Mutual Benefit Life Insurance v. Winne

49 P. 446, 20 Mont. 20, 1897 Mont. LEXIS 98
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedJune 14, 1897
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 49 P. 446 (Mutual Benefit Life Insurance v. Winne) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mutual Benefit Life Insurance v. Winne, 49 P. 446, 20 Mont. 20, 1897 Mont. LEXIS 98 (Mo. 1897).

Opinion

Hunt, J.

Much of the brief of respondent’s counsel is addressed to the point that a foreign life insurance company was not required to comply with the provisions of chapter 24, Compiled Statutes 1887. But we shall not examine in detail the several legislative provisions pertaining to foreign corporations under which they are entitled to do business within the State of Montana, to determine whether this position of respondents is well taken, for we shall assume for the purposes of this case that the appellant is correct in his contentions that this company was amenable to the provisions of chapter 24, Compiled Statutes.

Section 444 of that chapter provides that all foreign corporations doing business at the time of the enactment of that statute within Montana should, within a certain period of time, file in the office of the Secretary of State and in the office of the County Recorder of the county wherein they were respectively doing business certain statements and certificates required to be filed by section 442 of the same chapter. This latter section provided that foreign corporations, before doing any business of any kind, nature, or description within Montana, should file in the office of the Secretary of the Territory, and in the office of the County Recorder, a duly-authenticated copy of its charter or certificate of incorporation, and also a statement, to be verified by the oaths of the president and [27]*27secretary of such incorporation, and attested by a majority of its board of directors, showing the name of the incorporation, and various other matters of concern to the incorporation, including a certificate certifying that the said corporation consented to be sued in the courts of Montana upon all causes of action arising against it in Montana, and that service of process might be made upon some person, a citizen of Montana, whose name and place of residence should be designated, and that process, when so served upon such agent, should be taken, deemed, and held to be as valid as if served upon the company in the state and territory under the laws of which it was organized.

Section 444 then proceeded as follows : “If any such corporation shall fail for more than four months from the said publication hereof so to file said statements and certificates, or any or either thereof; or if any foreign incorporation shall hereafter attempt or commence to do business in this territory without having first filed said statements and certificates required by this chapter, it shall forfeit to the people of Montana the sum of ten dollars for every day it shall so neglect to file the same, and all acts and contracts made by such incorporation, or any agent or agents thereof, during the time it shall so fail and neglect to file said statements and certificates, shall be void and invalid as to such incorporation. It shall be the duty of the District Attorney of the county in which the business of such corporation shall be located to sue for and recover in the name of the people of the Territory the penalty above provided, and the same, when so recovered, shall be paid into the treasury of such county for the use of the common schools therein.”

It is insisted by the appellant that the plaintiff had never complied with the provisions of Chapter 24 at the time that the defendant Winne made and executed the $45,000 note, to wit, October 21, 1890; and we shall proceed on the ground that no certified copy of the charter of plaintiff was ever filed with the Secretary of State before it made the loan to the defendant Winne, and that no statement verified by the oaths of [28]*28the president and the secretary of the company had been filed before said loan was made, which showed the matters and facts specified and required by said Chapter 24. We are, therefore, confronted with the necessity of deciding whether or not a foreign corporation which has failed and neglected to file the statements and certificates required to be filed can recover upon a promissory note made to such a corporation during the time it so failed and neglected to file said statements and certificates. This question ought to be settled. It has for a long time been a perplexing one to the profession, and we realize that on its solution may depend very valuable rights. In an effort to reach a correct judgment we have, therefore, given it our most earnest deliberation, sensible of the fact that learned courts have not taken the same view of statutes generally similar to ours, or applied like rules of construction.

Let us carefully consider the language of the statute. After prescribing that the corporation which omits to file the statements required shall forfeit to the state $10 a day for every day it shall so neglect to 'file the same, it adds the further clause by way of punishment that all acts and contracts made during the time it shall so fail to file such statements and certificates shall be void and invalid as to such incorporation.

The object of the statute is primarily to compel a foreign corporation desiring to avail itself of the privilege of doing-business within the state, to submit itself to the jurisdiction of the courts of the state. It is not the policy of the statute to prevent foreign corporations from doing business within the state. It merely imposes certain conditions in order to enable the citizens of the state to effectually protect their rights, and prescribes penalties if the corporation ignores the law. The statute does not make¡ the contract absolutely void or a nullity, nor does it attempt to prohibit contracts between foreign corporations and persons within the state. It says, in effect, contracts with such corporations shall be void and invalid as to the corporation unless it has first complied with the law.

[29]*29What does this mean ? We must not be misled into giving to the words ‘ ‘void’ ’ and ‘ Invalid’ ’ too broad a meaning, for, as has been well observed by a learned court, deductions founded on the broadest meaning of the word “void” would lead to greater errors than are found in the most erroneous cases, while those founded on its narrower and more usual meaning seldom err. (Pearsoll v. Chapin, 44 Pa. St. 9.)

Therefore, before the court can say that a mortgage made by a citizen of this state to a foreign corporation which has failed to file its certificate and statements required to be filed before it can undertake to do any business within the state is void in the sense that it is an absolute nullity, it should be assured of the correct meaning of the word; it should observe the use of the word in the context of the statute.

A void contract is the same as none, although a voidable one may be so treated. (Gist v. Smith, 78 Ky. 367.) The two words “void” and “voidable,” as often used in the statutes, have been pronounced by Bishop (Section 610 of his work on Contracts) to be variable, and most inexact. But a correct discrimination will lead us to a right conclusion. It cannot be held that the contract of Winne with the plaintiff corporation is without any legal effect, for it has some effect, but it is liable to be made void by him or a third person. For illustration : Winne could enforce an agreement for a loan with a foreign corporation that had not complied with the law, if service could be had upon it, if it had agreed to make one to him, and thus give full effect to such a contract which already had some effect even under the statute; or, if a loan had been made to him, Winne could give full effect to such a contract by paying the corporation, or not asking to have the contract held void.

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Bluebook (online)
49 P. 446, 20 Mont. 20, 1897 Mont. LEXIS 98, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mutual-benefit-life-insurance-v-winne-mont-1897.