Appellee, the receiver for a Texas insurance company in liquidation in the Ninety-eighth District Court of Travis County, Texas, brought an action in that court against the two national banks who are appellants here and against 143 other parties, alleging a conspiracy to defraud the insurance company and claiming damages jointly and severally in the amount of 15 million dollars. Each appellant filed a plea of privilege, as provided by the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, asserting that it was located in Dallas County, Texas, and was therefore immune from suit in Travis County under the provisions of Rev.Stat. § 5198 (1878), 12 U.S.C. § 94, which provides:
'Actions and proceedings against any association under this chapter may be had in any district or Territorial court of the United States held within the district in which such association may be established, or in any State, county, or municipal court in the county or city in which said association is located having jurisdiction in similar cases.'
Appellee, on the other hand, relied upon Texas Insurance Code, Art. 21.28, Section 4, V.A.T.S. of which provides:
'(f) New Lawsuits. The court of competent jurisdiction of the county in which the delinquency proceedings are pending under this Article shall have venue to hear and determine all action or proceedings instituted after the commencement of delinquency proceedings by or against the insurer or receiver.'
The pleas of the banks were overruled and they appealed, it being agreed that the only issue for review was whether 12 U.S.C. § 94 entitled appellants to have the action transferred to the state court in Dallas County or whether the state venue provision contained in § 4(f) of the Insurance Code was controlling. The Court of Civil Appeals reversed and sustained the pleas of privilege on the ground that 12 U.S.C. § 94 required an action against a national bank to be brought in the county of its location. The Texas Supreme Court, however, refused to accept § 94 as prohibiting a suit against petitioners in Travis County when a state venue statute expressly permitted it. 161 Tex. 349, 341 S.W.2d 161. On the one hand, the court interpreted § 94 as permissive only, not mandatory, and on the other, as having been repealed by an omnibus repealing clause in an 1882 statute subsequently absorbed into 28 U.S.C. § 1348. Appellants brought the cases here under 28 U.S.C. § 1257(2) and, because of the finality question, we postponed ruling upon our jurisdiction until the merits were considered. 368 U.S. 809, 82 S.Ct. 32, 7 L.Ed.2d 19.
The question of our appellate jurisdiction is quite similar to the one considered in Local No. 438 Const. and General Laborers' Union, AFL-CIO v. Curry, 371 U.S. 543, 83 S.Ct. 531, although there the jurisdiction of any and all state courts was at issue and here the inquiry is only as to which state court has proper venue to entertain an action against two national banks. Nonetheless, a substantial claim, appealable under state law, is made that a federal statute, rather than a state statute, determines in which state court a national bank may be sued and, as in Curry, prohibits further proceedings against the defendants in the state court in which the suit is now pending. This is a separate and independent matter, anterior to the merits and not enmeshed in the factual and legal issues comprising the plaintiff's cause of action. Moreover, we believe that it serves the policy underlying the requirement of finality in 28 U.S.C. § 1257 to determine now in which state court appellants may be tried rather than to subject them, and appellee, to long and complex litigation which may all be for naught if consideration of the preliminary question of venue is postponed until the conclusion of the proceedings. Accordingly, we note our jurisdiction to hear this appeal under § 1257(2) and turn now to the question of whether appellants may be sued in the Travis County court.