Koster v. (American) Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co. (330 U.S. 518)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 10, 1947 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 330 U.S. 518 · 67 S. Ct. 828
- Docket
- No. 206
- Argued
- December 19, 1946
- Decided
- March 10, 1947
- Term
- October Term 1946
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Jackson (R.H.)
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice R. H. Jackson (wrote), Justice Douglas, Justice Frankfurter, Justice Murphy
- Dissenting
- Justice Burton, Justice Reed (wrote), Justice Black (wrote), Justice Rutledge
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Jackson delivered the opinion of the Court. This is a derivative action, in equity as are all such derivative actions, begun by plaintiff as a member and policyholder of Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Company “in the right of Lumbermen’s and on behalf of all its members and policy holders.” It was brought in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, of which plaintiff is a citizen. Jurisdiction rests on diversity of citizenship. The defendants are the Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Company, a nominal defendant, organized under the laws of Illinois; one James S. Kemper, president and manager thereof, a citizen of Illinois, and James S. Kemper & Co., an Illinois corporation. The relief asked is that the other defendants account to Lumbermens, for damages it has sustained and for profits they have realized on certain transactions. It is alleged that defendant Kemper, as an officer of the company, has been guilty of breaches of trust by which he, his family corporation and his friends have profited. Plaintiff charges that Kemper’s salary was improvidently increased from less than $75,000 to over $251,000; that although Lumbermens was staffed and equipped to write insurance without the intervention of any agency, he employed the Kemper Company and paid it “substantial sums” as “commissions, fees and otherwise” to Lumbermens’ prejudice and Kemper’s…
Excerpt of a 38,552-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.