Chrysler Sales Corp. v. Smith

9 F.2d 666, 1925 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1371
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Wisconsin
DecidedNovember 18, 1925
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 9 F.2d 666 (Chrysler Sales Corp. v. Smith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chrysler Sales Corp. v. Smith, 9 F.2d 666, 1925 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1371 (W.D. Wis. 1925).

Opinion

LUSE, District Judge.

Complainant, a Michigan corporation, seeks to enjoin defendant from publicly asserting that insurance issued by the Palmetto Eire Insurance Company, a corporation of South Carolina, to Wisconsin residents owning Chrysler automobiles sold in Wisconsin, is so issued contrary to the laws of Wisconsin, and from threatening to prosecute Wisconsin dealers in Chrysler ears for violating Wisconsin statutes regulating the insurance business within the, state, to the irreparable damage to plaintiff’s business in the sale of Chrysler cars in Wisconsin. Complainant avers that the Wisconsin statutes, properly construed, do not apply to the situation, and, if they do, they are unconstitutional upon various grounds, and particularly under the due process clause of the Eourteenth Amendment. The application was heard on the pleadings, supplemented by affidavits.

Prominent among the state statutes which merit consideration are the following:

Section 201.41 (1), Wis. St.:
“No insurance corporation shall transact any insurance business in this state without first having paid the license fees and obtained the license there foí as required by law.”

By subdivision 2 of that section, each such company is required to file a statement that it desires and will accept a license within the slate, revocable in case of violation of law or certain impairment of its capital, and appoint the commissioner of insurance its attorney in fact for service of process. The section also requires the insurer to file a copy of its charter and evidence that it has a certain capital, and has deposited, either in this state, or where domestic, a certain amount in approved securities.

Section 201.44:
“(1) No policy of insurance shall be issued or delivered in this state by any company, except through an agent who shall bo a resident of this state and hold a certificate of authority under section 209.04, for the kind of insurance effected by such policy. * • •
“(5) Any company or person soliciting or placing insurance without complying with this section shall, in addition to other penalties provided by law, be liable personally upon such policy or contract of insurance to tile same extent as the company issuing the same.”

A penalty is provided for violation of this section.

Section 209.04:
“(1) No person, officer, or broker, agent or subagent of any insurance corporation of any kind required to pay any tax or license fee to the state shall act or aid in any manner in transacting the business of or with such corporation in placing risks or in collecting any premiums or assessments or effecting insurance therein, without first procuring from the insurance corporation a certificate of authority; nor shall any such person, officer, broker, agent, or subagent, after such certificate shall have expired, or after revocation by the commissioner of insurance of such certificate or of the license of such corporation and until a new certificate or license shall have been issued to him, do or perform any such act for or in behalf of any insurance corporation. The exceptions herein shall not apply to mutual insurance corporations or fraternal benefit societies not maintaining a lodge system which corporations or societies issue only policies of health or accident insurance or both. * * *
“(4) Any person violating the provisions of this section shall ho punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars for each offense. Any company violating subsection (2) of this section shall pay five times the amount of fees upon each license included in such violation.”
Section 209.05:
“Every person or member of a firm or corporation who solicits insurance on behalf of any insurance corporation or person desiring insurance of any kind, or transmits an application for a policy of insurance, other than for himself, to or from any such corporation, or who makes a,ny contract for insurance, or collects any premium for insurance, [668]*668or in any manner aids or assists in doing either, or in transacting any business of like nature for any insurance corporation, or advertises to do any such thing, shall be held to be an agent of such corporation to all intents and purposes, unless it can be shown that he received no compensation for such services. This section shall not apply to agents of licensed fraternal beneficiary societies, or mutual fire insurance companies of this’ state except those organized under sections 201.02, 201.04 and 201.16.”
Section 348.488:
“Any unauthorized insurance company or other'unauthorized insurer which shall hereafter "take or receive any application for insurance in this state, or shall receive or collect a premium on any part thereof for such insurance, shall be punished by a fine of not more than five thousand dollars. Any officer, agent, solicitor or broker, or other employé of any unauthorized insurance company or other unauthorized insurer who shall take or receive any application for insurance in this state, or shall receive or collect a premium or any part thereof for such insurance, shall be guilty of a felony, and shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars, or imprisonment in the state penitentiary for one year, or by both-.sueh fine and imprisonment.”

By virtue of these provisions of the Wisconsin law, among others, defendant claims that the Palmetto Fire Insurance Company and the Wisconsin dealers in Chrysler cars are violating the laws of Wisconsin and are amenable thereto as he has claimed. The facts disclosed by the record or reasonably inferable therefrom are as follows"

.Complainant is a Michigan corporation, engaged in buying all of the automobiles manufactured by the Chrysler Motor Corporation and selling them at wholesale throughout the United States to distributors and dealers, of whom there are some 3,000 in the country and 130 in the state of Wisconsin. It has established this sales organization at great expense, and its success depends in part on its ability to retain these distributors and dealers for the continuance of sales, which during the first half of 1925 exceeded $500,000 in the state of Wisconsin. It appears that a large percentage of automobiles sold at retail in this country are sold on'the deferred payment plan; the deferred payments being evidenced by promissory notes, secured by lien on the ear sold, and usually assigned by the dealer to some bank or finance company which requires that insurance against fire and theft be taken out for the protection of the owner and itself from loss through those hazards. The result, so complainant alleges, has been that such banks or finance companies have been required to maintain organizations to collect deferred payments, watch the ears against improper disposition before final payment, etc., with the further result that the cost of financing, which is invariably borne by the retail purchaser, is not uniform, usually high, and often excessive.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
9 F.2d 666, 1925 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1371, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chrysler-sales-corp-v-smith-wiwd-1925.