Kansas City Structural Steel Co. v. State ex rel. Ashley County

256 S.W. 845, 161 Ark. 483, 1923 Ark. LEXIS 550
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedDecember 10, 1923
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 256 S.W. 845 (Kansas City Structural Steel Co. v. State ex rel. Ashley County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kansas City Structural Steel Co. v. State ex rel. Ashley County, 256 S.W. 845, 161 Ark. 483, 1923 Ark. LEXIS 550 (Ark. 1923).

Opinion

Wood, J.

This is an action by the appellee against the appellant. The appellee alleged that the appellant was a foreign -corporation engaged' in the business of building bridges, and that, prior to the third day of August, 1917, it made a bid for the contract to do the bridge work on the Wilmot Road District in Ashley County, Arkansas; that its bid was accepted, and it entered into a contract with the road district for the building of bridges without first obtaining authority from the State of Arkansas to engage in such business in this State and' without complying with the laws of the State applicable to sjich corporations.

The appellant, in its answer, specifically denied the allegations of the complaint, and alleged that, if it engaged in business in the State of Arkansas without complying with the laws in regard to foreign corporations, such business transacted by it was interstate commerce and not subject to the regulation of the State laws; that, if the laws of the State 1825-1832, inclusive, Crawford & Moses’ Digest) forbidding foreign corporations to do business in the State without complying with the laws therein prescribed, be held to apply to the business of appellant, such laws were repugnant to the commerce clause of the Constitution of the United States, and therefore void.

The facts as set forth in an agreed statement of facts are as follows: “Kansas City Structural Steel Company is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Missouri. On May 3, 1921, it executed a contrast with the Wilmot Road District for the construction of a steel bridge across Bayou Bartholomew, near the town of Wilmot, county of Ashley, State,of Arkansas. The contract was signed at Hamburg, Ashley County, Arkansas, by representatives of the contracting parties, and contained a provision that it should hot become effective until a bond to secure its faithful performance had been executed by the steel company. This bond was executed in Kansas City on May 5, 1921. On June 14, 1921, the defendant steel company sublet to the Yancey Construction Company of Abilene, Kansas, a partnership, the construction work upon the bridge, except the erection of the steel superstructure. On or about June 15, 1921, the Yancey Construction Company began work upon the bridge, and by August 17, 1921, had completed the greater portion of the work on the piers. On August 17, 1921, the Kansas City Structural Steel Company secured a permit, as required by law, authorizing it to do.business in the State of Arkansas, and on that da^ complied with the laws of the State with reference to'foreign corporations engaging in business within the State.

The Kansas City Structural Steel Company has not received any payments of money from the Wilmot Road District by reason of its contract for the construction of the bridge. The actual construction work done by the Yancey Construction Company was done by said company as independent contractors. The Kansas City Structural Steel Company fabricated the steel for its superstructure at its plant in Kansas City. Prior to August 17, 1921, three shipments of steel were made to Arkansas for use in the bridge, said shipments consisting of bolts, reenforcing rods, steel piers, tubes and angles, and this material was used in construction work done by tbe Yancey Construction Company under its contract with the Kansas City Structural Steel Company.”

In addition to the above it was shown that on July 21, 1921, the appellant shipped three cans of bridge paint, weighing 200 pounds, and also on July 2, 1921, had shipped two carloads of structural steel, and still another carload at another time, all material shipped prior to August 17, 1921. This paint and the carloads of structural steel were consigned to the appellant at Wilmot, Arkansas, from Kansas City, Missouri.

Upon the above facts the trial court rendered a judgment in favor of the appellee against the appellant in the sum of $1,000, from which is this appeal.

The facts are undisputed, and they constitute the doing of business by appellant in this State contrary to the laws applicable to foreign corporations, as contained in §§ 1825-1832 inclusive, Crawford & Moses’ Digest. It appears that appellant came into this State and bid on the contract for the construction of bridges in Wilmot Koad District; that its bid was accepted and the contract entered into in this State for the construction of these bridges; that, prior to the day when it obtained its license to do. business in this State, it had sublet a portion of the work which it had contracted to do, to a construction company, a partnership, in Abilene, Kansas; that, before it was authorized to do business in this State, appellant also shipped the structural steel necessary for the bridge work, consigned to itself at Wilmot, Arkansas; that, of this material, the appellant furnished the. Kansas company such bolts, reenforcing rods, steel piers, tubes and angles as were necessary to enable it to perform its part of the work, all of which it did and completed before the appellant secured/ its permit to do business in this State.

These acts separately (and certainly taken as a whole), looking towards the fulfillment of its contract to construct the bridges which was entered into, and to be performed, in this State, constituted the doing of business in this State, and the court was correct in so holding. The appellant .contends that these acts were wholly interstate in character, and relies upon the cases of Rose City Bottling Works v. Godchaux Sugars, Inc., 151 Ark. 269, and L. D. Powell Co. v. Rountree, 159 Ark. 121. Neither of these cases sustains appellant’s contention. In Rose City Bottling Works v. Godchaux Sugars, Inc., supra, a foreign corporation sold goods to a resident of this State and consigned the goods to its order at the buyer’s place of business, and the foreign corporation, through its local agent, negotiated and arranged with a third party whereby its agent should hold the goods until paid for. In that case we said: “If therefore the goods came into the State under shipper’s order consignment, retaining its character as interstate, it follows that there was no change in the character of the transaction in the further arrangement between the parties stipulating the method of payment of the price. The transaction, from inception to the end, was continuous and interstate in its character, for the contract now under consideration related to the method of the payment of the price, and did not constitute a new contract for the sale of the goods.”

In the case of L. D. Powell Co. v. Rountree, supra, a foreign corporation, through its traveling agent, took an order from a party in this State for certain books, and the foreign corporation shipped the books to the purchaser, under a contract by which the title was reserved in the seller until the purchase money was paid. The original purchaser, having failed to pay for the books, turned them over to an attorney in payment of a fee. Later a representative of the foreign corporation claimed the books, and the attorney having them in possession recognized the claim and offered to deliver the books to the agent of the foreign corporation. The latter resold these books to the attorney, under a contract similar in form to the contract under which they. were first purchased.

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Bluebook (online)
256 S.W. 845, 161 Ark. 483, 1923 Ark. LEXIS 550, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kansas-city-structural-steel-co-v-state-ex-rel-ashley-county-ark-1923.