Liberty Nat. Life Ins. v. Read

24 F. Supp. 103, 1938 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1868
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Oklahoma
DecidedJune 13, 1938
DocketNo. 1971
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 24 F. Supp. 103 (Liberty Nat. Life Ins. v. Read) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Liberty Nat. Life Ins. v. Read, 24 F. Supp. 103, 1938 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1868 (W.D. Okla. 1938).

Opinion

PER CURIAM. .

Submission on facts for final decree in an action to enjoin the Insurance Commissioner of Oklahoma from enforcing an order requiring plaintiff to desist from writing an insurance policy form in Oklahoma, herein referred to as the Perfection Endowment Policy.

The action was commenced on July 24, 1937, being called up on that day after notice to defendant for restraining order .against the enforcement of the Commissioner’s desist order. Solicitor for defendant at that time stated that the case was one for three judges, plaintiff’s solicitor contending that the case could not properly come before three judges, unless and until the District Judge, after hearing, should find against plaintiff upon the first aspect of the bill wherein it is asserted that the Commissioner’s order is discriminatory, oppressive, and without warrant of any law, and further, that if that issue be decided against complainant, the asserted unconstitutionality of House Bill 190, c. 51, art. 7 (Act, April 28, 1937, 36 Okl. St.Ann. § 106) amending Section 10487, Oklahoma Statutes 1931, would be for determination, adding thereto the following :

“Provided, also, that no company organized under the laws of any other state shall continue to write, nor shall any company organized under the laws. of any other state be hereafter licensed to write any type or kind of policy form in this State, if the laws of the state under which it is organized do not permit the licensing of companies organized under the laws of this State, to write such form of policy in such other state. The provisions of this Section are hereby made applicable to all types of companies writing life or health and accident insurance, including stipulated premium companies, fraternal societies and mutual benefit associations.”.

The District Judge then announced the case would go over until September 8, 1937, to be heard by him sitting as a District Judge, and in case it became necessary to call in two other judges, including a Circuit Judge, such court would be 'organized on September 10.

On September 8, 1937, the defendant filed a brief in support of its contention that the case was solely within the jurisdiction of a three-judge court. Then on suggestion the matter was passed over to a final hearing before three judges on September 10, to be disposed of as a three-judge case or a one-judge case, according as the court would deem it proper, all parties consenting thereto, and on the hearing on September 10, 1937, it was agreed by all parties that such hearing should constitute not only a hearing before a three-judge court but also before the District Court, the District Judge Vaught, sitting aS such, and on the final submission plaintiff made no argument for three judges or one judge, leaving that determination for the court, but defendant’s contention was that the case was one properly before a three-judge court.

Title 28, U.S.C.A. Section 380 (Judicial Code 266) is in part as follows:

“No interlocutory injunction suspending or restraining the enforcement, operation, or execution of any statute of a State by restraining the action of any officer of such State in the enforcement or execution of such statute, or in the enforcement or execution of an order made by an administrative board or commission acting under and pursuant'to the statutes of such State, shall be issued or granted by any justice of the Supreme Court, or by any district court of the United States, or by any judge thereof, or by any circuit judge acting as district judge, upon the ground of the unconstitutionality of such statute, unless the application for the same shall be presented to a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, or to a circuit or district judge, and shall be heard and determined by three judges, of whom at least one shall be a justice of the Supreme Court or a circuit judge, and the other two may be either circuit or district judges, and unless [105]*105a majority of said three judges shall concur in granting such application. * * * The requirement respecting the presence of three judges shall also apply to the final hearing in such suit in the district court; and a direct appeal to the Supreme Court may be taken from a final decree granting or denying a permanent injunction in such suit.”

The existence of a substantial question as to the constitutionality of a state statute, justifying such Federal Tribunal in taking such jurisdiction, must be deter-* mined . from the allegations of the Bill. Ex parte Joseph Poresky, 290 U.S. 30, 54 S.Ct. 3, 78 L.Ed. 152. See, also, Mosher v. City of Phoenix, 287 U.S. 29, 53 S.Ct. 67, 77 L.Ed. 148.

The Bill alleges that the statute under which the defendant acted is unconstitutional, praying an interlocutory injunction restraining the defendant, a state officer, in the enforcement and execution of a state statute, and has pressed for and obtained a restraining order and injunction, which has been held in force pending the rendition of a final decree in the case.

(1.) Plaintiff’s complaint in sub-section 17, is as follows:

“ * * * Said section 10487 of the Oklahoma Statutes as amended by House Bill No. 190 under and by virtue of which defendant purports to have acted in making saiil order, is void and violative of said first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in that it denies to the plaintiff the equal protection of the -laws and deprives the plaintiff of its property without due process of law.”

It is also averred’ that the statute is violative of the Oklahoma Constitution in that it delegates to other states the legislative power of Oklahoma, praying that “the court find and decree that the state statute in its application to plaintiff is unconstitutional and void” and that:

“ * * * the court make a temporary restraining order, to be effective until the hearing upon plaintiff’s application for interlocutory injunction, and that upon such hearing an interlocutory injunction issue, * * # it

See Stratton, Secretary of State of Illinois, v. St. Louis-Southwestern Ry. Co., 282 U.S. 10, 51 S.Ct. 8, 75 L.Ed. 135.

In Brucker, Attorney General v. Fisher, 6th Cir., 49 F.2d 759, it is held:

“3. To justify hearing before three-judge court, and subsequent appeal direct to Supreme Court, application for interlocutory injunction must be pressed to hearing, but not necessarily decided (Jud.Code § 266 [28 U.S.C.A. § 380]).
“4. Jurisdiction of three-judge court convened to hear application for interlocutory injunction continues to end, or until application for temporary injunction has been withdrawn (Jud.Code § 266 [28 U.S.C.A. § 380]).
“5. Defendant’s voluntary consent to inaction by state officers in lieu of preliminary restraining order, or interlocutory injunction, should not divest three-judge court of jurisdiction. * * *
“6. Existence of other grounds of federal jurisdiction, or fact that court placed final decision on nonconstitutional grounds, does not affect jurisdiction of statutory three-judge courts.”

See Sterling, Governor of Texas, v.

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Bluebook (online)
24 F. Supp. 103, 1938 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1868, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/liberty-nat-life-ins-v-read-okwd-1938.