## Facts

- A civil action was pending in the First Civil Court of the City of Mexico involving claims arising from a Mexican lease, including collection of rent and recovery of property.
- The Mexican court issued letters rogatory requesting assistance from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to serve the Mexican summons (or equivalent process) on a defendant residing in New York.
- The federal court initially directed that the requested process be served on the New York defendant.
- After service was made in New York, the defendant moved to vacate the federal court’s order authorizing service and to set aside the service effected under the foreign request.

## Issues

1. Whether a federal district court had authority, absent a statute, treaty, or governing rule, to execute foreign letters rogatory by serving a foreign civil summons on a person within the district in aid of a pending foreign lawsuit.
2. Whether service of foreign civil process arranged through a federal court should be vacated when the court’s power to order such service is not grounded in domestic law.

## Decision

- The court granted the defendant’s motion to vacate the order authorizing service.
- The court refused to sustain service of the Mexican summons made pursuant to the letters rogatory.
- The court treated the foreign request as insufficient, by itself, to authorize use of federal judicial process to serve a foreign court’s civil summons in the United States.

## Legal Principles

- A federal court does not possess a general, inherent power to serve foreign civil process within the United States based solely on letters rogatory; authority must rest on domestic law (such as a statute, treaty, or applicable procedural rule).
- International comity is discretionary and cannot supply judicial power where domestic law provides none.
- Judicial assistance to foreign tribunals is limited by domestic procedural constraints and is more restricted when the requested act is service of foreign process designed to hale a person into a foreign court.

## Conclusion

The court vacated service arranged through letters rogatory from a Mexican civil court, holding that—without an affirmative domestic legal basis—the federal court could not use its process to serve a foreign civil summons on a resident found within the district.


In re Letters Rogatory out of First Civil Court of City of Mexico, 261 F. 652 (S.D.N.Y. 1919)