Lambert v. Schell

69 S.E.2d 11, 235 N.C. 21, 1952 N.C. LEXIS 347
CourtSupreme Court of North Carolina
DecidedFebruary 1, 1952
Docket317
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 69 S.E.2d 11 (Lambert v. Schell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lambert v. Schell, 69 S.E.2d 11, 235 N.C. 21, 1952 N.C. LEXIS 347 (N.C. 1952).

Opinion

BakNhill, J.

Finding of Fact No. 2 (No. 4 in the judgment) quoted in the above statement of facts, contains the decisive facts in this case. There the judge details the nature and extent of the activities of the corporate defendant within this State. Defendant Walker is the local agent or representative through whom the corporation acts in furtherance of the objectives there outlined. Is he a local agent within the meaning of G.S. 1-97, upon whom process may be served, so as to subject the corporate defendant to the jurisdiction of the courts of this State ? This is the one question posed for decision on the appeal of the Union Pacific.

Process issued out of a court of this State may be served on a nonresident under the “local agent” provision of G.S. 1-97 so as to subject it to the jurisdiction of the courts of this State only when it is present and doing business within this State through a duly authorized agent possessing general or limited authority to perform some of the functions authorized by its charter. That is, it cannot be served with process unless it can be “found” within the State, and it may be found within the State only when it is engaged in exercising in this State some of the functions for which the corporation was created, which are not purely incidental to the powers granted. Service Co. v. Bank, 218 N.C. 533, 11 S.E. 2d 556; Cunningham v. Express Co., 67 N.C. 425; Whitehurst v. Kerr, 153 N.C. 76, 68 S.E. 913; Schoenith, Inc., v. Manufacturing Co., 220 N.C. 390, 17 S.E. 2d 350; Plott v. Michael, 214 N.C. 665, 200 S.E. 429; Radio *25 Station v. Eitel-McCullough, 232 N.C. 287, 59 S.E. 2d 779; Tobacco Co. v. Tobacco Co., 246 U.S. 79, 62 L. Ed. 587.

Briefly stated, where no property is seized or attached, there are two requisites to jurisdiction of a State court over a foreign corporation: (1) the corporation must be doing business in the State, and (2) it must be present in the State in the person of an authorized officer or agent. Gloeser v. Dollar S. S. Lines, 256 N.W. 666 (Minn.).

Doing business in this State means doing some of the things or exercising some of the functions in this State for which the corporation was created. Ruark v. Trust Co., 206 N.C. 564, 174 S.E. 441; Radio Station v. Eitel-McCullough, supra; Harrison v. Corley, 226 N.C. 184, and cases cited. And the business done by it here must be of such nature and character as to warrant the inference that the corporation has subjected itself to the local jurisdiction and is, by its duly authorized officers and agents, present within the State. Tobacco Co., v. Tobacco Co., supra.

A corporation performs the functions authorized by its charter through the medium of officers and agents, and an agent of a foreign corporation through whom the corporation may be “found” within the State and upon whom service of process may be had so as to subject the corporation to the jurisdiction of the court is one who exercises some control over and discretionary power in respect to the corporate functions of the company. Service Co. v. Bank, supra.

“A local agent is one who stands in the shoes of the corporation in relation to the particular matters committed to his care. He must be one who derives authority from his principal to act in a representative capacity, Watson v. Plow Co., 193 Pac., 222 (Wash.), and who may be properly termed a representative of the foreign corporation. St. Clair v. Cox, 106 U.S., 350, 27 L. Ed., 222. Anno. 113 A.L.R., 41. He must have the power to represent the foreign corporation in the transaction of some part of the business contemplated by its charter, Booz v. Texas & P. R. Co., 250 Ill., 376, 95 N.E., 460; and he must represent the corporation in its business in either a general or limited capacity. Peterson v. Chicago R. I. & P. R. Co., 205 U.S., 364, 51 L. Ed., 841. Thus the question is to be determined from the nature of the business and the extent of the authority given and exercised. Lumber Co. v. Finance Co., 204 N. C., 285, 168 S.E., 219.” Service Co. v. Bank, supra; Plott v. Michael, supra; Conn. Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Spratley, 172 U.S. 602, 43 L. Ed. 569; Chicago Board of Trade v. Hammond Elevator Co., 198 U.S. 424, 49 L. Ed. 1111.

It is well settled that soliciting in a State by a foreign common carrier of the business of transporting persons and property between the states is not the doing or transaction of business within the State so as to bring the corporation within the jurisdiction of the local courts in an action *26 in personam, at least where such foreign railroad corporation has no line in the State and does no business there other than soliciting- business for interstate commerce, even though it maintains an office and employs an agent within the State, because this is merely incidental to the main business of the corporation. 18 Fletcher Cyc. Corporations, Perm. Ed., 382, sec. 8719; Green v. Chicago B. & Q. R. Co., 205 U.S. 530, 51 L. Ed. 916; Philadelphia & Reading R. Co. v. McKibbin, 243 U.S. 264, 61 L. Ed. 710; Anno. 46 A.L.R. 583, and 95 A.L.R. 1480; 34 Mich. Law Rev. 979. (See other cases cited in Fletcher.)

Thus the maintenance of an office and the employment by a foreign corporation of a “district freight and passenger agent to solicit and procure passengers and freight to be transported over defendant’s line,” and having under his direction “several clerks and various traveling passenger and freight agents” has been held not to constitute “doing business within the state.” Philadelphia & Reading R. Co. v. McKibbin, supra; 18 Fletcher Cyc. Corporations 384.

While the judge found that Walker’s duties in part were “generally to conduct the business of said railroad in this state,” the business of “said railroad” conducted within this State is spelled out in particularity. It includes the commission of no act, or the performance of no duty, which would constitute “doing business” such as would subject it to the jurisdiction of the courts of this State.

On this record defendant Walker, as agent of the corporate defendant, was not authorized to issue a bill of lading or sell a ticket or route a shipment or do anything else that constitutes a part of the usual and ordinary business of a common carrier, for the Union Pacific has no part of its railroad in this State and is engaged in no business here which requires or necessitates any such activity on the part of any of its agents.

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Bluebook (online)
69 S.E.2d 11, 235 N.C. 21, 1952 N.C. LEXIS 347, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lambert-v-schell-nc-1952.