Bankers Trust Co. v. Texas & Pacific Railway Co.

Syllabus

<p>In a suit brought by a corporation existing under the laws of New York and therefore a citizen of that State, against the Texas & Pacific Railway Company, incorporated and existing under an act of Congress and certain supplemental and amendatory acts, held that:</p> <p>The provision in § 1 of the act of 1871 under which the Texas & Pacific Railway was incorporated, that such company may sue and be sued in all courts of law and equity within the United States, was not intended to confer jurisdiction upon any particular court, but merely to render the company capable of suing and being sued in any court whose jurisdiction as otherwise competently defined was adequate to the occasion.</p> <p>It is reasonable to presume that if Congress has the purpose to take a class of suits out of usual jurisdictional restrictions relating thereto, it will make its purpose plain.</p> <p>Under the Constitution, Congress possesses power to invest subordinate Federal courts with original jurisdiction of suits at law or equity arising under the Constitution, laws or treaties of the United States and this power has been exercised at various times. Such jurisdiction has by § 24, Judicial Code, been given to and is now vested in, the District Courts subject to a restriction as to the amount in controversy.</p> <p>A corporation chartered by an act of Congress is not only a creature of that law, but all its rights are dependent thereon and a suit by or against such a corporation is one arising under a law of the United States.</p> <p>Section 5 of the act of January 28, 1915, c. 22, 38 Stat. 583, providing that no court of the United States shall have jurisdiction of any suit by or against any railroad company on the ground that it was incorporated under an act of Congress, is amendatory of the Judicial Code and renders the fact of incorporation under an act of Congress a negligible factor in determining whether a suit by or against a railroad company is one arising under a law of the Unite