1. A municipal corporation created by one state within its own
limits may be sued in the courts of the United States by the
citizens of another state.
2. The statutes of a state limiting the jurisdiction of suits
against counties to circuit courts held within such counties can
have no application to courts of the national government.
A statute of Illinois enacts by one section that,
"Each county established in the state shall be a body politic
and corporate, by the name and style of 'The County of _____,' and
by that name may sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, defend
and be defended against, in any court of record, either in law or
equity, or other place where justice shall be administered,"
and by another that
"All actions, local or transitory, against any county may be
commenced and prosecuted to final judgment and execution
in the
circuit court of the county against which the action is
brought. [
Footnote 1]"
And the Supreme Court of Illinois has decided that a county can
neither sue or be sued at common law, independent of legislative
provisions, and have construed the
Page 74 U. S. 119
foregoing sections of the statute to exclude the right to sue
any county elsewhere than in the Circuit Court of the county sued.
[
Footnote 2]
In this condition of the state law, Cowles, a citizen of New
York, brought suit in the Circuit Court of the United States for
the Northern District of Illinois, against the Supervisors of
Mercer County, Illinois (a board authorized to contract for the
county), upon certain bonds issued by them on behalf of the county.
The defendant, relying on the statute and the interpretation of it
by the highest court of the state, moved to dismiss the case for
want of jurisdiction. The motion was overruled, and various other
defenses, already frequently settled in this Court as untenable,
having been also disallowed, judgment was given for the plaintiff
below. The case was now brought here on error by the county.
Page 74 U. S. 121
THE CHIEF JUSTICE delivered the opinion of the Court.
The record presents but one question which has not been
heretofore fully considered and repeatedly adjudicated. That
question is whether the board of supervisors of Mercer County can
be sued in the circuit court of the United States by citizens of
other states than Illinois. It presents but little difficulty.
The board of supervisors is a corporation created by acts of the
Legislature of Illinois.
It has never been doubted that a corporation, all the members of
which reside in the state creating it, is liable to suit upon its
contracts by the citizens of other states; but it was for many
years much controverted whether an allegation in a declaration that
a corporation defendant was incorporated by a state other than that
of the plaintiff, and established within its limits, was a
sufficient averment of jurisdiction. And in all the cases, prior to
1844, it was held necessary to aver the requisite citizenship of
the corporations. Then the whole question underwent a thorough
reexamination in the case of the
Louisville, Cincinnati, and
Charleston Railroad Company v. Letson, [
Footnote 3] and it was held that a corporation
created by the laws of a state, and having its place of business
within that state, must, for the purposes of suit, be regarded as a
citizen within the meaning of the Constitution giving jurisdiction
founded upon citizenship. This decision has been since reaffirmed,
and must now be taken as the settled construction of the
Constitution.
In the case before us the corporators are all citizens of
Page 74 U. S. 122
Illinois, and the corporation is liable to suit within the
narrowest construction of the Constitution.
But it was argued that counties in Illinois, by the law of their
organization, were exempted from suit elsewhere than in the circuit
courts of the county. And this seems to be the construction given
to the statutes concerning counties by the Supreme Court of
Illinois. But that court has never decided that a county in
Illinois is exempted from liability to suit in national courts. It
is unnecessary, therefore, to consider what would be the effect of
such a decision. It is enough for this case that we find the board
of supervisors to be a corporation authorized to contract for the
county. The power to contract with citizens of other states implies
liability to suit by citizens of other states, and no statute
limitation of suability can defeat a jurisdiction given by the
Constitution. We cannot doubt the constitutional right of the
defendant in error to bring suit in the circuit court of the United
States upon the obligations of the County of Mercer against the
plaintiff in error. And we find no error in the judgment of that
court. It must therefore be
Affirmed.
[
Footnote 1]
Revised Laws, 1845, ยงยง 1, 18.
[
Footnote 2]
Schuyler Co. v. Mercer Co., 4 Gilman 20;
Rock
Island Co. v. Steele, 31 Ill. 544;
Randolph Co. v.
Ralls, 18
id. 30.
[
Footnote 3]
43 U. S. 2 How.
497.
