It is unnecessary to decide whether the Circuit Court erred in overruling the plea of former adjudication, or in rendering the decree appealed from; for we are of opinion that the motion to dismiss the suit, as one not really involving a controversy
The case presents no question of a Federal nature, and the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court was invoked solely upon the ground that the plaintiff was a citizen of Tennessee, and the defendants citizens of Alabama. But if the plaintiff, who was a citizen of Alabama when the suit in the state court was determined, had not become, in fact, a citizen of Tennessee when the present suit was instituted, then, clearly, the controversy between him and the defendants was not one of which the Circuit Court could properly take cognizance; in which case, it became the duty of that court to dismiss it. It is true that, by the words of the statute, this duty arose only when it appeared to the satisfaction of the court that the suit was not one within its jurisdiction. But if the record discloses a controversy of which the court cannot properly take cognizance, its duty is to proceed no further and to dismiss the suit; and its failure or refusal to do what, under the law applicable to the facts proved, it ought to do, is an error which this court, upon its own motion, will correct, when the case is brought here for review. The rule is inflexible and without exception, as was said, upon full consideration, in Mansfield, Coldwater &c. Railway v. Swan, 111 U.S. 379, 382, "which requires this court, of its own motion, to deny its own jurisdiction, and, in the exercise of its appellate power, that of all other courts of
It is contended that the defendant precluded himself from raising the question of jurisdiction, by inviting the action of the court upon his plea of former adjudication, and by waiting until the court had ruled that plea to be insufficient in law. In support of this position Hartog v. Memory, 116 U.S. 588, is cited. We have already seen that this court must, upon its
Nor does the case of Hartog v. Memory sustain the position taken by the defendant; for it was there said that "if, from any source, the court is led to suspect that its jurisdiction has been imposed upon by the collusion of the parties or in any other way, it may at once, of its own motion, cause the necessary inquiry to be made, either by having the proper issue joined and tried, or by some other appropriate form of proceeding, and act as justice may require for its own protection against fraud or imposition." In that case, the citizenship of the parties was properly set out in the pleadings, and the case was submitted to the jury without any question being raised as to want of jurisdiction, and without the attention of the court being drawn to certain statements incidentally made in the deposition of the defendant against whom the verdict was rendered. After verdict, the latter moved for a new trial, raising upon that motion, for the first time, the question of jurisdiction. The court summarily dismissed the action, upon the ground, solely, of want of jurisdiction, without affording the plaintiff any opportunity whatever to rebut or control the evidence upon the question of jurisdiction. The failure, under the peculiar circumstances disclosed in that case, to give such opportunity, was, itself, sufficient to justify a reversal of the order dismissing the action, and what was said that was irrelevant to the determination of that question was unnecessary to the decision, and cannot be regarded as authoritative. The court certainly did not intend in that case to modify or relax the rule announced in previous well-considered cases. In the case before us the question was formally raised, during the progress of the cause, by written motion, of which the plaintiff
We are thus brought to the question whether the plaintiff was entitled to sue in the Circuit Court. Was he, at the commencement of this suit, a citizen of Tennessee? It is true, as contended by the defendant, that a citizen of the United States can instantly transfer his citizenship from one State to another, Cooper v. Galbraith, 3 Wash. C.C. 546, 554, and that his right to sue in the courts of the United States is none the less because his change of domicil was induced by the purpose, whether avowed or not, of invoking, for the protection of his rights, the jurisdiction of a Federal court. As said by Mr. Justice Story, in Briggs v. French, 2 Sumner, 251, 256, "if the new citizenship is really and truly acquired, his right to sue is a legitimate, constitutional and legal consequence, not to be impeached by the motive of his removal." Manhattan Ins. Co. v. Broughton, 109 U.S. 121, 125; Jones v. League, 18 How. 76, 81. There must be an actual, not pretended, change of domicil; in other words, the removal must be "a real one, animo manendi, and not merely ostensible." Case v. Clarke, 5 Mason, 70. The intention and the act must concur in order to effect such a change of domicil as constitutes a change of citizenship. In Ennis v. Smith, 14 How. 400, 423, it was said that "a removal which does not contemplate an absence from the former domicil for an indefinite and uncertain time is not a change of it," and that while it was difficult to lay down any rule under which every instance of residence could be brought which may make a domicil of choice, "there must be, to constitute it, actual residence in the place, with the intention that it is to be a principal and permanent residence."
Upon the evidence in this record, we cannot resist the conviction that the plaintiff had no purpose to acquire a domicil or settled home in Tennessee, and that his sole object in removing to that State was to place himself in a situation to invoke the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court of the United States. He went to Tennessee without any present intention
The decree is reversed, with costs to the appellant in this court, and the cause remanded, with a direction to dismiss the suit without costs in the court below.
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