Belle City Manufacturing Co. v. Frizzell

81 P. 58, 11 Idaho 1, 1905 Ida. LEXIS 32
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedMay 9, 1905
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 81 P. 58 (Belle City Manufacturing Co. v. Frizzell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Belle City Manufacturing Co. v. Frizzell, 81 P. 58, 11 Idaho 1, 1905 Ida. LEXIS 32 (Idaho 1905).

Opinion

SULLIVAN, J.

— The respondent in this action is a foreign corporation, organized and doing business under the laws of the state of Wisconsin, and is engaged in the manufacture of threshing-machines and farm machinery and selling the same in the various states of the Union. On the twenty-sixth day of June, 1903, the defendant, who is the appellant here, gave an order to one M. J. Shields of Moscow, Idaho, for a threshing-machine, which order was taken on blanks furnished by the respondent corporation to said Shields, and it is provided in said order that the same is taken subject to the approval of said corporation. It appears that said order was accepted and the threshing-machine and other machinery connected [6]*6therewith was sent to the said Shields at Moscow, and was thereafter delivered by him to the appellant, the purchase price thereof being $615, for which the respondent gave his two promissory notes, one for $307.50, payable on the first day of November, 1903, and the other for the same amount, payable on November 1, 1904, with interest on each at the rate of eight per cent per annum. Appellant having failed to make the payments as agreed, this suit was brought to enforce the collection of said promissory .notes. In his answer the appellant admitted certain allegations of the complaint and denied others, and the affirmative defense is made that the respondent not having complied with the provisions of the act of the legislature approved March 10, 1903 (Sess. Laws 1903, p. 49), requiring foreign corporations, before doing business in the state of Idaho, to file articles of incorporation with the county recorder where its principal place of business is situated, and with the Secretary of .State, and designate an agent upon whom service of process may be made, cannot maintain this action for that reason. A demurrer was interposed to this defense, which was sustained by the court, and thereafter judgment was entered against the appellant as prayed for in the complaint.

Counsel for appellant has failed to comply with that provision of paragraph 1 of rule 6 of the rules of this court which requires the brief to contain a distinct enumeration of the several errors relied on, but it is clear from his brief that his only contention is, that the plaintiff being a foreign corporation and not having complied with the provisions of the act of the legislature above cited, in not filing its articles of incorporation as thereb required and designating an agent upon whom service of process may be made, cannot maintain this action for that reason. The act referred to is an act amending section 2653 of the Revised Statutes, and was approved March 10, 1903, and went into effect sixty days thereafter, which was prior to the date of the contract referred to in this action. Said act provides, among other things, that a foreign corporation, before “doing business” in this state, must file its articles of incorporation with the county recorder [7]*7of the county in which is designated its principal place of business, and also file such articles with the Secretary of State, and designate some person in such county upon whom process may be served. ' It is also provided that “no contract or agreement made in the name of, or for the use or benefit of, such corporation prior to the making of such filings as first herein provided can be sued upon or be enforced in any court of this state by such corporation.”

The only question presented for decision is whether under the facts of this case the respondent was “doing business in this state” according to the meaning of that phrase as used in said act, and if it is not, that is the end of this case.

It is contended by counsel for appellant that although the respondent manufactured its machinery in the state of Wisconsin and simply took orders as above stated, for the sale of such machinery within the state of Idaho, that it comes within the provisions of said act and cannot maintain this action. We cannot agree with counsel in that contention. The legislature never intended that that law should apply to foreign corporations except those actually engaged in business within the state, and excludes interstate commerce. And it was not intended to apply to interstate commerce between corporations or citizens of other states and citizens or corporations of this state. In Gates Iron Works v. Cohen, 7 Colo. App. 341, 43 Pac. 667, under a law similar to the one in question, it was held that a single sale of machinery within the state by a foreign corporation is not within a statute prohibiting such corporations “doing business” in the state before complying with certain conditions, such as filing articles of incorporation. (Babbitt v. Field, 6 Ariz. 6, 52 Pac. 775.) And in Tallapoosa Lumber Co. v. Holbert, 5 App. Div. 559, 39 N. Y. Supp. 432, it was held that the procuring in New York of orders for goods by traveling agents of a foreign corporation, which orders are to be transmitted to the home office of the corporation for approval, after which the goods are to be shipped from such office to the buyer in New York, does not constitute “doing business” within the law requiring foreign corporations to obtain a certificate of authority [8]*8to do business in New York. And in People v. Roberts, 25 App. Div. 13, 48 N. Y. Supp. 1028, a foreign corporation having its chief place of business in a foreign state with no office or place of business in New York, constituted a certain firm with a regular place of business in that state its selling agents. Those agents forwarded orders to said corporation which, after approval, were filled at the company’s factories. The agents received as compensation a commission. Consignments were also made at frequent intervals to said agents who filled some local orders. Under that state of facts it was held that the corporation was not doing business in the state within the laws provided for taxing corporations doing business in the state.

So far as the transaction in the case at bar is concerned, it was simply and purely interstate commerce. The machine was manufactured in Wisconsin and shipped direct from the manufactory without the state as per said order to the appellant within the state of Idaho, or to M. J. Shields, to be delivered to the appellant. Interstate commerce is defined as follows in 17 American and English Encyclopedia of' Law, second edition, page 61: “Interstate commerce or commerce among the several states of the Union is commerce which concerns more states than one. Strictly considered, it consists in intercourse and traffic, including in these terms navigation and the transportation and transit of persons and property, as well as the purchase, sale and exchange of commodities.” (See, also, Ferry Co. v. Pennsylvania, 114 U. S. 196, 5 Sup. Ct. Rep. 826, 29 L. ed. 159.) As stated in Norfolk R. Co. v. Pennsylvania, 136 U. S. 114, 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 958, 34 L. ed. 394: “It is settled by numerous decisions of this court that a state cannot, under the guise of a license tax, exclude from its jurisdiction a foreign corporation engaged in interstate commerce or impose any burdens upon such commerce within its limits.” That rule is too well settled to require further citation of authorities.

Cooper Mfg. Co. v. Ferguson, 113 U. S. 727, 5 Sup. Ct. Rep. 729, 28 L. ed.

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Bluebook (online)
81 P. 58, 11 Idaho 1, 1905 Ida. LEXIS 32, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/belle-city-manufacturing-co-v-frizzell-idaho-1905.