Wright v. Lee

55 N.W. 931, 4 S.D. 237, 1893 S.D. LEXIS 54
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 18, 1893
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 55 N.W. 931 (Wright v. Lee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wright v. Lee, 55 N.W. 931, 4 S.D. 237, 1893 S.D. LEXIS 54 (S.D. 1893).

Opinion

Kellam, J.

This case is now .before us upon rehearing. The original opinion is published in 2 S. D. 596, and in 51 N. W. Rep. 706, where the facts' are fully stated. Appellants asked and were allowed a rehearing for the further discussions of the following proposition: (1) The court erred in holding that the question of noncompliance with the statute in relation to foreign corporations could not be inquired into collaterally; (2) in holding that the La Belle Ranch Horse Importing Company (respondent’s assignor) was a defacto corporation; (3) in holding that a sufficient affidavit was made to the inventory; (4) in holding the inventory to be in compliance with the provisions of the assignment laws of the state.

So far as they are pertinent to either of the questions thus presented, the facts are not in dispute. The assignor, the La Belle Ranch Horse Importing Company, was-a foreign corporation, organized under the iaws of the state of Minnesota, and it had never complied with the provisions of Sections 3190-3192 of the Comp. Laws, by filing with the secretary of the territory of Dakota, or with the secretary of state of the state of South Dakota, a copy of its articles of incorporation, or by the appointment of an agent residing in the territory authorized to accept service of process. The contention of appellant was and is that, without compliance with these provisions, such foreign corporation was incapable of transacting business in this jurisdiction, and that every contract it attempted to make was [242]*242void, and should be so declared upon a showing of such noncompliance. Neither side, of course, questions the inherent power of the state to exclude foreign corporations from transacting business within its limits, subject to the constitution and laws of the United States, as declared in such cases as Bank v. Earle, 13 Pet. 588; Paul v. Virginia, 8 Wall. 168; Carroll v. East St. Louis, 67 Ill. 568; Doyle v. Insurance Co., 94 U. S. 535; Thompson v. Waters, 25 Mich. 214; People v. Association, 92 N. Y. 311. The question here is not as to the existence of the power, but to what extent, if at all, the state has undertaken to exercise it, and what is the legal efféct of what it has done. The constitutional provision which, it is also claimed, makes void any attempt of this foreign corporation1 to transact business in this state under the conceded conditions of this case, is as follows: “No foreign corporation shall do any business in this state without having one or more known places of business and an authorized agent or agents in the same, upon whom process may be served.” Section 6, Art. 17, Const. The admission of the respondent is that his assignor, a foreign corporation, had not filed its articles of incorporation with the secretary of the territory or of the state, nor filed an appointment of an agent with such secretary, or in the office of the register of deeds of the county in which its principal place of business is located. It will be at once observed that the constitutional provision does not require either of these things to be done. Its requirement is satisfied if such foreign corporation had in fact a known place of business, and an authorized agent, upon whom process might be served in this state. It was not required of respondent, as assignee, in order to'validate the acts of his assignor, that he show that such assignor had met the prescribed conditions. That he had not done so, if material at all, was defensive, and must come from the other side. Sewing Machine Co. v. Moore; 2 Dak. 280, 8 N. W. Rep. 131; Lumber Co. v. Keefe, (Dak.) 41 N. W. Rep. 743. The admission did not negative the conditions named in the constitution. It was not ad[243]*243mitted by plaintiff, nor proved by defendants, that such corporation did not in fact have a known place of business and an authorized agent in this state, but only that it had not filed its articles of incorporation, nor filed any appointment of an agent; hence it does not appear but that respondent’s assignor was fully qualified to transact business in this state, so far as the constitutional provision controls.

Section 3190, Comp. Laws, is: “No corporation created or organized under the laws of any other state or territory shall transact any business within this territory * * * until such corporation shall have filed in the office of the secretary of the territory a duly authenticated copy of its charter or articles of incorporation, and shall have complied with the provisions of this article,” etc. Section 3192 names the other provisions to be complied with, to-wit, the appointment of a resident agent authorized to accept service of process, and the recording of the same in the office of the secretary of the territory, (now state) and of the register of deeds of'the county wherein such agent resides. It is specifically admitted that-this was not done. The defendants claimed below, and, as appellants, they claim here, as already observed, that the consequence of such non-compliance was to rendér void and of no effect every attempted act or contract of such non-complying corporation. Upon the former examination and decision of this case, we were impressed with the great diversity of views expressed by different courts upon this question, under constitutional and statutory provisions like our own; but a closer study satisfies us, not only that the conclusions of the courts are irreconcilable with each other, but that no general controling principal can be deduced from the judgments or the reasoning's of the cases. In some instances, as 'in Bank v. Paige. 6 Or. 431, it is argued that the evident legislative intent was to prevent disqualified foreign corporations from transacting business in that state, and that, as no specific penalty was prescribed as a punishment for a violation of -such prohibitory law, the legislature must [244]*244have understood and intended that the usual result would follow an attempt to make an unlawful and prohibited contract, to-wit that it would be void and unenforceable, as otherwise there would be no penalty, and the law would be simply an expression of legislative opinion, without means for its enforcement; while in such cases as Woods v. Armstrong, 54 Ala. 150, followed in Dudley v. Collier, (Ala. ) 6 South Rep. 304, the fact that a penalty is provided in the law is regarded as important, if not controlling, in establishing the severely prohibitory character of the law, and in making the contract void; while in still other cases, as Lumber Co. v. Thomas, (W. Va.) 11 S. E. Rep. 37, the presence of a penalty in the law is taken to mean that the legislature intended no other forfeiture or disadvantage to result from noncompliance with the law, and the contract of the noncomplying foreign corporation was held good. With these cases, and many others of which they are simply representative, before us, we conclude that a collation and attempted analysis of them would be profitless in developing from them any general principal or rule adopted by the courts in the construction of statutes of this kind. The only proposition upon which all agree is the elimentary one that the statute should be given such effect as the legislature intended. It certainly was not intended by it to adopt or announce a policy of excluding or even discouraging foreign corporations from transacting business in this territory or state, for it named very easy conditions upon which their right and qualification might be established and made unquestionable.

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Bluebook (online)
55 N.W. 931, 4 S.D. 237, 1893 S.D. LEXIS 54, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wright-v-lee-sd-1893.