Remington v. Central Pacific Railroad

Background

A person sued a railroad in New York state court by serving a summons on one of the railroad’s directors while that director was briefly in New York on April 10, 1903. The railroad’s lawyers moved to set aside that service and took other procedural steps. The plaintiff later filed an affidavit on October 16 saying the claim exceeded $2,000. The railroad then petitioned to move the case into federal court, and the record reached the federal Circuit Court on November 4, 1903.

Reasoning

The Court addressed whether the federal court had power to decide the case based on how the defendant had been served and when the defendant sought to transfer the case. The Justices held that asking to move the case to federal court was timely because the petition was filed as soon as the case became eligible for federal consideration, and state-court steps did not bar that move. More important, the Circuit Court found, on affidavits, that the railroad was doing no business and had no property in New York, and that serving a director who was only casually present did not create valid service.

Real world impact

The practical effect is to limit efforts by plaintiffs to sue out-of-state corporations by serving individual officers who are only briefly in the forum state. Companies that do no business or own no property in a state are less likely to be bound by such service. The decision affirmed dismissal in this case and leaves broader rules for other cases to be decided elsewhere.