Beck v. Hill

91 F.2d 75, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 4153
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedJune 12, 1937
DocketNo. 1487
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 91 F.2d 75 (Beck v. Hill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Beck v. Hill, 91 F.2d 75, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 4153 (10th Cir. 1937).

Opinion

PHILLIPS, Circuit Judge.

This suit was brought on February 10, 1936, by Roy H. Hill, Puilla Hodges and Anna M. Hill, doing business as The New-kirk Burial Association, to restrain Clarence V. Beck, Attorney General of Kansas, Earl N. Wright and M. C. Anders, county attorney and sheriff respectively of Cowley County, Kansas, Sidney L. Foulston and Charley Hoover, county attorney and sheriff respectively of Sedgwick County, Kansas, John A. Potucek and Jesse L. Harris, county attorney and sheriff respectively of Sumner County, Kansas, and J. P. Sapping-ton, president of the State Board of Embalming of the State of Kansas from interfering directly or indirectly with the lawful operation of plaintiff’s business in the state of Kansas, on the ground that the Association is engaged in interstate commerce and that prohibiting the operation of said business would violate plaintiff’s rights under the provisions of section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The defendants in their answer, among other things, alleged a prior adjudication of the same issues in a suit in the District Court of Cowley County, Kansas, and set up such judgment as a bar.

After a hearing, the trial court made findings of fact and conclusions of law as follows: That the Association is a nonprofit association organized under the laws of Oklahoma having its principal place of business at Newkirk, Oklahoma, and is not engaged in the insurance business in Oklahoma or Kansas; that the plaintiffs are engaged in interstate commerce and that the defendants have discriminated against them by refusing to permit them to conduct funeral services in Kansas in violation of their constitutional rights and that the state court decree does not affect this action because the Association was incapable of suing or being sued in its own name in Kansas.

A decree was entered thereon restraining and enjoining the Attorney General of Kansas and his subordinates and each of the defendants from interfering with the operation of plaintiffs’ business in the state of Kansas. This is an appeal from that decree.

[76]*76The material facts are as follows:

The Association, an unincorporated body, was formed by Roy H. Hill, Puilla Hodges and Anna M. Hill on December 12, 1932, pursuant to the laws of Oklahoma.1

The business of the Association was conducted by its agents and servants, who went from Oklahoma into Kansas and made contracts with citizens of the latter state, called members, whereby it agreed, in consideration of $1 and further assessments of SO cents from time to time, to take their bodies, upon their demise, from their location in Kansas to Newkirk, Oklahoma, and there prepare the bodies for burial, furnish suitable burial clothing and a casket, transport the body back to Kansas from where it had been taken and conduct the burial service at the cemetery. Such burial service was not to exceed in value $100.

■ Earl N. Wright, County Attorney of 'Cowley County, Kansas, filed a suit in the District Court of Cowley County entitled:

“The' State of Kansas, ex rel. Earle N. Wright, as County -Attorney of Cowley County, Kansas, Plaintiff; vs. Roy H. Hill, Anna: .Hill, Puilla Hodges, Leo Hall, George Alberti, Ed. Simpkins and- The Newkirk . Burial Association, Defendants. ;No.‘ 22586;’.’- .

The petition alleged' that the Association is 'a voluntary association with its principal place of business in Newkirk, Oklaboma, and is engaged in the business of selling certificates of burial insurance under the terms of which it guarantees to furnish the purchaser a burial of the value of $100.00; that the Association is owned; managed and controlled by defendants Roy H. Hill, Anna Hill, Puilla Hodges, Leo Hall, George Alberti and Ed Simpkins and is operated for their personal profit; that the individual defendants had conducted numerous funerals in Cowley County of persons holding certificates in the Burial Association and had received pay from the Association for conducting said funerals; that the Association is not authorized to do business in Kansas and is carrying on its operations in violation of the insurance laws of Kansas; that in conducting said funerals in' Cowley County of certificate holders, the defendants, Roy H. Hill, Anna Hill, Puilla Hodges, Leo Plall, George Alberti, and Ed Simpkins,' were acting as agents of the Association and in furtherance of a plan and conspiracy to violate the insurance laws of Kapsas. The petition prayed that each of the defendants be restrained and enjoined from committing any. of the acts complained of and that each defendant be perpetually enjoined from doing any act or thing to aid. or abet the Association in carrying on its business in Kansas.

The defendants filed an answer in which they denied that they were engaged [77]*77in the insurance business within the state of Kansas and maintained that they had full right and authority when requested by relatives of deceased members to transport a corpse from Kansas into another state, to prepare it for burial and transport it back to Kansas and conduct burial services and that to prohibit it from doing so would place a burden upon and directly interfere with interstate commerce.

The state court found that at the time of the bringing of the suit, the Association was conducting an insurance business in Kansas in violation of the insurance laws of that state and entered a decree reading in part as follows:

“It Is Therefore Considered, Ordered and Adjudged by the court that the temporary injunction heretofore issued in this action be and the same is hereby made permanent as to the defendant, the Newkirk Burial Association, and
“It Is Further Considered, Ordered and Adjudged that the Newkirk Burial Association, its servants, agents, officers and employees should be and hereby are perpetually enjoined from conducting funeral services in the State of Kansas under its contract as offered as evidence in this case and that said Newkirk Burial Association be ousted from doing business in the State of Kansas.
“It Is Further Considered, Ordered and Adjudged that this action be dismissed and the temporary injunction dissolved so far as all defendants, save and except the defendant, the Newkirk Burial Association, are concerned.”

On December 20, 1935, the Association served notice of an appeal. This appeal was later abandoned. On February 3, 1936, the plaintiffs served notice of a cross-appeal on the defendants Roy IT. Hill, Anna Hill, Puilla Hodges, Leo Hall, George Alberti and Ed Simpkins. On July 1, 1936, which was after the decree in the instant case, the Supreme Court of Kansas entered an order modifying the state court decree whereby the defendants, Roy IT. Hill, Anna Hill, Puilla Hodges and George Alberti were individually enjoined by such decree.

The doctrine of res judicata embodies two main rules which may be stated as follows :

(1) The final judgment or decree oí a court of competent jurisdiction upon the merits concludes the parties and their privies to the litigation, and constitutes a bar to a new action or suit upon the same cause of action either before the same or any other tribunal.

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Bluebook (online)
91 F.2d 75, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 4153, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beck-v-hill-ca10-1937.