King v. Robinson Transfer Motor Lines, Inc.

13 S.E.2d 233, 219 N.C. 223, 1941 N.C. LEXIS 293

• Court: Supreme Court of North Carolina
• Decided: February 26, 1941
• Status: Published

Opinion

Stacy, C. J.

The plaintiff and defendant are both from Tennessee. The cause of action arose in that State.

The only service of process is on R. R. Williams, designated as process agent for the State of North Carolina by the defendant in compliance with an Act of Congress, TJ. S. C. A. Title 49, sec. 321, subsec. (c).

Without undertaking to decide whether service of process on such agent would suffice to bring the defendant into the courts of this State on a cause of action arising here, the case of Old Wayne Mut. Life Asso. v. McDonough, 204 U. S., 8, is authority for the position that such attempted service will not suffice on a cause of action arising in another jurisdiction.

Again, in Simon v. Southern Ry. Co., 236 U. S., 116, it is held that service of process on the State officer designated by La. Acts, No. 54, for that purpose, was not effective to give the courts of Louisiana jurisdiction of a suit against a foreign corporation doing business in that State as to a cause of action arising in Alabama.

These authorities are decisive of the question presented by the appeal. The plaintiff relies upon the case of Steele v. Tel. Co., 206 N. C., 220, 173 S. E., 583, but the question there decided is not controlling here. That case did not involve service of process on an agent designated by defendant in compliance with an Act of Assembly or an Act of Congress.

Affirmed.