127 Ky. 399 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1907
Opinion of the Court by
Reversing.
The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, having complied with the laws of this State, license to transact business in this State was issued to its agents by the insurance commissioner. After this
The judgment of the commissioner to revoke a license depends upon section 753, Ky. St. 1903. “If he is of the opinion, upon examination or other evidence that a foreign insurance company is in an unsound condition, or if it has failed to comply with: the .law,.or if its officers or agents refuse to submit;" to examination or to perform any legal obligation in relation thereto, or, if a life insurance company, that its actual funds are less than its liabilities, he shall revoke or suspend all certificates of authority granted to it or its agents.” It is manifest from the proof that the insurance company was not in an unsound condition. Its assets were far in excess of its liabilities, and its solvency was undoubted. Whether the $10,000 spent in postage was paid by the company or was a proper expenditure to preserve the good name of the company and maintain the confidence of its policy holders we need not consider, as manifestly from the proof this ’ expenditure affected in no way the solvency of the company. It is not maintained that the officers or agents of the company had refused to submit to an examination or to perform any legal obligation in relation thereto, or that its actual funds were less than its liabilities. It is simply insisted that the company had failed to
Further on in the same section there is this provision as to domestic companies: “If upon examination, he is of opinion that any domestic insurance company is insolvent, or has exceeded its powers, or has failed to comply with any provision of law, or that its condition is such as to render its further proceedings hazardous to the public or to its policy holders, he shall revoke or suspend all licenses issued to it or its agents.” It will be observed that as to foreign or domestic companies there is substantially the same language; it being provided that the license of the domestic company shall be revoked where it has failed to comply with any provision of law. As to domestic companies formed under the statute, these words can naturally refer only to failures to comply with some provision pf the statute; for the act must be read as a whole, and, as it describes' how domestic companies may be organized and when they shall commence business, it is manifest that, when the Legislature provided for the revocation of their licenses for the failure to comply with any provision of law, it had' in mind those things which it had required these companies to do before- doing business, and not the laws of other States. The statutes of a State have no extraterritorial force. They are not law in another State in the ordinary sense of the term. The same principle must be applied to foreign insurance companies. By section 634 of the statute (Ky. Stats. 1903) every insurance company not organized under the laws of this State is required to manifest certain things to the insurance commissioner. It then provides: “And the commissioner, upon being satisfied that such company has fully complied with the laws
For the reasons given, we conclude that the commissioner was not authorized by the statute to revoke the licenses to the company’s agents oh the facts shown, and that the circuit court erred in dismissing the petition and dissolving the injunction. The motion to dismiss the appeal is not well taken. By the injunction the defendant was enjoined “from refusing to continue plaintiff’s authority or licenses to its agents or in any manner preventing plaintiff or its agents conducting said business in the State of Kentucky.” The purpose of the injunction was to preserve the status then existing until the rights of the parties were settled. The right of the plaintiff to do business in the State is involved, and so the questions are real, not moot. Not only so, but the questions admittedly were real and of value when the case was heard and submitted. The judgment of this court relates to the date of the submission, and so revivor is unnecessary if either of the parties die after submission. Goggin’s Adm’r v. Cord, 7 Ky. Law Rep. 39, 3 Cyc. 407, and cases cited. It is a legal maxim that the act of the court shall prejudice no one. The failure of this court to reach a case and decide it promptly after submission cannot be per
Judgment reversed, and cause remanded for judgment as above indicated.