141 Wis. 557 | Wis. | 1910
Lead Opinion
Ch. 584, Laws of 1907 (sec. 1953n, Stats.), reads as follows:
“Every life insurance company doing business in this state, or having in force any policies issued or delivered therein, shall annually furnish the report required by see. 1954 and with such report separately for its participating and nonparticipating business and its ordinary and industrial business a •statement exhibiting the gains and losses separately for the first year’s business and for the total business of the company upon blanks prepared by the commissioner in substantially the form heretofore required. Where a separate account of any items required on such statement shall not be kept as to the participating and nonparticipating or ordinary and industrial business of any company, 'such statement shall state what proportion of such items is apportioned to each kind of such business. Such company shall also furnish such other information in regard to said matters as the commissioner of insurance may require.”
Sec.. 1954, Stats. (1898), as amended by ch. 237, Laws of 1903, and ch. 597, Laws of 1907, requires every life insur.ance company doing business in Wisconsin to file, on or be
Ch. 483, Laws of 1907 (sec. 1955o- — 5, Stats.), reads:
“Any corporation violating any of the provisions of the-laws of this state relating to- insurance shall, where no other penalty is prescribed, be punished by a fine of. not more than five thousand dollars and any person violating any of the provisions of the laws of this state relating to insurance shall, where no other penalty is prescribed, be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment.”
It will be observed that the report required by see. 1954 must be made by companies doing business within the state,, and that the report required by sec. 1953» must be made by companies doing business within the state, or having in force-any policies issued or delivered therein.
I't will be further observed that sec. 1953» prescribes no penalty for its violation, and that sec. 1955o- — 5, which became effective on 'the same day, provides that any corporation violating any laws of the state relative to insurance, where no other penalty is prescribed, shall be punished by a fine not
It is contended by the state that the defendant violated the provisions of secs. 1953n and 1954, Stats. (Laws of 1907, ch. 584 and ch. 597), and that the penalty provided for in sec. 1954 is not only applicable to the latter statute, but also to a violation of sec. 1953», and that both statutes are valid laws.
The defendant, on the contrary, urges that sec. 1954 has no application to it because it is not doing business in the state, and was not at the time it was required to file a report under that section on March 1, 1908. As to sec. 1953», it is argued that it impairs the obligation of contracts and is violative of the defendant’s rights as guaranteed by the XIVth amendment to the federal constitution, and that in any event the action will not lie because the penalty sued for cannot be recovered, for the reason that it is not applicable to sec. 1953».
The view we have taken of the case necessitates a discussion of but two questions: (1) Did the defendant violate the provisions of sec. 1954 by failing to comply therewith? and (2) Can the penalty prescribed by sec. 1954 be recovered for a violation of the provisions of sec. 1953»?
The answer to the first question depends on whether the defendant was “doing business” within the state after its ah tempted withdrawal, within the meaning of those words as used in that statute. If it was, then it violated the law by failing to file the required report, and is liable for the penalty imposed by that section for its violation.
The defendant has in force in Wisconsin 283 policies of life insurance. The amount of such insurance in the aggregate, or the amount of annual premiums collected thereon, does not appear in the record, but presumably both amounts are quite large. By its insurance contracts in force the defendant is obligated to- notify policy-holders when their premiums are about to become due, and it appears from the sam-
But it does not follow that because the defendant is doing business in Wisconsin it is doing business here within the meaning of sec. 1954, Stats. (Laws of 1907, ch. 597). To determine that question we must endeavor as best we may to ascertain the legislative intent. There are persuasive considerations that suggest the conclusion that the legislature, in using the words “doing business,” meant such business as was usually carried on by corporations regularly licensed to transact business in this state.
By ch. 59, Laws of 1870, the legislature adopted a comprehensive scheme for the regulation of the business of life insurance in Wisconsin! This act repealed eh. 158, Laws of 1867, which prescribed the conditions under which domestic companies might transact a life insurance business, and also repealed ch. 179 of the general laws "of the same year, which regulated foreign life insurance companies desiring to do business within the state. While said ch. 59 has frequently been amended and added to by subsequent legislatures, it, in reality, furnishes not only the basis of our present law relative to the conduct of life insurance business in Wisconsin,
Eut the most cogent reason to support the construction which we adopt is found in sec. 1953% Stats. (Laws of 1907, ch. 584), under which this action is brought. It provides (1) that companies doing business within the state shall file the report required thereby; and (2) that companies having in' force any policies within the state, issued or delivered therein, shall file such report. If the legislature intended " that having policies within the state should constitute doing
Sec. 1953» itself provides no penalty for its violation. At. the same session of the legislature at which sec. 1953» was passed, the general provision found in sec. 1955o — 5 was enacted, evidently intended to cover any omissions in the way of punishment for violations of the provisions of the numerous laws passed at that session for the regulation of life insurance companies. Penal statutes have always been strictly construed in this state. Stone v. Lannon, 6 Wis. 497; State v. Huck, 29 Wis. 202; Coleman v. Hart, 37 Wis. 180; Cohn, v. Neeves, 40 Wis. 393; Wright v. E. E. Bolles W. W. Co. 50 Wis. 167, 6 N. W. 508; Crumbly v. Bardon, 70 Wis. 385, 36 N. W. 19. It has been held that a criminal statute should not be so construed as to multiply offenses where such a construction can reasonably be avoided. Wilson v. State, 1 Wis. 184. This principle is equally applicable to penalties. The-
It would have been an easy matter to amend sec. 1954 so as to require any insurance company doing business in this state, or having policies in force therein, to make the report called for by that section. The section was in fact amended as part of the general legislative scheme for regulating the business of life insurance in 1907. It would have been easier still to have added a sentence to sec. 1953n extending to that section the penalty provided in sec. 1954. Neither course was taken; and we are asked to supply the omission, if omission there was, either by saying that the legislature intended that the penalty clause in sec. 1954 should apply in case of a violation of sec. 1953% or that see. 1953» should be construed as an amendment to sec. 1954. The method of statutory arrangement adopted by the legislature of 1907 negatives the idea that sec. 1953» was' intended as an amendment of sec. 1954. Were this so, see. 1954, embodying the amendment, would have been rewritten, thus obviating the necessity of creating a new and independent section in our statutes. A plausible argument may be urged in support of the contention that the legislature intended that the penalty sued for should be recovered for a violation of sec. 1953». But, after all, we
If, by requiring to be filed with the commissioner of insurance certain information, together with the report required by sec. 1954, the legislature meant that the penalty provided by that section should measure the liability of the recalcitrant company, it should have said so, and not have left so important a matter to be the subject of speculation and conjecture. The conclusions reached render it unnecessary to decide upon the constitutionality of secs. 1953% and 1955o- — 5, Stats. (Laws of 1907, ch. 584 and ch. 483).
By the Court. — The judgment of the circuit court is reversed, and the cause is remanded with directions to dismiss the complaint.
Concurrence Opinion
I concur in the reversal of this judgment, but not with all that is said in the opinion. I think the reversal might also have been put upon these grounds: The legislature itself in enacting the statute in question (sec. 1953%) distinguished between life insurance companies doing business in this state and those merely having in force policies of life insurance issued or delivered in this state. This distinction is necessary to harmonize the provisions of other statutes upon the same subject, and it is in line with the decision of this court in Chicago T. & T. Co. v. Bashford, 120 Wis. 281, 97 N. W. 940. Having come to the conclusion that the appellant is properly classed as an insurance company “having in force policies issued or delivered” in this state, the question arises whether a foreign corporation, having withdrawn from this
Unlike cases involving the offense of “uttering” or “publishing,” the act or omission here sought to be penalized took place outside of the limits of the state, after the withdrawal of appellant from the state, and the appellant was not at the time actually or constructively within the state or a citizen of this state. McBride v. Fidelity & C. Co., supra; Comm. v. Kunzmann, 41 Pa. St. 429.