The principal question involved in these cases is whether a suit brought in a state court against a corporation of the United States may be removed by such corporation into the circuit court of the United States, on the ground of its being a corporation organized under a law of the United States. The plaintiff in error in four of the cases is the Union Pacific Railway Company, and in the other three cases is the Texas & Pacific Railway Company. They contend that they have such a right of removal, either under the removal act of July 27, 1868, (15 St. 227,) now forming section 640 of the Revised Statutes, or under the act of March 3, 1875, entitled 'An act to determine the jurisdiction of circuit courts of the United States, and to regulate the removal of causes from state courts, and for other purposes,' (18 St. 470,) or both. Whether the corporations of the United States, organized under acts of congress, have o have not this right of removal is the principal question in these cases.
The suits were all brought in state courts against the said corporations severally. In the first case, Myers, a switchman at Armstrong, in Kansa, sued the company for an injury alleged to have been sustained by him through the carelessness of the company or its agents, in the construction of the coupling of its cars. The company filed an answer, and at the same time a petition for the removal of the cause to the circuit court of the United States for the district of Kansas, and the proper bond required by the law. The petition for removal stated that the petitioner was a corporation other than a banking corporation, and organized under a law of the United States, namely, an act of congress entitled 'An act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes,' approved July 1, 1862; and that, in accordance with said act, and the acts amendatory and supplemental thereto, the petitioner had exercised and did exercise its corporate functions and powers. The petition then proceeded as follows:
'That February 1, 1880, pursuant to section 16 of the said act of July 1, 1862, and of the act of July 2, 1864, the Kansas Pacific Railway Company, a corporation created by the territorial legislature of Kansas, and organized under the laws of said territory, and the Denver Pacific Railway & Telegraph Company, a corporation created and organized under the laws of the territory of Colorado, both of which said companies are mentioned in said acts of congress, and their said railroads by said acts made a part of the Union Pacific Railroad system, were, by agreement, consolidated with the Union Pacific Railroad Company. Your petitioner and said consolidated company, by agreement, as by said acts suthorized, assumed, and adopted the name of the Union Pacific Railway Company, which company consolidated, assumed, took, and from thenceforth had, and has, by virtue of said agreement of consolidation, possession and ownership of all the railroads and other property, real and personal, of said constituent companies, and has and does operate and manage the same under and by authority of said acts of congress, and is governed and controlled by said acts, and is to all intents and purposes, and in fact, a corporation under the laws of the United States. That the plaintiff, Abram Myers, has sued your petitioner, the Union Pacific Rail way Company, process in this suit having been served on its agents, and your petitioner has appeared thereto and filed its answer; that the matter and amount in this suit above entitled exceeds, exclusive of costs, the sum or value of five hundred dollars; that your petitioner has a defense to said action arising under and by virtue of the aforesaid laws of the United States; that said suit has not been tried, nor has it been ready for or stood for trial, and the present is the first term of the court at which it could have been tried.'