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Wolfe v. Hartford Life & Annuity Insurance

148 U.S. 389 Court SCOTUS Decision date 1893-03-27 Docket No. 162 English

Delivered by The Chief Justice :

Contents

Majority

p. 389
WOLFE v. HARTFORD LIFE AND ANNUITY INSURANCE COMPANY.

Syllabus

ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK.
No. 162.
Submitted March 23, 1893.
Decided March 27, 1893.
A complaint which avers that the plaintiff was, at the several, times named therein, “ and ever since has been and still is a resident of the city, county and State of New York,” is not sufficient to give the Circuit Court of that circuit jurisdiction on the ground of citizenship of the parties, when the record nowhere discloses the plaintiff’s citizenship.
The case is stated in the opinion.
Mr. Robert S. Green and Mr. Henry Thompson for the plaintiff in error.
Mr. Herman Kobbe for defendant in error.

The complaint in this case avers that the plaintiff was at the several times mentioned therein, “ and ever since has been and still is, a resident of the city, county and State of New York,” but his citizenship is nowhere dis-t closed by the record.

It is essential in cases where the jurisdiction depends upon the citizenship of the parties that such citizenship, or the facts which in legal intendment constitute it, should be distinctly arid positively averred in the pleadings, or should appear with equal distinctness in other parts of the record. It is not sufficient that jurisdiction may be inferred argumentatively from the averments. Brown v. Keene, 8 Pet. 112 , 115; Continental Ins. Co. v. Rhoads, 119 U. S. 237 ; Menard v. Goggan, 121 U. S. 253 .

Judgment reversed at the cost of plaintiff in error and the canse remoulded for further proceedings.

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