Galette v. New Jersey Transit Corp. · ¶59

NJ Transit also contends that this Court's precedents have placed little weight on the formal aspects of corporate separateness, such as sue-and-be-sued clauses, citing State High way Comm'n of Wyo. v. Utah Constr. Co., 278 U. S. 194 (1929), for support. First, that case does not help its position. There, the Court held that a suit against the State Highway Commission of Wyoming had to be dismissed (for lack of diversity jurisdiction) because the contract at issue was between a construction company and the “State [of Wyoming], acting through the highway commission,” and thus the “real part[y] in interest” was the State itself. Id., at 199–200. Given that the suit, “in effect, [wa]s against the State and must be so treated,” it was “unnecessary for [the Court] to consider” other formal aspects of legal separateness like the Highway Commission's “grant of power to sue or be sued.” Id., at…

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