In this case, the complaint described the defendant as a
corporation chartered under the laws of Alabama and doing business
in that state, one of the plaintiffs as a "resident" in North
Carolina, and two other plaintiffs as "residents" in South
Carolina. An amendment added twelve plaintiffs with no averments as
to citizenship. As the jurisdiction depended upon citizenship,
held that the circuit court was without jurisdiction.
Motion to dismiss or affirm. The case is stated in the
opinion.
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE FULLER delivered the opinion of the Court.
This was an action brought by Margaret C. McElrath, Mary E.
McElrath, and Linda E. Timmons against the Elyton Land
Page 139 U. S. 379
Company in the Circuit Court of the United States for the
Northern District of Alabama.
The complaint averred "that Mary E. McElrath is a resident of
the State of North Carolina, and that Linda E. Timmons and Margaret
Celia McElrath are residents of the State of South Carolina," and
that the defendant "is a corporation chartered under the laws of
the State of Alabama and doing business within said state."
By the summons, the marshal was commanded
"to summon the Elyton Land Company, a corporation chartered
under the laws of the State of Alabama, and who is a citizen of the
State of Alabama, to appear . . . to answer the complaint of
Margaret Celia McElrath and Linda E. Timmons, who are residents of
the County of Spartanburg, State of South Carolina, and Mary E.
McElrath, who is a citizen of the State of North Carolina."
The complaint was subsequently amended by adding the names of
twelve other plaintiffs without any averment as to their
citizenship.
In the bill of exceptions, which appears in the record, it is
stated that "the plaintiffs were nonresidents of the State of
Alabama."
As the record does not show that the circuit court had
jurisdiction of the suit, which depended upon the citizenship of
the parties, the judgment must be reversed at the costs of the
plaintiffs in error, and the cause remanded to the Circuit Court
for further proceedings.
Menard v. Goggan, 121 U.
S. 253;
Robertson v. Cease, 97 U. S.
646;
Brown v.
Keene, 8 Pet. 112;
Anderson v. Watt,
138 U. S. 694.
Reversed.