Pope et al. v. Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Co. (345 U.S. 379)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 27, 1953 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 345 U.S. 379 · 73 S. Ct. 749
- Docket
- No. 322
- Argued
- January 16, 1953
- Decided
- April 27, 1953
- Term
- October Term 1952
- Vote
- 8–1
- Majority author
- Justice Vinson
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson (wrote), Justice Minton, Justice Clark, Justice Burton, Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Douglas, Justice Black (wrote a concurrence)
- Concurring in the judgment
- Justice Reed (wrote)
- Dissenting
- Justice Frankfurter (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Me. Chief Justice Vinson delivered the opinion of the Court. Invoking the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, petitioner sued his employer, an interstate railroad company, for injuries sustained during the course of his employment, allegedly through respondent’s negligence. The injury occurred in Ben Hill County, Georgia, which was the place of petitioner’s employment as well as the place of his residence. But petitioner filed his complaint in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Alabama; jurisdiction and venue were grounded on § 6 of the Act. Respondent then initiated a suit in equity in the Superior Court of Ben Hill County and asked that petitioner be restrained from prosecuting his action in Alabama. Respondent’s petition to the Ben Hill County Court contained allegations that petitioner had deliberately sought to “harass” his employer by subjecting it to the burden and expense of defending the claim in a distant forum, far from the scene of the accident and the residences of the witnesses. The trial court sustained a general demurrer to this petition. The Georgia Supreme Court reversed — holding that Georgia law provided Georgia courts with the power to enjoin Georgia residents from bringing vexatious suits in foreign jurisdictions. Petitioner’s claim that § 6 of the Federal Employers’ Liability Act prohibited such an injunction in this case was overruled. 209 Ga. 187,…
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