Welcome to LearnLawBetter, where today we are going to discuss the story behind
Pennoyer v. Neff, a case that most law students read in their civil procedure casebook.
In addition to the story, stay to the end for the rule of law from the case.
Hi, this is Beau Baez, and today I want to talk to you about Pennoyer v. Neff, a case
I read during the first year of law school and which is still required reading in many
Civil Procedure courses.
The Supreme Court case revolves around three people: Marcus Neff, the plaintiff; Sylvester
Pennoyer, the defendant; and the main figure in our story today, John Hipple Mitchell—
a U.S. Senator when the case was decided.
Mitchell was born with the name John Mitchell Hipple in Pennsylvania.
He became a school teacher, and was forced to marry a 15 year old student who he got
pregnant.
He then became a lawyer, but decided he was unhappy in Pennsylvania so in 1860
he left his wife, stole today’s equivalent of $112,000 in client funds, and left for
California with his mistress.
When his mistress got sick, Hipple abandoned her in California, moved up to Oregon, and
there changed his last name from Hipple to Mitchell.
Neff needed legal help in securing land that he was trying to get under the Federal Donation
Act, a federal law to encourage people to move to Oregon so Neff went to Mitchell for legal advice.
Before Neff received legal title to the land he had settled, he left Oregon, at which point
Mitchell filed suit for unpaid legal bills.
Under Oregon law, Mitchell was required to provide notice by publication if the defendant
could not be found in Oregon.
Now apparently Oregon law did not specify the type of publication, so Mitchell placed the
notice in a Methodist publication called the Pacific Christian Advocate—I mean almost certainly
a ploy to make sure that Neff would never find out about the law suit against him.
Of course, Neff did not show up for trial so Mitchell won the case in early 1866, but
Mitchell held on to the judgment for a few months until he received notice that the federal
government had in fact given legal title to Neff for the land that he had settled.
Now this fact is important, as Neff did not legally own the property in Oregon until after the trial
was over.
Mitchell then purchased the land at auction, and a few days later assigned the land to
Pennoyer, a person who eventually was to become a governor of the State of Oregon.
Now let's Fast forward eight years, when in 1874 Neff suddenly shows up and claims that the land was still
his, claiming that the Oregon courts did not have jurisdiction over him at the time of
the original lawsuit.
By this time Mitchell was one of Oregon’s two U.S. Senators, though he was not a named
party in the lawsuit.
The case made it's way up all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which held Oregon did not have jurisdiction
over Neff under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Now I always find it interesting when people talk about the good old days, when people were more moral
than they are today.
Frankly, there is nothing new under the sun.
When Mitchell became a U.S. Senator, it was revealed that he had never divorced his first
wife back in Pennsylvania, which meant that he was a bigamist.
Just before Mitchell’s second election to the Senate, the newspapers published a series of letters
proving that Mitchell had a five year affair with his current wife’s sister—Mitchell,
nonetheless, won reelection.
In 1905, Senator Mitchell was convicted of federal land fraud and sentenced to 6 months
in prison.
Before the Senate could expel him, he died from complications related to some dental
work.
You’ll be glad to know that since he died a Senator, the Senate did vote to cover his
funeral expenses.
I'd like to send a shout out to Dean Wendy Perdue at the University of Richmond School of Law,
who taught me Pennoyer v. Neff when I was a law student at Georgetown.
Now for the rule of law: a court has jurisdiction to hear a lawsuit involving an out-of-state
resident when the state court has personal jurisdiction over the out-of-state resident;
or, when the out-of-state resident owns property in the state.
Neff won this case because he was not in Oregon at the time the lawsuit began, and he did
not have legal title to the property at the time of the lawsuit—he received legal title
from the federal government after Mitchell's legal billing lawsuit.
If you liked this episode hit the like button.
Also, let me know in the comments section how my videos are helping you, and tell me
what topics you want me to cover in a future episode.
We have many other episodes, so feel free to explore.
Also, at LearnLawBetter.com you will find more free resources to help you succeed, including
our newsletter, blog posts, and exam bank.
Thank you for watching.