 1, 1926

270 U.S. 363

Syllabus

1. Under § 51, Judicial Code, a suit brought by a nonresident in the district court upon the basis of diverse citizenship, or because it arises under the laws of the United States, must be dismissed or want of jurisdiction over the person of the defendant if the defendant be not a resident of the district and seasonably assert his privilege. P. 270 U. S. 365.

2. A corporation (within the meaning of the jurisdictional statutes) is a resident of the state in which it is incorporated, and not a resident or inhabitant of any other state, even of one within which it is engaged in business. P. 270 U. S. 366.

Page 270 U. S. 364

3. Section 28, Judicial Code, allowing removal of suit of which the district courts "are given original jurisdiction," relates to the general jurisdiction of those courts, and not to their local jurisdiction over the defendant's person, dealt with in § 51, so that the fact that a suit between nonresidents might have been brought in the state court and removed to the district court does not show that, if brought originally in the district court, it could have been retained there over the defendant's objection. P. 270 U. S. 366.

Affirmed on motion.

Error to a judgment of the district court dismissing a action for want of jurisdiction over the defendant.