18 Conn. Supp. 387 | Conn. Super. Ct. | 1953
On February 25, 1953, the defendant was a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the state of New York. Its principal and only place of business was in the town of Garrison in that state, where it owned and operated a rest *388 home. On that day, while a guest or patient at the home, the plaintiff fell and sustained injuries on an allegedly defective stairway in the home.
On the day after her fall the plaintiff was moved to the Waterbury Hospital in this state and was a patient there at least until June 20, 1953. She was visited there about once a week by her daughter, Gertrude Stahl, who, with her husband, operated and managed the defendant's rest home in Garrison. Gertrude Stahl was the owner of stock in the defendant corporation and held the office of secretary. On June 20, 1953, while making one of her weekly visits to her mother at the Waterbury Hospital she was served with process in the present action in her capacity as secretary of the defendant. The defendant has never registered to do business in Connecticut and has no agent in this state authorized to accept the service of process under the provisions of General Statutes, § 5248. The defendant has no place of business in this state, but it solicited business here through a brother of Gertrude Stahl, who is a doctor in Cheshire, and through the circulation of a brochure advertising its business.
Section 7774 authorizes the service of process upon the secretaries of corporations, both domestic and foreign. But service of process upon the secretary of a foreign corporation who is in the state does not give our courts jurisdiction over the corporation unless it has exposed itself to such jurisdiction by doing business in Connecticut.
In the Restatement of Conflict of Laws, § 89, the general rule is thus stated: "Except as stated in § 88, a state cannot exercise through its courts jurisdiction over a foreign corporation if the corporation has neither consented to the exercise of jurisdiction by the courts of the state nor done business within the state." Comment (a) under § 89 elaborates this rule as follows: "A state does not have jurisdiction *389 over a foreign corporation which has neither consented to the exercise of jurisdiction nor done business within the state, although an officer or agent of the corporation is casually within the state ... or has come into the state to attend to an affair of the corporation, even the affair on which the action is based...."
The rule is thus expressed in 23 Am. Jur. 482, § 490: "In other words, to be subject to the acquisition, without its consent, of jurisdiction to render a personal judgment against a foreign corporation, it is essential that the foreign corporation do business in the state. Indeed, the doing of business within the state is essential to fulfil the constitutional requirement of due process of law."
There are many cases to support the foregoing texts. Perhaps the leading case on the subject isRiverside Dan River Cotton Mills v. Menefee,
The foregoing authorities demonstrate that § 7774, in authorizing the service of process upon the secretary of a foreign corporation is valid only if the corporation is doing business in this state. If the statute is to be construed as subjecting a corporation not doing business in Connecticut to the full jurisdiction of the courts of this state, it is to that extent unconstitutional because in violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
It, therefore, remains to inquire whether the defendant was doing business in Connecticut. At most, the evidence discloses that it solicited business in this state through the efforts of Gertrude Stahl's brother in the town of Cheshire, and through advertisement by circular or brochure. In Alfred M. BestCo. v. Goldstein,
The plea in abatement is sustained and judgment thereon is rendered for the defendant.