MacOn Grocery Co. v. Atlantic Coast Line Railroad

Citations

• 215 U.S. 501
• 30 S. Ct. 184
• 54 L. Ed. 300
• 1910 U.S. LEXIS 1856

Syllabus

<p>A suit brought by shippér&' to enjoin a railroad company from putting a tariff schedule into effect on the ground that it violates rights secured by the act to regulate commerce is a case arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States, and the jurisdiction of the Circuit- Court over the person of the defendant must be determined accordingly.</p> <p>Under the jurisdictional act of March 3, 1875, c. 137, 18 Stat. 470, as amended by the act of March 3, 1887, c. 373, 24 Stat. 552, corrected by the act of August 13,1888, c. 866,25 Stat. 433, the Circuit Court in the district of which' the 'defendant is not an inhabitant has not jurisdiction of a case-arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States, even though diverse • citizenship exist, the plaintiff resides in the district',-and-the cause be one alone cognizable in a Federal court.</p> <p>Where pleas to the jurisdiction which should have been sustained on one ground were overruled but subsequently the Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and remanded with instructions to dismiss without prejudice for want of jurisdiction on a different ground, this court may reach the result which should have beerf originally arrived at by affirming the decree of the Circuit Court of Appeals without expressing any opinion as to the merits of the reasoning on which it was based.</p>