Volume 72 Issue 3 Dickinson Law Review - Volume 72, 1967-1968 3-1-1968 Mandamus in the Federal Courts as an Original Action Timothy L. McNickle Follow this and additional works at: https://ideas.dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/dlra Recommended Citation Timothy L. McNickle, Mandamus in the Federal Courts as an Original Action, 72 DICK. L. REV. 468 (1968). Available at: https://ideas.dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/dlra/vol72/iss3/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews at Dickinson Law IDEAS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dickinson Law Review by an authorized editor of Dickinson Law IDEAS. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. MANDAMUS IN THE FEDERAL COURTS AS AN ORIGINAL ACTION In Stern v. South Chester Tube Co.1 the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that, notwithstanding diver- sity, the federal district courts have no jurisdiction to grant relief in the nature of mandamus to compel inspection of the records of a private corporation when it is the only relief sought. A Pennsyl- vania statute2 which gives a stockholder of a corporation the right to inspect the corporation's books and records and which is enforce- able in Pennsylvania courts by a writ of mandamus 3 does not alter the limitation on the district court's jurisdiction as imposed by the All Writs Act.4 Contrary views of the district court's jurisdiction were ad- vanced by the majority and dissenting opinions in Stern. The majority could find no basis for mandamus jurisdiction in federal district courts.