Hugo Black

“ It is hardly likely that these Michigan farmers, hiring farm equipment, were in any position to dicker over what terms went into the contract they signed. Yet holding this service effective inevitably will mean that the Szukhents must go nearly a thousand miles to a strange city, hire New York counsel, pay witnesses to travel there, pay their own and their itnesses' hotel bills, try to explain a dispute over a farm equipment lease to a New York judge or jury, and in other ways bear the burdens of litigation in a distant, and likely a strange, city. ”

“ A. In the first place, we should interpret the federal rule as contemplating a genuine agent, not a sham. [8] Here the 'agent,' Mrs. Weinberg, was unknown to respondents. She was chosen by the New York company, was under its supervision, and, indeed, was the wife of one of its officers-facts no one ever told these farmers. [9] State courts in general quite properly refuse to uphold service of process on an agent who, though otherwise competent, has interests antagonistic to those of the person he is meant to represent. ”

“ It should be understood that the effect of the Court's holding is not simply to give courts sitting in New York jurisdiction over these Michigan farmers. It is also, as a practical matter, to guarantee that whenever the company wishes to sue someone who has contracted with it, it can, by force of this clause, confine all such suits to courts sitting in New York. This Court and others have frequently refused to hold valid a contract which, before any controversy has arisen, attempts to restrict jurisdiction to a single court or courts. ”

“ Although improved methods of travel have increased its speed and ameliorated its discomforts, it can hardly be said that these almost miraculous improvements would make more palatable or constitutional now than in 1878 a system of law that would compel a man or woman from Hawaii, Alaska, or even Michigan to travel to New York to defend against civil lawsuits claiming a few hund ed or thousand dollars growing out of an ordinary commercial contract. ”

“ Neither the Federal Constitution nor any federal statute requires that a person who could not constitutionally be compelled to submit himself to a state court's jurisdiction forfeits that constitutional right because he is sued in a Federal District Court acting for a state court solely by reason of the happenstance of diversity jurisdiction. ”

“ Weinberg as 'agent' in suits brought for breach of contract by this same company, one against a defendant living in the distant State of California. But these trial courts did not even mention the Rosenthal case, decided by a higher court, and in fact cited no higher court opinions at all which dealt with the question here raised. In seeking to apply New York's definition of 'agent' we should follow the considered opinions of the highest appellate courts which have passed upon the question, not unexamined decisions of trial courts. ”

“ What was there deemed to be a very unjust result is greatly aggravated, I think, by today's holding that a man can, by a cleverly drafted form, be successfully inveigled into giving up in advance of any controversy his traditional right to be served with process and sued at home. ”

“ DP D. To formulate standards of agency under Rule 4 (d) (1) which allow a plaintiff with a form contract to extend a District Court's service of process for suits on that contract anywhere in the country (or, presumably, the world) is to do something which Congress has never done. ”

“ This rule means that an individual has a constitutional right not to be sued on such claims in the courts of any State except his own without his consent. The prime value of this constitutional right has not diminished since Pennoyer v. Neff was decided. Our States have increased from 38 to 50. ”

“ And surely the right of a person not to be dragged into the courts of a distant State to defend himself against a civil lawsuit cannot be dismissed as insubstantial. Happily, in considering this question we are not confronted with any congressional enactment designed to bring nonstate residents into a Federal District Court passed pursuant to congressional power to establish a judicial system to hear federal questions under Article III of the Constitution, or its power to regulate commerce under Art. ”