106 N.Y.S. 649 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1907
This action was brought to recover the amount alleged to be due under a contract whereby the'.plaintiff, a foreign corporation, agreed to “furnish and provide all materials and labor for the installation of certain hydraulic elevators at the building No. 140 Nassau Street, in the City and County of New York, in the manner and under the conditions as prescribed and set forth ” in said Contract and specifications, the complaint alleging, that the plaintiff substantialbvpefformed this contract and that the defendant,' a corporation, had failed to pay the balance of the amount due thereunder. The complaint further alleges that the defendant Charles Ward Hall, for a good and valu- ■ able consideration in writing, agreed with the plaintiff and guaranteed that the defendant corporation would pay the sum in said, contract mentioned upon a compliance by "the plaintiff with the terms of said contract, and' that although duly demanded the .defendant .Hall has refused and neglected to pay the plaintiff the. amount 'due and unpaid tinder the said contract. The answers of defendants, as a separate defense, alleged that “ neither at said time had, nor at any other time has, the plaintiff obtained from the Secretary of State of the State of New Y ork, a certificate that' it has or had complied with all the requirements of law, or any thereof, tb authorize it to do business in the State of New Y ork, and that its businecs was such as may be lawfully carried on by a corporation organized under' the laws of this State for such or similar business ; ” and further alleged : “ That the plaintiff had not theretofore and has not paid to the Treasurer of. the State of New York the license fee provided by law for the privilege of carrying on its business within this State,-and has not obtained from said Treasurer a receipt.for such license fee,” Upon the trial after plaintiff, had
By section 1779 of the Code of Civil Procedure an action may be maintain by a foreign corporation, in like manner, and subject to the same regulations, as' where the action is brought by a domestic corporation, except as otherwise specially prescribed by law. This provision has been the law of this State for many years and it has always been held that a corporation created by or .under the laws of any other State, of the United States or of any other country, with power to sue, may sue in the courts of this State. (Silver
The answers also • allege that the action cannot be sustained under section 181 of the Tax Law (Laws of 1896, chap. 908, as amd. by Laws of 1901, chap. 558). That section provides that “ every foreign corporation,” with certain exceptions not here material, “ authorized to do business under the General Corporation Law, shall pay to the State Treasurer, for the use of the State, a license fee of one-eighth of one per centum for the privilege of exercising its corporate franchises or carrying on its business
Another question is presented upon which we should express an opinion, as it will arise upon the new -trial. We think it clear that this corporation did business within this State. It had an office in
Patterson, P. J., Clarke, Scott and Lambert, JJ., concurred.
Judgment reversed, new trial ordered, costs to appellant to abide event.
Sic. See Gen. Corp. Law (Laws of 1892, chap. 687), § 15, as amd. by Laws of 1901, chaps. 96, 538, and Laws of 1904, chap. 490; Id. § 16, as amd. by Laws of 1895, chap. 672. —[Rep.