Pendleton v. Russell

Citations

• 144 U.S. 640
• 12 S. Ct. 743
• 36 L. Ed. 574
• 1892 U.S. LEXIS 2111

Syllabus

<p>Four children of S. H. P., deceased, recovered judgment in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Western District of Tennessee against a life insurance company, a corporation of New York, on a ■ policy insuring the life of the deceased, to which judgment a writ of error was sued out, but citation issued against only one of the plaintiffs. On this the company gave a supersedeas bond, securing the sureties by pledging or mortgaging some of its property. Proceedings .were then taken in the courts óf New York, under direction of the Attorney Genér-al of that State, which resulted in the dissolution of that corporation, and the appointment of a receiver of its property, who, by directions of the court, appeared in this court and prosecuted the writ of error in order to release the property pledged. After' ’ sundry proceedings' the judgment of the Circuit Court was eventually reversed, and the case .was remanded to the Circuit Court. A new trial was had there, but ■ without summoning in the receiver, who did not appear; and judgment was again obtained against the company. This judgment was filed in the proceedings in New York as a claim against the’assets of the company in the hands of the receiver, and the claim was disallowed by the highest court of that State. Held, that the appearance of the receiver in this court for the purpose of securing a reversal of' the judgment below and the release of the mortgaged property gave to the Circuit Court . in Tennessee no jurisdiction over the case, after the dissolution of the corporation, which could bind the property of the company in the hands of the receiver, or prevent the receiver from showing that the judgment was invalid because rendered against a corporation which had at the time no existence, and possessed no property against which the judgment, could be enforced.</p>