Knapp v. Wallace

92 P. 1054, 50 Or. 348, 1907 Ore. LEXIS 213
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 17, 1907
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 92 P. 1054 (Knapp v. Wallace) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Knapp v. Wallace, 92 P. 1054, 50 Or. 348, 1907 Ore. LEXIS 213 (Or. 1907).

Opinion

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Bakin.

1. At the trial, the judgment roll in the suit of Camp v. Althouse Mining Co. was offered in evidence by the plaintiff, to show want of jurisdiction of the court, and by the defendant to show jurisdiction. The proof of service of the summons upon the defendant, the Althouse Mining Co., appears by the return of the sheriff of Multnomah County, W. A. Story, by H. L. Moreland, his deputy, made on the 18th day of May, 1904, by personal service in Multnomah County on B. F. Walker, president of the said Althouse Mining Co.; but it does not show that such service was made in the county where defendant corporation had its principal office or place of business, or that it was doing business within the State of Oregon, nor does either of those facts appear anywhere in the record. Section 55, B. & C. Comp., provides that a corporation may be served by delivering a copy of the summons and certified copy of the complaint

“* * to the president or other.head of the corporation, secretary, cashier, or managing agent, or in ease none of the officers of the corporation ■ above named shall reside or have an office in the county where the cause of action arose, then to any clerk or agent of such corporation who may reside or be found in the county, or if no such officer be found, then by leaving a copy thereof at the residence or usual place of abode of such clerk or agent.”

2. Plaintiff insists that the record discloses want of jurisdiction, in that the sheriff’s return shows service upon Walker, as president of the defendant corporation, in Multnomah County, without any showing that the company is doing business within the State or has an office therein, or that such officer was within the State upon business of the corporation. Whether this could be collaterally attacked upon the recital of this return, in case defendant were a domestic corporation, is not necessary for a decision here. But the defendant is a for[352]*352eign corporation, and, before service in Oregon upon its president will confer jurisdiction, it must be made to appear that the corporation is doing business in Oregon, or otherwise within its jurisdiction. If the company is doing business in Oregon, or has an office therein, in connection with its business, then the piresence of an officer in connection therewith is the presence of the corporation. - ■

As said in Farrell v. Oregon Gold Co. 31 Or. 463, 467 (49 Pac. 876, 877):

“So long as the corporation confines its operations to the state within which it was created, it cannot be subjected to the jurisdiction of a court of another state, where it has no office or transacts no business, by the service of process on some officer or agent while temporarily present in the latter state, because he cannot take the corporation with him beyond the jurisdiction of the state of its creation.”

In such a case no presumption can arise that service on Walker, as president, within the State, is service upon the corporation. As said in 17 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law (2 Ed.), 1078: “Jurisdiction of the person of a defendant is presumed, in support of the judgment, only when he is within the territorial limits of the court, and, if he is not within such limits, the record must show service on him”: Galpin v. Page, 85 U. S. (18 Wall.) 350 (21 L. Ed. 959). Therefore the return indorsed upon the summons is. insufficient to show service upon the corporation.

3. Unless it is aided by the recitals in the decree, such defect renders the decree void as to defendant corporation, but the decree recites: “And now having fully examined the return made in the cause, wherefore it is thereby and otherwise made to appear to the satisfaction of the court that the defendant, Althouse Mining Co., has been duly served with summons within the State of Oregon,” default is entered. The authorities are not in harmony as to when such a recital is conclusive upon a collateral attack, some holding that it is conclusive unless it is positively contradicted by the record; others holding that, if the record discloses the return upon which the recital [353]*353is based, and such return does not support the recital, it will not aid the return: See 1 Black, Judgments, §§ 273, 275. Mr. Justice Field, in Galpin v. Page, 85 U. S. (18 Wall.) 350, 365 (21 L. Ed. 959), in discussing- presumptions in favor of the judgment of a court of general jurisdiction, says:

“It is presumed to have jurisdiction to give the judgments it renders until the contrary appears. And this presumption embraces jurisdiction not only of the cause or subject-matter of the action in which the judgment is given, but of the parties also. * * The latter (of the parties) should regularly appear, by evidence, in the record of service of process upon the defendant or his appearance in the action. * * But the presumptions, which the law implies in support of the judgments of superior courts of general jurisdiction, only arise with respect to jurisdictional facts, concerning which the record is silent. * * When, therefore, the record states the evidence or malíes an averment with reference to a jurisdictional fact, it will be understood to sjjeak the truth on that point, and it will not be presumed that there was other or different, evidence respecting the fact, or that the fact was otherwise than as averred. If, for example, it appears from the return of the officer, or the proof of service-contained in the record, that the summons was served at a particular place, and there is no averment of any other service, it will not be presumed that service ivas also made at another and different place; or if' it appear in like manner that the service was made upon a person other than the defendant, it will not be presumed, in the silence of the record, that it was made upon the defendant also. Were not this so, it would never be possible to attack collaterally the judgment of a superior court, although a want of jurisdiction might be apparent upon its face. The answer to the attack would always be that, notwithstanding the evidence or the averment, the necessary facts to support the judgment are presumed.”

1 Black, Judgments^ § 273, says:

“But, while it is inadmissible to contradict the record by extrinsic evidence, it is always open to the party to show that one part of the record contradicts another part. Thus the recital of service in a judgment may be contradicted by producing -the original summons and return. But the contradiction must be explicit and irreconcilable.”

[354]*354In Settlemier v. Sullivan, 97 U. S. 444, 448 (24 L. Ed. 1110), where a judgment rendered in Oregon is collaterally attacked, it is said:

“Here it is contended that the recital in the entry of the default of the defendant in the case of the State court, 'that, although duly served with process, he did not come, but made default/ is evidence that due service on him was made, notwithstanding the return o£ the sheriff, and supplies its omission. But the answer is that the recital must be read in connection with that part of the record which gives, the official evidence prescribed by statute. This evidence must prevail over the recital, as the latter, in the absence of an averment to the contrary,'the record being complete, can only be considered as referring to the former.”

4.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
92 P. 1054, 50 Or. 348, 1907 Ore. LEXIS 213, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/knapp-v-wallace-or-1907.