120 N.W. 878 | N.D. | 1909
This is an appeal from a judgment dismissing plaintiff’s application for a writ of mandamus against the defendant, requiring him as insurance commissioner to receive and entertain plaintiff’s application for leave to transact a hail insurance business in this state. The facts are agreed upon by the parties, and are as follows: That the relator is an insurance company organized under the laws of the state of Minnesota, on the Mutual plan, and that its business is the insurance of growing crops against hail. It has submitted to the defendant an application for leave to transact a hail insurance business in this state, together with, a copy of its articles of incorporation and power of attorney making and
Prior to the enactment of chapter 109, Laws 1903, being sections' 4447, 4448, Rev. Codes 1905, foreign mutual hail insurance companies transacted the business of hail insurance in this state. Chapter 109, being sections 4447, 4448, Rev. Codes 1905, so far as material here, reads as follows:
“Section 1. No foreign insurance company incorporated upon the mutual plan shall directly, or indirectly, take any hail risk, or transact the business of-hail insurance in this state.
“Sec. 2. All contracts, notes, -mortgages, and- other evidence of indebtedness made or taken in violation of sec. 1 hereof are hereby declared void.
“Sec. 3. Any person who violates any of the provisions of this act or who procures or induces another to do so is guilty of a misdemanor.
*585 “Sec. 4. All acts and parts of acts in conflict with the provisions of this act are hereby declared repealed.”
This act was approved March 4,1903. An emergency clause made it immediately affective. The same legislature passed chapter 114, Laws 1903, being sections 4449, 4454, Rev. Codes 1905. This act was approved March 10, 1903, and was accompanied by an emergency clause; and, as far as material to the decision of this case, reads as follows:
“No mutual insurance company hereafter organized under the laws of this state, or now or hereafter orrganized under the laws of any state or country, shall engage in the business of hail insurance in this state without first depositing and thereafter keeping on deposit «with the .treasurer of this state, the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars in money, or in lieu thereof, bonds of this state or of the United States, of the par value of twenty-five thousand dollars.” This section was by the legislative assembly of-1907 reenacted and amended to read as follows: “No mutual insurance company hereafter organized under the laws of this state or now or hereafter organized under the laws of any state or country shall engage in the business of hail insurance in this state without first depositing and thereafter keeping with the treasurer of this state the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars in money, or in lieu thereof bonds of this state or of the United States, of the par value of twenty-five thousand dollars; provided, that domestic mutual hail insurance companies in lieu of said deposit shall be required to file a bond in the office of. the commissioner of insurance in the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, conditional for the carrying out of its contracts and obligations incurred by its policies, said bond to be satisfactory as to form and surety to the insurance commissioner.”
The decision of this case depends wholly on statutory construction. Is chapter 109 of the Laws of 1903 still in force, or has it been repealed by the enactment of chapter 114, Laws 1903, which was re-enacted and amended by chapter 153, Laws 1907? There is no express provision repealing said chapter 109; and, if repealed at all, it is by implication. A statute in derogation of an existing statute will be strictly construed in consequence of implied repeals being regarded with disfavor. , 1 Lewis’ Sutherland, Stat. Con. (2d Ed.) 472. It is our duty to make all acts stand if by any reasonable construction they can be reconciled. Repeals by implication
The judgment of the district court is reversed, and the cause remanded for further proceedings.