CONTINENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY
v.
RHOADS

U.S. | 1886-11-29
119 U.S. 237 Supreme Court of the United States (1886) Caution
Also reported at: 30 L. Ed. 380 · 7 S. Ct. 193 · SCDB 1886-036 · 1886 U.S. LEXIS 1982
Cited by 121 cases

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Synopsis

Continental Insurance Company sued an administrator of a deceased person's estate in federal court, claiming jurisdiction based on diversity of citizenship between the parties. The Supreme Court reversed the Circuit Court's judgment, holding that the record failed to affirmatively establish the citizenship of the plaintiff administrator, which was essential to federal jurisdiction, and that citizenship cannot be inferred argumentatively but must appear positively on the face of the record. The Court reaffirmed the established principle that facts supporting federal jurisdiction must be expressly shown in the record and that courts err in proceeding without such jurisdictional proof.

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Opinion of the Court
Me. Chief 'Justice-Waite

Mr. Chief 'Justice-Waite delivered the opinión of the -.court.

‘ One of the errors assigned on this record is that thp Circuit ' Court had no jurisdiction. It was. settled at a very early day that the facts on which the jurisdiction of the Circuit Courts rest must, in some form, appear on the face-of the record of. all suits prosecuted before them. Turner v. Bank of North America, 4 Dall. 8; Bushnell v. Kennedy, 9 Wall. 387; Hornthall v. Collector, 9 Wall. 560;. Ex parte Smith, 94 U. S. 455; Robertson, v. Cease, 97 U. S. 646; Grace v. American Central Ins. Co., 109 U. S. 278, 283; Börs v. Preston, 111 U. S. 252, 255; Mansfield, Coldwater and Lake Michigan Railway v. Swan, 111 U. S. 379, 382; Hancock v. Holbrook, 112 U. S.

229. And it is error for'a court to proceed without its jurisdiction, is shown. Grace v. American Central Insurance Co., supra; Thayer v. life Association, 112 U. S. 717; Mansfield, &c., Railway v. Swan, supra.

It is' conceded that the jurisdiction in this case depends alone on the citizenship of the parties, and that there is not in the declaration any averment in express terms of the citizenship. of the plaintiff. It does appear that the defendant was, at the commencement of the suit, a citizen of Connecti- ' cut, and that the intestate, Maris Rhoads, was' at the time of his death a citizen of Pennsylvania, but there is nothing to show the 'citizenship of the plaintiff, and the jurisdiction depends on her citizenship, and not on that of her intestate. Amory v. Amory, 95 U. S.

186. It is true that the record does show that letters of administration were granted to her in Pennsylvania, but that does not make her a citizen of that State." It may be that by the law of Pennsylvania the personal representative of a deceased citizen of Pennsylvania is, in contemplation of law, resident within the State, and at all times amenable to the jurisdiction of the proper courts of that State, but that does not necessarily imply citizenship of •the State. He must be there for the purposes of his administration, but that is all. And, besides, the jurisdiction must appear positively. It is not enough that it may be inferred argumentatively. Brown v. Keene, 8 Pet. 112; Robertson v. Cease, supra. If the plaintiff was actually a citizen of Pennsylvania when the suit "was begun, the record cannot be amended here so as to show that fact, but the court below .may, in its discretion, allow it to be done when the case gets back. Morgan v. Gay, 19 Wall. 81; Robertson v. Cease, supra.

It is not necessary to consider any of the other assignments of error. The judgment of the Ci/rcuit Co%t,rt is reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings.

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  • City OF Cocoa v. Glynn Leffler, 762 So. 2d 1052 (Fla. 5th DCA 2000)
    ….S. Employer-Employee s. 117 (1992). Thus, the general rule is that employees own the patent rights to their inventions, even though the inventions are conceived or- reduced to practice during employment. See Hapgood v. Hewitt, 119 U.S. 226, 233-34, 7 S.Ct. 193, 30 L.Ed. 369 (1886); see also, United States v. Dubilier Condenser Corp., 289 U.S. 178, 53 S.Ct. 554, 77 L.Ed. 1114 (1933) (the “mere existence of an employer-employee relationship does not of itself entitle the employer to an assignment of any inv…
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  • State Bd. OF Educ. OF Fla. v. Bourne, 150 Fla. 323 (Fla. 1942)
    …cover a field of labor and effort in the performance of which the employee conceived the invention for which he obtained a patent, the contract is not so broadly construed as to require an assignment of the patent. Hapgood v. Hewitt, 119 U. S. 226, 7 Sup. Ct. 193, 30 L. Ed. 369; Dalzell v. Dueber Watch Case Mfg. Co. 149 U. S. 315, 13 Sup. Ct. 886, 37 L. Ed. 749. The record shows that appellee was employed annually as plant pathologist or physiologist and was assigned to project 171, having to do with cane b…
  • Chicago v. Willard, 220 U.S. 413 (U.S. 1911)
    …n be raised in this court; if not by the parties, then by the court itself.” There are many other authorities to the same effect, but we cite a few of the additional cases: King Bridge Co. v. Otoe Co., 120 U. S. 225; Continental Iris. Co. v. Rhoads, 119 U. S. 237; Peper v. Fordyce, Ib. 469; Blacklock v. Small, 127 U. S. 96, 103, 105; Metcalf v. Watertown, 128 U. S. 586, 587; Crehore v. Ohio &c. Railway Co., 131 U. S. 240, 242; Graves v. Corbin, 132 U. S. 571, 589; Neel v. Pennsylvania Co., 157 U. S. 153; Con…

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