Respondent, a resident of the northern district of Mississippi, brought this suit in the district court for that district against petitioner, a Delaware corporation having an office and place of business in the southern district of Mississippi, to recover damages for libel published in the southern district. The suit was begun by service of summons in the southern district by the United States marshal upon the agent designated by petitioner to receive service of process with the state. The questions for our decision are whether the venue was properly laid in the northern district, and whether petitioner could be brought before the court and subjected to its judgment in the suit by service of summons on petitioner's agent in the southern district.
The district court granted petitioner's motion to dismiss the suit on the ground that the venue was not properly laid in the northern district. The Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed, 149 F.2d 138, holding that as there was diversity of citizenship and as the amount in controversy exceeded $3,000, the district court for the northern district had jurisdiction, that the venue was properly laid there under the provisions of § 51 of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C. § 112, 28 U.S.C.A. § 112, and that service of summons in the southern district was auth rized by Rule 4(f) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A. following section 723c. We granted certiorari, 326 U.S. 702, 66 S.Ct. 44.
The present case being of a civil nature, the amount in controversy exceeding $3,000, and the parties being of diverse citizenship, the district court had jurisdiction of the subject matter of the suit, that is, of the class of cases of which the present is one. 28 U.S.C. § 41(1), 28 U.S.C.A. § 41(1). The court had jurisdiction over the parties if the petitioner was properly brought before the court by the service of process within the southern district. And it could rightly exercise its jurisdiction, notwithstanding petitioner's motion, unless there was want of venue. Venue in the present case is controlled by § 51 of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C. § 112, 28 U.S.C.A. § 112, which provides, with exceptions not now material, that 'where the jurisdiction is founded only on the fact that the action is between citizens of different States, suits shall be brought only in the district of the residence of either the plaintiff or the defendant * * *.'
Since there was jurisdiction of the present suit on the sole ground of diversity of citizenship and since the suit was brought in the district of the plaintiff's residence, as found by both courts below, there was, by § 51 of the Judicial Code, no want of venue and the court was not warranted in dismissing the suit if the service of summons was effective to make the defendant a party. Neirbo Co. v. Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., 308 U.S. 165, 60 S.Ct. 153, 84 L.Ed. 167, 128 A.L.R. 1437, on which petitioner relies, supports no different conclusion. There the sole ground of jurisdiction was diversity of citizenship of the parties. The foreign corporation was sued in the district court for southern New York, in which neither the plaintiff nor the defendant was a citizen or resident, but where the defendant was doing business, maintained an office, and had consented to be sued by appointing a resident agent to receive service of process. Recognizing that § 51 of the Judicial Code, in cases where the jurisdiction is founded on diversity of citizenship, establishes venue as the place where the suit may be maintained for the convenience of the parties, and that the statutory venue for a suit of which the court has jurisdiction may be waived, we held that the corporation had waived objections to venue by its consent to the suit. By designating an agent to receive service of process and consenting to be sued in the courts of the state, the corporation had consented to suit in the district court, being a court sitting for a district within the state and applying there the laws of the state, and it had thus waived the venue provisions of § 51 of the Judicial Code. 308 U.S. at page 175, 60 S.Ct. at page 158, 84 L.Ed. 167, 128 A.L.R. 1437. Cf. Baltimore & O. Railroad Co. v. Harris, 12 Wall. 65, 20 L.Ed. 354; Lafayette Ins. Co. v. French, 18 How. 404, 15 L.Ed. 451; Ex parte Schollenberger, 96 U.S. 369, 24 L.Ed. 853. In the present suit there was no occasion to establish waiver of objections to venue in the northern district of Mississippi, since the statute had provided in advance that there should be venue in the district court for the northern district where respondent resided.