Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry. Co. v. Whiteaker, 239 U.S. 421 (1915)

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Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company v. Whiteaker

No. 111

Submitted December 6, 1915
Decided December 20, 1915
239 U.S. 421

ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT

OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI

Syllabus

In the absence of bad faith, the motive of the plaintiff in making defendant.s parties who are jointly liable does not affect the right to remove the case.

Whether the complaint states a cause of action against the resident defendant joined with a nonresident defendant is a matter of state law.

Where, as in this case, the injured plaintiff had under the law of the state a right of action against a nonresident railroad company and also against one of its employees who is a resident, he has the right to join them both as defendants, and the nonresident cannot, in the absence of showing fraud on the part of the plaintiff, remove the case as to it into the federal court.

Merely to traverse the plaintiff’s allegations upon which the liability of resident defendant rests or to apply the epithet fraudulent to the joinder is not sufficient -- the showing of fraud must compel the conclusion that the joinder was so absolutely without reasonable basis as to be made in bad faith.

252 Mo. 439 affirmed.

The facts, which involve the validity of the removal from the state to the federal court of a case against joint tortfeasors, one of which was a railroad company not a resident, and the other an individual resident, of plaintiff’s state, are stated in the opinion.