Respondent, a citizen of Louisiana, brought suit in the District Court for Eastern Louisiana against the Southern Railway Company, a Virginia corporation, and the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, a Kentucky corporation, to recover for personal injuries suffered while traveling in a car of the Southern Railway in a through train from New Orleans, La., to Washington, D. C. At the time of the accident, the train was being operated by the Southern over its tracks in Virginia.
Respondent purchased a through coupon ticket for the journey at the office of the Louisville & Nashville in New Orleans, which entitled him to passage over the line of the Louisville & Nashville from Atlanta & West Montgomery, Ala., over the Atlanta & West Point Railroad from Montgomery to Atlanta, Ga., and thence to Washington over the line of the Southern. He took passage in New Orleans on a car of the Southern, and proceeded in it on his journey until, while on the line of the Southern in Virginia, a window screen, attached to the outside of the car, became loosened and swung backward on its hinges, so as to strike and break the car window behind it and injure respondent with pieces of flying glass. The train was made up by the Louisville & Nashville in New Orleans, and was operated under an agreement among the three carriers concerned, which was not offered in evidence. But it appeared that the cars composing the train were furnished by the three carriers on the basis of their respective mileage; that each furnished locomotive power and train crews over its own line; and that each, while in possession of the train, was in exclusive control of it.
Process against both petitioners was served on their respective agents in Louisiana, designated by them to receive service of process as required by a state law exacting formal consent by the corporation that any 'lawful process' served on the designated agent should be 'valid service' upon the corporation. Act No. 184 of 1924. The Southern, appearing specially before answer, excepted to the jurisdiction on the ground that the cause of action, which was transitory, arose outside Louisiana and not out of any business done by the Southern within that state. After a hearing, in which evidence was introduced, the exception was overruled. (D. C.) 17 F.(2d) 305. On the trial the District Court gave judgment on a verdict for respondent against both petitioners, which was affirmed by the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. 26 F.(2d) 403. This court granted certiorari October 15, 1928. 278 U.S. 590, 49 S.C.t. 26, 73 L. Ed. -.
The Southern alone seeks a review of the order overruling its exception to the jurisdiction. The Louisville & Nashville assigns as error the refusal of the trial court to give a requested instruction to the jury. Both petitioners raise for consideration here exceptions to the charge of the court to the jury and to the admission of certain testimony.
1. The Southern insists that the case as to it should have been dismissed on its exception for want of jurisdiction of the person of the corporation upon a suit in Louisiana on a cause of action arising outside that state. A foreign corporation is amenable to suit to enforce a personal liability if it is doing business within the juris diction in such manner and to such extent as to warrant the inference that it is present there. Lafayette Insurance Co. v. French, 18 How. 404, 15 L. Ed. 451; Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Spratley, 172 U.S. 602, 19 S.C.t. 308, 43 L. Ed. 569; St. Louis Southwestern Ry. v. Alexander, 227 U.S. 218, 33 S.C.t. 245, 57 L. Ed. 486. Even when present and amenable to suit it may not, unless it has consented (Pennsylvania Fire Ins. Co. v. Gold Issue Mining Co., 243 U.S. 93, 37 S.C.t. 344, 61 L. Ed. 610; Smolik v. Phila. & Reading Coal Co. (D. C.) 222 F. 148), be sued on transitory causes of action arising elsewhere which are unconnected with any corporate action by it within the jurisdiction (Old Wayne Mut Life Ass'n v. McDonough, 204 U.S. 8, 27 S.C.t. 236, 51 L. Ed. 345; Simon v. Southern Ry. Co., 236 U.S. 115, 35 S.C.t. 255, 59 L. Ed. 492).