Flint & Walling Mfg. Co v. McDonald

114 N.W. 684, 21 S.D. 526, 1908 S.D. LEXIS 2
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 15, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 114 N.W. 684 (Flint & Walling Mfg. Co v. McDonald) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Flint & Walling Mfg. Co v. McDonald, 114 N.W. 684, 21 S.D. 526, 1908 S.D. LEXIS 2 (S.D. 1908).

Opinion

CORSON, J.

This action was instituted by the plaintiff, a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the state of Indiana, to foreclose a lien for machinery furnished and set up by the plaintiff as subcontractor at the village of Carthage, in this state. Findings and judgment being in favor of the plaintiff, the defendants, Western Surety Company, E. G. Kennedy, an 1 Van Burén, Heck & Marvin Company, have appealed.

In the spring of 1904 the village of Carthage entered into a contract with the defendant A. D. McDonald, who seems to have ■been transacting business under the name of the Sioux Falls Construction Company, for the construction of a plant for waterworks in the village of Carthage. In July of that year the said Sioux Falls Construction Company enterred into a contract with the plaintiff as a subcontractor to furnish and erect a water tank and tower, and thereupon the said plaintiff proceeded to erect in accordance with the contract the said tank and tower as a part of said waterworks system. Late in the fall of 1904 the system of waterworks was completed by McDonald to the satisfaction of the trustees of the village of Carthage, and there remained a balance due him thereon of something over $1,900, which that village holds [527]*527for such parties as the court may adjudge to be entitled to the same. Certain smaller lien-holders who are made parties defendant to this action filed liens upon the property amounting to something over $400, which liens are conceded by the plaintiff and the othei defendants to be valid liens, and hence will not be. further considered in this opinion. The plaintiff also filed its claim for lien in the proper office, and judgment, was thereafter entered thereon in favor of the plaintiff, subject to be paid pro rata with the other liens heretofore referred to. The defendant, the Western Surety Company, claims to be entitled to $150 of the money so held by the village of Carthage, under and by virtue of attachment proceedings against the defendant McDonald; and the defendant Van Burén, Heck & Marvin Company claims the money in the possession of the village of Carthage under and by virtue of a judgment entered in the United States Circuit Court for the Southern Division of the District of South Dakota, and execution issued thereon against the said McDonald. At the time the contract was entered into between McDonald and the plaintiff the plaintiff had not filed m articles of corporation or appointed a resident agent, as required by the Code of this state, and no such copy was filed or resident agent appointed until on or about December 3, 1904, two days before the filing of its lien.

It is contended by the appellants, the attaching and judgment creditors, that by reason of the failure of the plaintiff to file its articles of incorporation and appoint a resident agent prior to entering into the contract, as required by the provisions of the Code as construed in the case of American Copying Co. v. Eureka Bazaar, 20 S. D. 526, 108 N. W. 15, 9 E. R. A. (N. S.) 1176, it is not entitled to recover, as the contract between the contractor and the plaintiff was a Dakota contract, which was to be performed within this state. It is further contended by the appellants that as the plaintiff contracted to erect and set up the plant as well as to furnish the same, it ceased to be a transaction within the commerce clause of the federal Constitution. The plaintiff, in support of the judgment of the Circuit Court, insists that notwithstanding the agreements to erect and set up the tower and tank as a part of the waterworks system of the village of [528]*528Cartilage the contract was still within the provisions of the commerce clause of the federal Constitution, and the plaintiff is therefore entitled to recover for the machinery so- furnished.

We are inclined to- take the view -that the plaintiff is right in its contention. The sale of its machinery by the plaintiff comes clearly within the commerce clause o-f the federal Constitution, and such a contract is valid in this state notwithstanding the provisons of its Constitutions and laws. The caise of Coo-per Manufacturing Company v. Ferguson, 113 U. S. 727, 5 Sup. Ct. 739. Mr. Justice Matthews in a concurring opinion in speaking upon this subject says: “Whatever power may be conceded to a state to prescribe conditions on which foreign corporations may transact business within its limits, it cannot be admitted -to extend so far as to prohibit or regulate commerce among the states, for that would be to invade the jurisdiction which, by the terms of the Constitution of the United States, is conferred exclusively upon Congress. In the present case the construction claimed for the Constitution of Colorado, and the statute of that state passed in execution of it, cannot be extended to prevent the plaintiff in error, a corporation of another state, from transacting business in Colorado, which of itself is commerce. The transaction in question was clearly o-f that character. It was the making o-f a contract in Colorado- to- manufacture certain machinery in Ohio, to be there delivered for transportation to- the purchasers in Colorado-. That was commerce; and to prohibit it, except upon conditions, is to regulate commerce between Colorado- and Ohio, which is within the exclusive province of Congress. It is quite competent, no doubt, for Colorado- to prohibit a foreign corporation from acquiring a domicile in that state, and to- prohibit from carrying on within that state its business o-f manufacturing machinery. But it cannot prohibit it from selling in Colorado, by contracts made there, its machinery manufactiued elsewhere; for {bat would be to regulate commerce among the states. The views expressed by Mr. Justice Matthews in the foregoing concurring opinion is fully approved by the Supreme Co-urt of the United States in Crutcher v. Commonwealth of Kentucky, 141 U. S. 47. In that case the commonwealth of Kentucky required a license of certain parties [529]*529doing business of interstate commerce in that state, and the act was sustained by the Supreme Court of (the state, but reversed by the Supreme Court of the United States. In its decision the latter court says: “To carry on interstate commerce is not a franchise or a privilege granted by the state. It is a right which every citizen if the United States is entitled to exercise under the Constitution and laws of the United States; and the accession of mere corporate facilities, as a matter of convenience in carrying on their business, cannot have the effect of depriving them of such right, unless Congress should see fit to interpose some contrary regulation on the subject. * * * The prerogative, the responsibility and duty of providing for the security of the citizens and the people of the United States in relation to foreign corporate bodies, or foreign individuals with whom they may have relations of foreign commerce, belong to the government of the United States, and not to the governments of the several states, and confidence in that regard may be reposed in the national Legislature without any anxiety or apprehension arising from'the fact that the subject-matter is not within the province or jurisdiction of the state Legislatures. And the same thing is exactly true with regard interstate commerce as it is with regard to foreign commerce. No difference is perceivable between the two.” Western U Telg. Co. v. Texas, 105 U. S. 460; Clouchester Ferry Co. v.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Johnston v. Lamson Co.
167 S.E. 417 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1933)
General Talking Pictures Corp. v. Shea
49 S.W.2d 359 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1932)
Palmer v. Aeolian Co.
46 F.2d 746 (Eighth Circuit, 1931)
Vilter Manufacturing Co. v. Evans
154 N.E. 677 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1927)
Palm Vacuum Cleaner Co. v. Bjornstad
161 N.W. 215 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1917)
Puffer Manufacturing Co. v. Kelly
73 So. 403 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1916)
York Mfg. Co. v. Colley
172 S.W. 206 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1914)
Buhler v. E. T. Burrowes Co.
171 S.W. 791 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1914)
American Mfg. Co. v. Skidmore Drug & Furniture Co.
170 S.W. 128 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1914)
A. Leschen & Sons Rope Co. v. Moser
159 S.W. 1018 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1913)
Sioux Remedy Co. v. Cope
133 N.W. 683 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1911)
Sioux Remedy Co. v. Lindgren
130 N.W. 49 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1911)
Coffin v. Smith
128 N.W. 805 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1910)
Rex Buggy Co. v. Dinneen
122 N.W. 433 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1909)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
114 N.W. 684, 21 S.D. 526, 1908 S.D. LEXIS 2, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/flint-walling-mfg-co-v-mcdonald-sd-1908.