Thorn Wire Hedge Co. v. Fuller, 122 U.S. 535 (1887)
U.S. Supreme Court
Thorn Wire Hedge Co. v. Fuller, 122 U.S. 535 (1887)Thorn Wire Hedge Company v. Fuller
Submitted May 10, 1887
Decided May 27, 1887
122 U.S. 535
Syllabus
An Illinois corporation recovered judgment against P., a citizen of Minnesota, in a court of that state. An execution issued thereon was placed in the sheriff's hands with directions to levy on property of P. which had been transferred to F. and was in F.'s possession, the corporation giving the officer a bond with sureties. F. sued the officer in trespass, and he answered, setting up that the goods were the property of the execution debtor. The corporation and the sureties then intervened as defendants and answered, setting up the same ownership of the property and further that the sheriff had acted under their directions, and that they were the parties primarily liable. The plaintiff in that suit replied, and the intervenors then petitioned for the removal of the cause to the circuit court of the United States, setting forth as a reason therefor that the plaintiff and the sheriff were citizens of Minnesota, the intervenors and petitioners citizens of Illinois; that the real controversy was between the plaintiff and the petitioners, and that the petitioners believed that through prejudice and local influence, they could not obtain justice in the state court. The cause was removed on this petition, and a few days later was remanded to the state court on the plaintiff's motion.
Held that, on their own showing, the intervenors were joint trespassers with the sheriff, if any trespass had been committed, and by their own act they had made themselves joint defendants with him, and that on the authority of Pirie v. Tvedt, 115 U. S. 41, and Sloane v. Anderson, 117 U. S. 275, the cause was not removable from the state court.
This is a writ of error brought under § 5 of the Act of March 3, 1875,c. 137, 18 Stat. 470, for the review of an order of the circuit court remanding a suit which had been removed from the District Court of Freeborn County, Minnesota. The facts are these:
Cassius D. Fuller and Burt G. Patrick, citizens of Minnesota, doing business as hardware merchants in the City of Albert Lea, began the suit October 12, 1886, against Jacob Larson, sheriff of the county, for trespass, in taking possession of their stock of goods and destroying their business. The sheriff answered November 13, 1886, to the effect that his taking was under the authority of an execution
issued upon a judgment in the same court in favor of the Thorn Wire Hedge Company, an Illinois corporation, against George A. Patrick, and that the goods were the property of the execution debtor, which had been transferred by him to Fuller & Patrick, the plaintiffs, in fraud of the rights of his creditors.
On the same day, the Thorn Wire Hedge Company, J. W. Calkins, Aaron K. Stiles, and Gary G. Calkins, intervened as defendants in the action and filed an answer, substantially the same in all respects as that of the sheriff, with the following in addition:
"That in making the levy of said execution, and in selling the said property under the same, the said sheriff [Larson] acted under the express direction of said intervenor, the Thorn Wire Hedge Company, and upon indemnity furnished him by said Thorn Wire Hedge Company, with said intervenors, J. W. Calkins, Aaron K. Stiles, and Gary G. Calkins, as sureties and bondsmen, according to the statute in such case made and provided, and in that behalf said intervenors acted, . . . without any malice or want of probable cause or intent to wrong anybody, and solely with intent to obtain payment of a just debt due from said George A. Patrick, and out of the property which he owned and had attempted to cover up, but which really belonged to him; . . . that by reason of said facts, said intervenors, the Thorn Wire Hedge Company, J. W. Calkins, Aaron K. Stiles, and Gary G. Calkins, acting under the statute in such case made and provided, are the parties primarily liable for the acts and doings of said defendant Jacob Larson, and as such are interested in the matters in litigation in this action and in the success of the defendant therein and in resisting the claim of the plaintiffs therein. Wherefore said Thorn Wire Hedge Company, J. W. Calkins, Aaron K. Stiles, and Gary G. Calkins intervene in this action, and pray that said plaintiffs take nothing by this action."
To these answers the plaintiffs replied, and on the 22d of November, the intervenors presented to the district court their petition for the removal of the suit to the circuit court
of the United States, in which they state that the plaintiffs and the defendant Larson were citizens of Minnesota, and the intervenors and petitioners citizens of Illinois, and --
"5. That such taking, detention, and ultimate sale . . . were all done by said Jacob Larson in his official capacity as such sheriff, and at the request of your petitioners, and by virtue of a writ of execution duly allowed and issued out of the District Court of the Tenth Judicial District of the State of Minnesota, for the County of Freeborn, in an action therein pending in that court between said petitioner, the Thorn Wire Hedge Company, as plaintiff, and one George A. Patrick as defendant, and under indemnity furnished by said Thorn Wire Hedge Company, with said petitioners, J. W. Calkins, Aaron K. Stiles, and Gary G. Calkins as bondsmen and sureties therein to such sheriff, pursuant to the statute in such case made and provided, and to save him harmless from all damages and costs for and on account of so doing, and accordingly said sheriff has duly notified said petitioners to defend this said action, and accordingly said petitioners, pursuant to the statute in such case made and provided, have duly intervened in said action as parties defendant thereto and have duly made and filed in said action their pleading as such intervening parties defendant."
"6. That in virtue of said facts, said defendant Jacob Larson was at all such times and in all said matters, so far as said plaintiffs are concerned, the mere agent of said petitioners provided for them by law in such cases, and there can be a final determination of the controversy in said action, so far as concerns said petitioners, without the presence of such agent, said defendant Jacob Larson, and in fact the real controversy in said action is wholly between said plaintiffs on the one side and said petitioners on the other side, and the same can be fully determined as between them."
"7. That your petitioners have reason to believe and do believe that, from prejudice as well as from local influence, they will not be able to obtain justice in said action in said state court."
"Wherefore said petitioners pray that said action be removed
into the United States Circuit Court to be held within and for the District of Minnesota, and herewith present the bond and surety as in such cases required."
Upon this petition, an order of removal was made and the suit entered in the circuit court December 11, 1886, and on the 21st of the same month it was remanded on motion of Fuller and Patrick. To reverse that order this writ of error was brought.
