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PACIFIC RAILROAD REMOVAL CASES, 115 U. S. 1 (1885)

115 U. S. 1

U.S. Supreme Court

Pacific Railroad Removal Cases, 115 U.S. 1 (1885)

Pacific Railroad Removal Cases

Argued November 20-21, 1884

Decided May 4, 1885

115 U.S. 1

Syllabus

Corporations of the United States, created by and organized under acts of Congress, are entitled, under the Act of March 3, l875, 18 Stat. 470, to remove into the circuit court of the United States suits brought against them in state courts on the ground that such suits are suits "arising under the laws of the United States."

The Union Pacific Railway Company is, as to its road, property and franchises in Kansas, a corporation de facto created and organized under acts of Congress, and as to the same in Nebraska, it is strictly and purely a corporation deriving all its corporate and other powers from acts of Congress.

The Texas & Pacific Railway Company is also a corporation, deriving its corporate powers from acts of Congress.

These companies are entitled, under the Act of March 3, 1875, to have all suits brought against them in state courts removed to circuit courts of the United States on the ground that they are suits arising under the laws of the United States.

An objection that a petition for removal was not verified by oath or that there was delay in filing it may be waived by delay in taking the objection.

In Missouri, a proceeding before a mayor of a city and a jury to take land for widening a street and to ascertain the value of the land taken and to assess the cost thereof on the property benefited is not, while pending there, a suit at law within the meaning of the Act of March 3, 1875, authorizing the removal of causes, but it becomes such a suit at law when transferred to the circuit court of the state on appeal.

In proceedings, under the Act of the Legislature of Missouri, passed in 1875, for the widening the streets of Kansas City, the Union Pacific Railway Company had a controversy distinct and separate from like controversies of other owners of land affected by the proceedings, and the fact that the removal of the controversy of the railway company to the circuit court of the United States may have an indirect effect upon the proceedings in the state courts as to the other owners furnishes no good reason for depriving the company of its right to remove its suit.

The questions argued and decided in these cases arose under the statutes regulating the removal of causes from state courts. The facts in regard to each case are stated in the opinion of the Court. clubjuris

Page 115 U. S. 3


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