Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/20

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runkle v. lamar ins. co.
13

citizenship of the party is sufficient, a defendant may consent to be sued anywhere he pleases; and, certainly, jurisdiction will not be ousted because he has consented. Here the defendant companies have provided that they can be ‘found’ in a district other than that in which they reside, if a particular mode of proceeding is adopted, and they bave been so ‘found.’ In our opinion, therefore, the circuit court has jurisdiction of the causes, and should proceed and try them.

“We are aware that the practice in circuit courts generally has been to decline jurisdiction in this class of suits. Upon an examination of the reported cases in which this question has been decided, we find that in almost every instance the ruling was made upon the authority of the late Mr. Justice Nelson, in Day v. The Newark India-Rubber Manufacturing Co. 1 Blatchf. 628, and Pomeroy v. The New York & New Haven R. Co. 4 Id. 120. These cases were decided by that learned justice, the one in 1850 and the other in 1857, long before our decision in Railroad Co. v. Harris, supra, which was not until 1870, and are, as we think, in conflict with the rule we there established. It may also be remarked that Mr. Justice Nelson, a member of this court, concurred in that decision.”

In the cause now before the court, the plaintiff being a citizen of this district, and the defendant a citizen of the state of New York, the residence of the parties is such as to give this court jurisdiction; and the defendant having complied with the statutes of Ohio, thereby consented that it might be sued within this district, and that process might be served upon their agent; and suit having been brought in this court, and process having been served upon their agent, jurisdiction has been obtained of the defendant.

The motion to quash will, therefore, be overruled.