A real estate broker brought suit in the circuit court for Pope County, Ark., against petitioner, incorporated under Act of Congress (Federal Farm Loan Act, July 17, 1916, c. 245, 39 Stat. 360 (see 12 USCA § 641 et seq.)), and domiciled in Missouri, to recover a brokerage commission. Pursuant to local law (Crawford & Moses' Digest, §§ 1159-1163), he began the suit by attachment of real estate of the petitioner in the county, as that of a foreign corporation.
Petitioner appeared specially in the circuit court and moved to vacate the attachment, on the grounds that it is not a foreign corporation subject to attachment under the pertinent statutes of Arkansas, and that it is a federal instrumentality, immune from mesne process of attachment, by virtue of its organization and functions under the statutes of the United States. On denial of the motion, petitioner sought of the Supreme Court of the state a writ of prohibition directed to respondent, the circuit judge, which was denied. 74 S.W.(2d) 222. We brought the case here on certiorari. 294 U.S. 700, 55 S.Ct. 506, 79 L.Ed. --.
The ruling of the state Supreme Court, that petitioner is a foreign corporation within the meaning of the Arkansas attachment statute, and that the attachment was authorized by local law, presents only a state question, which is not open for review here. The sole question for our consideration is whether the petitioner is exempt from attachment because it is a federal agency or instrumentality which Congress has not expressly subjected to judicial process.
Without now entering into a detailed examination of the subject, it is sufficient that this court has already had occasion to consider the organization and functions of federal land banks, and to declare that they are instrumentalities of the federal government, engaged in the performance of an important governmental function. Smith v. Kansas City Title & Trust Co., 255 U.S. 180, 41 S.Ct. 243, 65 L.Ed. 577; Federal Land Bank v. Gaines, 290 U.S. 247, 54 S.Ct. 168, 78 L.Ed. 298. As such, so far as they partake of the sovereign character of the United States, Congress has full power to determine the extent to which they may be subjected to suit and judicial process. See Eastern Transportation Co. v. United States, 272 U.S. 675, 677, 47 S.Ct. 289, 71 L.Ed. 472. Whether federal agencies are subjected to suit, and, if so, the extent to which they are amenable to judicial process, is thus a question of the congressional intent. See The Lake Monroe, 250 U.S. 246, 249, 39 S.Ct. 460, 63 L.Ed. 962; Sloan Shipyards Corp. v. United States Fleet Corp., 258 U.S. 549, 42 S.Ct. 386, 66 L.Ed. 762; Mossouri Pacific R. Co. v. Ault, 256 U.S. 554, 559, 41 S.Ct. 593, 65 L.Ed. 1087. If the answer is not made plain by the words of the statute, it is necessary to ascertain, by examination of the purposes and organization of the federal farm loan system, whether immunity from attachment is granted by implication. See Shaw v. Oil Corp., 276 U.S. 575, 48 S.Ct. 333, 72 L.Ed. 709.
Section 4 of the Federal Farm Loan Act (12 USCA § 676) provides that federal land banks 'shall have power * * * to sue and be sued, complain, interplead, and defend, in any court of law or equity, as fully as natural persons.' This express waiver of immunity from suit narrows the inquiry to the question whether liability to suit includes by implication judicial process of attachment and execution, which are usual incidents of suits against natural persons. For it is conceded that if the liability to suit includes liability to execution, it would equally include liability to process of attachment, by which the property seized is held subject to execution.