Ex Parte Gruetter
Headline: Court declines to force a federal judge to remand a Tennessee resident’s suit against an out-of-state telephone company, allowing the federal court to keep the case because the parties are from different states.
Holding: In this procedural dispute, the Court held the federal court properly kept jurisdiction over the Tennessee resident’s suit against an out-of-state telephone company and that an extraordinary writ forcing remand would not be issued.
- Permits federal courts to retain removed suits when parties are citizens of different states.
- Prevents using an emergency court order to force remand of a final federal removal ruling.
- Does not resolve whether the telephone company actually discriminated under Tennessee law.
Summary
Background
A Tennessee resident named Gruetter sued the Cumberland Telephone and Telegraph Company, a Kentucky corporation, in a county court seeking $20,000 under a Tennessee law that forbids telephone companies from discriminating and awards $100 per day for continued refusal. The telephone company tried to move the case into federal court. A Tennessee circuit judge refused to send it, but the company filed a certified copy of the record in federal court. Gruetter then moved to have the federal court send the case back to state court and argued the suit was an unremovable penalty action.
Reasoning
The core question was whether the federal court could keep the case and whether a court could be forced to send it back using an extraordinary order. The Court relied on the record showing that the company was a Kentucky corporation and Gruetter was a Tennessee citizen, so the federal court had authority based on the parties’ different states. The opinion explains that, under these facts, an extraordinary writ cannot be used to overturn the federal court’s decision to retain the case, and the petition asking for such a writ was therefore denied.
Real world impact
The ruling leaves the federal court in charge of the dispute and ends Gruetter’s attempt to use an emergency court order to force remand. The Court did not decide whether the telephone company actually violated the state anti-discrimination law; it resolved only the procedural question about where the case will be heard. The final order keeping the case in federal court stands.
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