31 Ind. App. 473 | Ind. Ct. App. | 1903
This action is founded upon a judgment alleged to have been rendered in favor of appellee and against appellant by the common pleas court of Lackawanna county, Pennsylvania. Whether the judgment is valid depends upon whether the Pennsylvania court is shown to have had jurisdiction of the person of appellant. The suit therein brought was one to recover upon a policy of insurance issued by appellant, an Indiana corporation, by its agents in Pennsylvania, to a citizen of that state, upon the life of another citizen thereof. The court is averred to have been one of record and of general jurisdiction as the name implies. The presumption therefore is that it had jurisdiction of both the subject-matter and all the parties. Gates v. Newman, 18 Ind. App. 392; Galpin v. Page, 18 Wall. 350, 21 L. Ed. 959. Such jurisdiction may be questioned in this State notwithstanding the record. The jurisdiction of a foreign court is always open to inquiry, and a court of another state in this respect is regarded as foreign. Pond v. Simons, 17 Ind. App. 84; Grover, etc., Mach. Co. v. Radcliffe, 137 U. S. 287, 11 Sup. Ct. 92, 34 L. Ed. 670.
The distinction between collateral and direct attacks as applicable to judgments rendered in this State is not therefore of controlling importance. The presumption of jurisdiction does not arise when the record shows the facts upon which it depends, but the record will be taken as expressive of the entire truth. The same proposition applies to a pleading in which averments relative to jurisdictional facts are contained. Coan v. Clow, 83 Ind. 417; Galpin v. Page, supra; Pressley v. Harrison, 102 Ind. 14, 23.
It is averred “that said writ was personally served on said defendant association by the proper officer having the writ for service, giving to S. W. McCulloch, deputy insurance commissioner of said commonwealth, at the office of the insurance commissioner of said commonwealth, a true attested copy of said writ and statement aforesaid,
The courts of this State do not take judicial notice of the statutes of another state. Tyler v. Kent, 52 Ind. 583.
The statute pleaded stipulates that no insurance company not of that state shall do business therein until it has filed with the insurance commissioner a written stipulation agreeing that any legal process affecting the company “served on the insurance commissioner, or the party designated by him, or the agent 'specified by said company to receive service of process for said company, shall have the same effect as if served upon the company.” It is not averred that service was made upon the insurance commissioner, or upon any party designated by him, or upon any agent appointed by the appellant.- Where a particular method of serving process is pointed out by statute, that method must be followed in order to secure jurisdiction of the person. McCormack v. First Nat. Bank, 53 Ind. 466. The averments that the deputy was “legally
Inasmuch as the second paragraph of complaint sets out specifically the manner in which jurisdiction of appellant’s person was attempted to be acquired by the Pennsylvania court, and shows such attempt to have been futile, the demurrer to it should not have been overruled.
The judgment is reversed, with directions to sustain the demurrer to the second paragraph of complaint, and for further proceedings not inconsistent herewith.
Robinson, O. J., Ilenly and Black, JJ., concur. Corn-stock and Wiley, JJ., concur in result.