KAUFFMAN
v.
WOOTTERS
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The Supreme Court considered whether Texas statutes allowing a defendant to appear in court solely to challenge the validity of process service, without thereby submitting to the court's jurisdiction, violated the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause. The Court affirmed the judgment, holding that such state legislation was constitutional because it did not prevent defendants from fully protecting their persons and property against enforcement of judgments rendered without proper service of process.
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Mr. Justice Harlan delivered the opinion, of the court.
This case is before us upon a motion to dismiss the writ of error for want of jurisdiction in this court to reexamine the judgment below;. or, if this court has jurisdiction, to affirm the judgment upon the ground that the question on which our right of review depends is too frivolous to require argument upon it.
Certain provisions of the statutes of' Texas relating to the service of process are, it is contended,'in violation of the clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, declaring that no State shall deprive any person of property without due process of law. These provisions are as follows : (Rev. Stats. Texas.)
“ Art.
1210. The defendant may accept service of any process, or waive the issuance or service thereof, by a written memorandum signed by him or by his duly authorized agent or attorney, and filed among the papers of the cause; and such waiver or acceptance shall have the same force and effect as if the citation had been issued and served as provided by law. Art.
1211. The defendant may in person, or by attorney, or by his duly authorized agent, enter an appearance in open court, and such appearance shall be noted by the judge upon his docket and entered in the minutes, and shall have the same force and effect as if citation had been duly issued and served as provided by-law. Art.
1212. The filing of an answer shall constitute an appearance of the defendent so as to dispense with the necessity for the issuance or service of citation upon him. Art.
1213. Where the citation or service thereof is quashed on motion of the defendant, the case may be continued for the term, but the defendant shall be deemed to have entered his appearance to the succeeding term of the court. Art.
1211. Where the judgment is reversed on appeal or writ of error taken by the defendant for the want of service, or because of defective service of process, no new citation shall be issued or served, but the defendant shall be presumed to have entered his appearance to the term of the court at which the mandate shall be filed. Art.
1215. No judgment shall in any case be rendered against any defendant unless .upon service, or acceptance, or waiver of process, or upon an appearance by the defendant, as prescribed in this chapter, except where otherwise expressly provided by law.”
The Supreme Court of Texas, construing these statutory provisions, has held, and it so held in this case, that a defendant who appears only to obtain the judgment of the court upon the sufficiency of the service of process upon him, is thereafter subject to the jurisdiction of the court, although the process against him is adjudged to have been insufficient to bring him into court for any purpose. The question here is whether such legislation is consistent with “due process.of law.” That question, arising upon the above statute, was presented in York v. Texas, 137 TJ. S. 15, 19, and it was there held that State legislation “ simply forbidding the defendant to come into court and challenge the validity of service upon him in a personal action, without surrendering himself to the jurisdiction of the court, but which does not attempt to restrain him from fully protecting his person, his property and his rights against any attempt to enforce a judgment rendered without due service of process,” was not forbidden by the Fourteenth Amendment.
Upon the record of this case there was color for the motion to dismiss, and, upon the authority of York v. Texas, .the motion to affirm the judgment is sustained.
Affirmed.
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S. Pac. Co. v. Denton, 146 U.S. 202 (U.S. 1892)…d States, forbidding any State to deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law. Rev. Stats. of Texas of 1879, arts. 1241-1244; York v. State, 73 Texas, 651; S. C. nom. York v. Texas, 137 U. S. 15 ; Kauffman v. Wootters, 138 U. S. 285 ; St. Louis &c. Railway v. Whitley, 77 Texas, 126 ; Ætna Ins. Co. v. Hanna, 81 Texas, 487. But the question in this case is not of the validity of those provisions as applied to actions in the courts of the State, but’ whether they can be held appl…
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COE v. Armour Fertilizer Works, 237 U.S. 413 (U.S. 1915)…or notice or monition by service, publication, mailing, or otherwise. Windsor v. McVeigh, 93 U. S. 274, 279, et seq.; Grannis v. Ordean, 234 U. S. 385, 393. This case bears no proper analogy to York v. Texas, 137 U. S. 15, 21; Kauffman v. Wootters, 138 U. S. 285; and Western Indemnity Co. v. Rupp, 235 U. S. 261, 272; [*426] where it was held that a State, without violence to the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, may so regulate its practice that a person who voluntarily enters one of its court…
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Mexican Cent. Ry. Co. v. Pinkney, 149 U.S. 194 (U.S. 1893)…ng him into court. for any purpose, ivas “ due process of law,” within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, and this court held that it was. A like decision was rendered in the subsequent case of Kauffman v. Wootters, 138 U. S. 285, and [*204] the ruling in York v. Texas was reaffirmed. Those were cases arising in the state courts, and were brought here on writs of error to the Supreme Court of the State, and it was, therefore, properly said in the opinion in York v. Texas, p.…1 / 2
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- York v. Texas, 137 U.S. 15 (U.S. 1890)