State ex rel. Martin v. Howard

147 N.W. 689, 96 Neb. 278, 1914 Neb. LEXIS 50
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedMay 29, 1914
DocketNos. 18,175, 18,213
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 147 N.W. 689 (State ex rel. Martin v. Howard) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Martin v. Howard, 147 N.W. 689, 96 Neb. 278, 1914 Neb. LEXIS 50 (Neb. 1914).

Opinion

Letton, J.

This is an original information in quo warranto brought to oust the governor of the state and the attorney general from the positions of members of the state insurance board, and to oust Lawson G. Brian from the office of secretary of such board, to which he was appointed by the officers named, acting as the insurance board. The relator is the auditor of public accounts. He claims the right to ad[281]*281minister the insurance department by virtue of the statutes which were in force when he assumed his office. The respondents admit that at the time he became state auditor he was charged with the administration of the insurance department of the state, with the custody of the records, books and accounts of that department, and the safe keeping of deposited securities, and that he took charge of and administered this department until on or about the 19th day of July, 1913. They claim to hold the office called in question by virtue of an act passed and approved upon April 18, 1913, and popularly known as the-“New Insurance Code.” The relator maintains that this-act is in conflict with the constitution and void for a number of reasons, which will be considered in the order in which they are presented in the relator’s brief.

The title to the act the validity of which is attacked in-this proceeding is “An act to provide for the organization and government of insurance companies and to regulate, supervise and control the business of insurance in Nebraska, to provide penalties for its violation, to provide for an insurance board and define its duties and powers, and to repeal chapter 31 of the Revised Statutes of 1913, being chapter 24 of Cobbey’s Annotated Statutes of Nebraska, for 1911 (C. S., ch. 16, secs. l-14a; ch. 43; ch. 28, sec. 47) and all acts and parts of acts in conflict therewith.” It was introduced in the senate as Senate File No. 364 and is chapter 154, laws 1913.

The act is divided into 11 articles. Article I is concerned with definitions alone, and occupies nearly three pages of text. Article II provides for a state insurance board, and prescribes its constitution, powers and duties. Article III is taken up with general provisions. Article IV treats of kinds of insurance and organization of companies. Article V covers the subject of reserves. Article VI: Standard Forms and Provisions. Article VII: General Provisions Covering Fire -Companies. Article VIII: General Provisions Governing Life, Health and Accident Companies. Article IX: Assessment Associations. Article X: Miscellaneous Provisions. Article XI: Frater[282]*282nal Insurance. The whole act consists of 183 sections. The evident purpose of the enactment was to cover and codify the whole subject of insurance in every phase, to embody necessary reforms, and to substitute a harmonious arrangement in orderly sequence for the badly arranged mass of insurance legislation which formerly appeared Tip-on the statute books.

By this act a state insurance board is created, “which shall consist of the governor, who shall be ex officio chairman thereof, the auditor of public accounts, and the attorney general, a majority of whom shall constitute a quorum.” This board is given general supervision, control and regulation of insurance companies of all kinds, and of the business of insurance in Nebraska. It is also provided that immediately upon the taking effect of the act the auditor shall surrender to the state insurance board all the records, books, blanks, reports and other property pertaining to insurance and the insurance department, together with all the securities and properties of insurance companies now held by him, and the board was authorized to elect and appoint with other officers “a secretary of the board, who shall be known and styled herein as ‘Insurance Commissioner.’ ”

After the act took effect the auditor refused to assemble with the other members of the insurance board or take any part in its deliberations, and refused to deliver to Lawson G. Brian, the insurance commissioner appointed by the board, the records, books, blanks, securities and other property held by him by virtue of former statutes. In July, 1913, an application for a peremptory writ of mandamus to compel him and subordinate officers of his department to deliver such books and securities to the board was granted by this court and complied with by him. A motion was afterwards filed by him to vacate the peremptory writ. This motion is now pending. In August, 1913, this action in quo warranto was begun. The same points are urged in both cases by the auditor, who is relator in the quo warranto case, and respondent in the [283]*283mandamus proceedings. Both cases, therefore, will he considered and disposed of in this opinion.

Coming now to the contention of the relator, it is first claimed that the act in the form in which it was enrolled and presented to and approved by the governor did not pass either house of the legislature, and that it is void for that reason. It is alleged that when the bill was finally agreed to by the senate and house, in its provisions with reference to the governing body of fraternal beneficiary associations, it was “provided, that the elected members shall not have less than three-fourths of the vote, nor less than the votes required to amend its constitution and bylaws,” but that after the bill had been agreed to and passed, the enrolling clerk or clerks, either through fraud or error, materially altered and radically changed the proviso to read, as follows: “Provided, that the elected members shall have not less than nine-tenths of the vote nor less than the vote required to amend its constitution;” and as so enrolled and presented to the governor this proviso was never agreed to or passed by the legislature of either house; that it was only through the appointment of a conference committee, and the approval and recommendation of that committee in fixing the ratio of the vote of elected members to that of the total governing body at three-fourths, that the houses were able to agree upon its passage, and that the agreement upon this ratio was a material inducement to the passage of the act.

Section 1, ch. 47, laws 1897 (Ann. St. 1911, sec. 6635), provides: “A fraternal beneficiary association is hereby declared to be a corporation, society or voluntary association, formed or organized and carried on for the sole benefit of its members and their beneficiaries, and not for profit. Each such society shall have a lodge system, with ritualistic form of work and representative form of government.” This provision, with the word “society” substituted for the word “association” as the fourth word, formed section 156 of the new act when first introduced. The evidence shows that it was amended in the senate-by adding: ■ “Any such society shall be deemed to have a [284]*284representative form of government when it shall provide in its constitution and laws for a supreme legislative or governing body composed of representatives elected either by the members, or by delegates elected directly or indirectly by the members, together with such other-members as may be prescribed by its constitution and laws; provided, that the elected members shall constitute three-fourths in number, and have not less than nine-tenths of the vote, nor less than the votes required to amend its constitution and laws,” etc. The bill passed the senate with this and many other amendments. Many amendments were made in the house.

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Bluebook (online)
147 N.W. 689, 96 Neb. 278, 1914 Neb. LEXIS 50, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-martin-v-howard-neb-1914.