John Archibald Campbell

“ Next, and in order to cover this glaring irregularity, it seemed necessary to transform a corporation into a quasi, or into so much of a citizen as would authorize its pleading and being impleaded in the Federal courts, although the Constitution and the laws of the United States do not recognise nor make mention of any particular part or fraction of a citizen, but confine the cognizance of the courts to controversies between citizens of different States, sustaining their full natural, political, and social relations. ”

“ By those who affirm this doctrine it is indispensable that they should show as inherent in, and consistent with, the constitution of such corporations, the attributes and qualities to which proceedings like the present are calculated to apply, and with which they can, by any rational or logical comprehension, be made applicable. The metamorphosis which would transmute an aggregate corporation into a natural person, must necessarily transfuse into this new creation the capabilities and qualities of the being into which it is changed. ”

“ Man can have no power to confer mind, passion, or moral perception, nor moral powers, upon a mere fabrication of his own-a mere piece of parchment or paper. No quo animo, therefore, can be affirmed of a fiction to which no animus, or passion, or moral quality, can be imparted.
It has ever been admitted, that into slander or libel, malice essentially enters. Slander or libel is an injury inflicted with a wicked or malevolent motive. ”

“ R., 371, this court recognised the power of a jury in certain actions of tort to assess against the tort-feasor punitive or exemplary damages. Whenever the injury complained of has been inflicted maliciously or wantonly, and with circumstances of contumely or indignity, the jury are not limited to the ascertainment of a simple compensation for the wrong committed against the aggrieved person. But the malice spoken of in this rule is not merely the doing of an unlawful or injurious act. ”

“ It would be difficult to furnish a reason for the liability of a corporation for a fraud, under such circumstances, that would not apply to sustain an action for the publication of a libel.
The defendants are a corporation, having a large capital distributed among several hundred of persons. Their railroad connects large cities, and passes through a fertile district. Their business brings them in competition with companies and individuals concerned in the business of transportation. ”

“ That although illegal acts might be committed for the benefit or within the service of the corporation, and to accomplish objects for which it was created by the direction of their dominant body, that such acts, not being contemplated by the charter, must be referred to the rational and sensible agents who performed them, and the whole responsibility must be limited to those agents, and we should be forced, as a legitimate consequence, to conclude that no action ex delicto or indictment will lie against a corporation for any misfeasance. ”

“ I am further of the opinion, that apart from any question as to the peculiar jurisdiction of the Federal courts, this action could not be maintained in any forum possessing even general legal powers. It is to be borne in mind, that the proceedings in this case are not founded upon any express or peculiar right or authority vested by statute or other special and competent power, but are claimed as the legitimate consequences inherent in, and flowing from, the nature and constitution of corporations aggregate. ”

“ The connection between the number of aggregate corporations and their capacities or liabilities, and the dependence in any degree of the one upon the other, I leave to those who have been favored with greater perspicacity than has been given to me. ”

“ So, too, the Philadelphia Railroad Company was separately and independently created by Pennsylvania; and, in like manner and with like effect, the Delaware Railroad Company, by the State of Delaware. Neither of the States just mentioned had the power to create a citizen of another State, nor to create or invest any attribute or right of citizenship beyond its own jurisdiction. ”

“ The averment of malice, and the application of that averment to the defendants, was a question arising upon the pleadings, and upon the character or capacity of the party complained of, as disclosed upon the face of the declaration. Whether malice, either express or implied, could be imputed to the plaintiff, could have no influence a priori; if malice was alleged, it opened at once the only legitimate question arising upon the demurrer, viz: could the defendants be guilty of malice? ”

“ They are as follows:
'I may mention, that corporations aggregate are now so common, that I believe that a public journal is conducted by a corporation aggregate limited. Therefore, it seems to us, that for what is done by the authority of a corporation aggregate, that a corporation aggregate ought, as such, to be liable as well perhaps as the individuals. ”

“ But this conclusion would be entirely inconsistent with the legislation and jurisprudence of the States of the Union relative to these artificial persons Legislation has encouraged their organization, as they concentrate and employ the intelligence, energy, and capital of society, for the development of enterprises of public utility. There is scarcely an object of general interest for which some association has not been formed, and there are institutions whose members are found in every part of the Union, who contribute their efforts to the common object. ”

“ Pleading to the action admits, indeed, the averments of the declaration as to the citizenship of the parties, but nothing more. And if the defendant be a citizen also, of Delaware, as well as of Maryland, there is no repugnancy between the fact admitted in the pleading, and the fact established by the proof. The court, sua sponte, would decline jurisdiction in such case, even if waived by the parties.
The counsel for the defendant in error made the following points:
1. That a corporation may be liable for a libel. ”

“ The plaintiff, (Quigley,) a citizen of Delaware, complained of the defendants, 'a body corporate in the State of Maryland, by a law of the General Assembly of Maryland,' for the publication of a libel by them, in which his capacity and skill as a mechanic and builder of depots, bridges, station-houses, and other structures for railroad companies, had been falsely and maliciously disparaged and undervalued. ”

“ To support this argument, we should be required to concede that a corporate body could only act within the limits and according to the faculties determined by the act of incorporation, and therefore that no crime or offence can be imputed to it. ”

“ Natural persons are capable of the passions of love and hate; can contend in mortal combat by duel or otherwise; can go into the field in command of armies; can sit upon the bench of justice, or in the legislative or executive departments of the Government. ”

“ AND, secondly, such amount as would act as an adequate punishment to the defendant; and in making up this blended amount, the jury were told to give such damages as, in their opinion, were called for and justified in view of all the circumstances of the case. The instruction left the jury at large, irrespective of the special character in which the plaintiff complained. In his declaration, the plaintiff sued, in his character as a mechanic, for an alleged libel upon him, as a mechanic; and he complains of injury to his reputation, not as a man, but as a mechanic ”

“ Here, then, is averred neither citizenship, nor an identity with, nor an equivalent for citizenship, nor residence, nor commorancy anywhere, on the part of the defendant. The corporate body is stated to be in Maryland, but whether in its organized constitution, or by the citizenship of its president and directors, or by its individual members, or whether in either character it is or is not of Maryland, is left to the court to supply ”

“ Graves, (14 How., 510,) and of Jones v. League, (18 How., 76,) it is supposed, do not apply to a case like this. The objection does not present any question of disability of the plaintiff, or of privilege of the defendant. ”