The Federal Reporter with Key-Number Annotations, Volume 256: Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit Courts of Appeals and District Courts of the United States, May-July, 1919. Page: 51
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WALSH V. ATLANTIC COAST LINE R. CO.
the situs or character of the business out of which the litigation
arises, but upon the fact that the corporation is present and therefore
amenable to process. Barrow S. S. Co. v. Kane, 170 U. S. 100, 18
Sup. Ct. 526, 42 L. Ed. 964.
In this case the defendant was maintaining an office on one of the
principal streets of Boston, for which it was paying a very substan-
tial rent; it kept there an agent who was under salary, and whom it
advertised as its "New England agent";' it also hired and paid an
office force to transact its business, through this office and force; it
sohcited business and arranged for the transportation of persons and
freight over it lines. The business carried on at the Washington
street office was not Mr. Johnson's business; it was the business of
the defendant. The cause of action here alleged arose out of the de-
fendant's undertaking to transport the plaintiff as a passenger. While
it was not transporting passengers in New England, it was soliciting
that sort of butiiness here, and was making contracts in relation there'
to. Business evidently of a pretty wide scope, and-to judge from the
rent paid and the office force maintained-of substantial volume, be-
tween the defendant, on the one side, and passengers and shippers of
freight, on the other, was transacted through the Washington street
office. The plaintiff's claim arose out of that sort of business.
As to such controversies as might naturally be expected to arise,
from time to time, between the defendant and persons with whom it
did business, out of transactions of the same general character as
Johnson was authorized to enter into here on its account, the defend-
ant must, I think, be held to have submitted itself to this jurisdiction.
International Harvester Co. v. Kentucky, 234 U. S. 579, 589, 34 Sup.
Ct. 944, 58 L. Ed. 1479; Newby v. Von Offen, L. R. 7 Q. B. 293, 296.
[2] As to (2): There remains the question whether service upon
Johnson was sufficient service upon the defendant. As the defendant
was present within the district, service which would be sufficient un-
der the state law is sufficient in this court. Ex parte Schollenberger,
96 U. S. 369, 24 L. Ed. 853; Barron S. S. Co. v. Kane, supra.
[3] Under the Massachusetts statutes (St. 1913, c. 257), service of
process in an action against a foreign corporation having a usual
place of business in this state, or which is engaged in soliciting busi-
ness here, may be made by leaving the summons with the agent who
has charge of the business. Johnson was concededly in charge of such
business as the defendant did here. In St. Louis, etc., Ry. Co. v. Al-
exander, supra, service under a New York statute is somewhat anal-
ogous to the Massachusetts statute here in question, but limited to
causes of action arising on transactions in that state, was approved by
the Supreme Court. This Massachusetts statute is explicitly restricted
to foreign corporations and does not apply to natural process. It is
plainly an attempt on the part of the state of Massachusetts to regu-
late foreign corporations doing business within its territory, and as
such it seems to me to be within the power of the state and to be valid.
A similar conclusion as .to it was reached by Judge Wait in Reynolds
v. Missouri, Kansas & Texas Ry. Company et al., Massachusetts Su-
perior Court, Suffolk County, 1915. Johnson was therefore a proper
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The Federal Reporter with Key-Number Annotations, Volume 256: Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit Courts of Appeals and District Courts of the United States, May-July, 1919., legislative document, 1919; Saint Paul, Minnesota. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc38827/m1/65/: accessed March 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.