Actions, local in their nature, may be maintained in the proper
state court against a national banking association in a county or a
city other than that where it is established.
This was a proceeding instituted in the Fifteenth Judicial
District Court, Parish of La Fourche, Louisiana, by Adams &
Co., against sundry parties, among whom was Nicholas W. Casey,
receiver of the New Orleans Banking Association, which was
organized under the act of Congress and established at New
Orleans.
It appears that, by virtue of executory process issued out of
that court, a certain parcel of land in the parish, whereon Adams
& Co. held a mortgage, was sold, they becoming the purchasers
for less than their debt. "The sheriff refused to complete the
adjudication" unless they paid certain mortgage claims of the
banking association and other creditors. Adams
Page 102 U. S. 67
& Co. then obtained a rule against the creditors, the
sheriff and the recorder to show cause why the mortgages appearing
in the names of the creditors should not be cancelled and erased,
and upon the sheriff further to show cause why he should not
"complete the adjudication" and put the purchasers in
possession.
Casey alone appeared. He pleaded to the jurisdiction upon the
ground that a national bank cannot be sued in a state court, except
in the county or parish in which it is located, and that its rights
cannot be determined on a rule to show cause.
The court made the rule absolute, and the Supreme Court, on
appeal, affirmed that judgment. Casey thereupon removed the case
here.
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE WAITE delivered the opinion of the Court.
The federal question in this case is whether a national bank can
be sued in a state court in a local action in any other county or
city than that where the bank is located. By sec. 5198, Rev.Stat.,
it is provided that
"Suits, actions, and proceedings against any association under
this title [The National Banks] may be had in any circuit,
district, or territorial court of the United states held within the
district in which such association may be established, or in any
state, county, or municipal court in the county or city in which
said association is located, having jurisdiction in similar
cases."
This, we think, relates to transitory actions only, and not to
such actions as are by law local in their character. Sec. 5136
subjects the banks to suits at law or in equity as fully as natural
persons, and we see nowhere in the Banking Act any evidence of an
intention on the part of Congress to exempt banks from the ordinary
rules of law affecting the locality of actions founded on local
things. The distinction between local and transitory actions is as
old as actions themselves, and no one has ever supposed that laws
which prescribed generally where one
Page 102 U. S. 68
should be sued included such suits as were local in their
character, either by statute or the common law, unless it was
expressly so declared. Local actions are in the nature of suits
in rem, and are to be prosecuted where the thing on which
they are founded is situated. To give the act of Congress the
construction now contended for would be in effect to declare that a
national bank could not be sued at all in a local action where the
thing about which the suit was brought was not in the judicial
district of the United states within which the bank was located.
Such a result could never have been contemplated by Congress.
The proceeding in this case was clearly local in its nature. It
related to property in the Parish of La Fourche, which had been
seized and sold under process from the district court of that
parish. The proceeds of the sale were in that court, and could not
be distributed until "a conflict of privileges" arising between
creditors was settled. No personal claim was made against the bank.
Nothing was wanted except to "class the privilege" of the bank on
the property seized "according to its rank." Whether, under the
laws of Louisiana, the form of proceeding instituted for that
purpose was appropriate is not a question for us. The decision of
the supreme court of the state as to that matter is conclusive.
Judgment affirmed.