Stanley Forman Reed

“ The single wrong for which relief is sought is the failure to pay compensation for the loss on the property. Liability lay among three parties, but it was uncertain which one was responsible. Therefore, all were joined as defendants in one petition. First, facts were stated that made the petitioner, American Fire and Casualty Company, liable. It was alleged that the company, through its agent Reiss, insured the property destroyed for the amount claimed, that Reiss gave plaintiff credit for the premium, controlled her insurance, agreed to keep the property insured at all times. ”

“ To permit a federal trial court to enter a judgment in a case removed without right from a state court where the federal court could not have original jurisdiction of the suit even in the posture it had at the time of judgment, would by the act of the parties work a wrongful extension of federal jurisdiction and give district courts power the Congress has denied them. ”

“ In § 71 the removable 'controversy' was interpreted as any possible separate suit that a litigant might properly bring in a federal court so long as it was wholly between citizens of different states. So, before the revision, when a suit in a state court had such a separate federally cognizable controversy, the entire suit might be removed to the federal court. [4]
A separable controversy is no longer an adequate ground for removal unless it also constitutes a separate and independent claim or cause of action. ”

“ The primary relief sought is an injunction to put an end to an essentially single wrong, however differently characterized, not to enjoin distinct wrongs constituting the basis for independent causes of action.' See Behrens v. ”

“ Clark on Code Pleading (2d ed.) , 137 et seq.↑ Moore's Commentary on the U.S. Judicial Code, supra, pp. 251-252: 'But where the plaintiff joins two or more defendants to recover damages for one injury, and even though he charges them with joint and several liability or only several liability, or charges them with liability in the alternative, there is no joinder of separate and independent causes of action within the meaning of § 1441 (c) . ”

“ At most a separable controversy is presented where several or alternative liability is alleged, and is no longer the basis for removal.' Compare the opinion in Bentley v. Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Co., D.C., 81 F.Supp. 323, with the reversing opinion in 5 Cir., 174 F.2d 788.↑ Baggs v. Martin, 179 U.S. 206, 21 S.Ct. 109, 45 L.Ed. 155; Toledo v. Perenchio, 2 Cir., 205 F. 472; Handley-Mack v. Godchaux, 6 Cir., 2 F.2d 435; Bailey v. Texas Co., 2 Cir., 47 F.2d 153.↑ E.g., in Baggs v. ”