et FEDERAL Bureaus.
Motion to Remand.
‘ Jas. S. Botsford, for plaintiff.
Jas. O. Broadhead and John O’Day, for defendants.
MILLER, C. J., (orally.) The case of Wilson v. The St. Louis et
San Francisco Railway Ccmpanyond the Seligmans, submitted to us
yesterday, on a motion to remand, was brought in the state courts
and removed here. The question is presented in this manner: Wil-
son, who had recovered a judgment against the Memphis, Carth-
age & Northwestern Railroad Company, had- an execution returned
"no property found," and then took proceedings under the law of
Missouri concerning such cases to subject the stockholders to per-
sonal liability, and in those proceedings he obtained an orde·r against
the Seligmans, with an execution issued against them for some twenty
odd thousand dollars. Under that execution the sheriff levied upon
and sold certain stock standing in their names on the books of the
St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Company, and gave the usual
certificates of sale. Mr. Wilson, Ending that certificate unavail-
able, because the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Company would
not recognize his right in the premises, filed this petition in the state
court in the nature of a bill in chancery to compel the railroad com-
. L pany to acknowledge his interest in the stock, to have it registered
on their books in his name, and to permit him to receive dividends,
vote, and otherwise exercise the functions of a stockholder in that
company. He also made the Seligmans parties, on the ground that
_ the stock stood in their names on the books of the company, and
averring that he had acquired their interest, and in that state of case
the Seligmans Bled their answer. In this they stated that they did
not own the stock at the time the judgment was rendered against
, them, nor at the time of the sale to Wilson, but had parted with it,
and that the certificates were then, and ever since had been, in the
hands of persons to whom they sold, whose names they do not give;
that it was sold in the ordinary business way, by indorsement with
blank power of attorney; and that they do not know where it is; at
all events, they assert very roundly that they have no interest in the
stock itself, although it stood in their names on the books at the time
of filing the answer of the railroad company.
Application was made by Seligman, as a citizen of New York, on
the ground of his citizenship in that state, to transfer the case to
this court, and it was done, by order of the state court. It is now
moved to remand it on the ground that it was not a removable cause,
and the question that is presented is rather a question of fact than
any needed new construction of the law on the subject of removal,
for the courts have decided—and it has been decided frequently, so
that the doctrine must be pretty well established at this time—that if
a non-resident party has an interest in a controversy which is separate
and distinct, and does not necessarily involve the interest of the
other defendants in the issue, or the other party on the same side,