CORPORATIONS - JURISDICTION - FOREIGN CORPORATIONS AND VENUE IN THE FEDERAL COURTS - CONSENT TO BE SUED

Authors

Theodore R. Vogt, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

In the long history of the struggle to hold foreign corporations subject to suit at the place of their business activity/ another chapter was written when the Supreme Court decided Neirbo Company v. Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., Ltd., hereinafter referred to as the Neirbo case. In that case the plaintiffs, who were citizens and residents of New Jersey, had brought an action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and had sought and obtained the addition, as a party defendant, of Bethlehem, a Delaware corporation. Since, as between plaintiffs and Bethlehem, the suit had not been brought in the district of residence either of the plaintiff or defendant, as provided in section 51 of the Judicial Code, the latter's objection to the maintenance of the action as against it was upheld in the lower courts. However, the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the circuit court of appeals and held that by appointing an agent for service of process in compliance with the New York statute, Bethlehem had "consented to be sued" in that state and thus had waived its federal venue privilege.

Recommended Citation

Theodore R. Vogt, CORPORATIONS - JURISDICTION - FOREIGN CORPORATIONS AND VENUE IN THE FEDERAL COURTS - CONSENT TO BE SUED, 38 Mich. L. Rev. 1047 (1940).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol38/iss7/7