103 Ala. 371 | Ala. | 1893
The appellant, by summons and complaint, commenced an action against the appellee, averred to be a corporation under the laws of the State of Florida, doing business in the county of Conecuh. Service of summons was made in that county upon J. W. Black, the president of the company. The complaint contains two counts — the one for an account stated ; the other for work and labor done. The defendant appeared and pleaded in abatement, alleging that it had a known place of business, and an authorized agent therein, in the city of Mobile, and that, at the time of the commencement of the suit, it was not doing business in the county of Conecuh. To this plea, the plaintiff demurred, assigning three causes; the first and second were, that the plea did not negative the fact that the defendant was doing business in the county of Conecuh, when the contracts were made on which the suit is founded ; the third, that it did not appear from the plea that the court had not local jurisdiction of the action. The demurrer was overruled, and issue was taken on the plea. The defendant introduced evidence showing that its,principal place of business was in Mobile,, where it had authorized agents. It owned a saw mill in the
It is apparent the case draws in question the construction of the last clause of the fourth section of the fourteenth article of the constitution, and of the statute, Code, § 2642. The section of the constitution in its entirety reads : “No foreign corporation shall do any business in this State without having at least one known place of business, and an authorized agent or agents therein ; and such corporation maybe sued in any county where it does business by service of process on an agent anywhere in the State.” The statute reads : “A foreign or domestic corporation may be sued in any county in which it does business by agent.7 7 The section of the constitution, and the statute, (which in so far as it relates to foreign corporations, is merely affirmatory of, the constitution), are remedial, intended to supply defects or correct mischiefs in the pre-existing state of the law ; and in their construction, we are to consider what was the law before the constitution was adopted, and prior to the enactment of the statute ; what were the defects it was intended to supply, or the mischiefs it was intended to coi’rect.
By the common law, to maintain a personal action against a corporation, there must have been service of process upon its head or principal officer within the jurisdiction of the sovereignty from which corporate existence was derived. The officer upon whom, in the sov
Private corporations, created and organized for the transaction of business and the derivation of pecuniary profits, are, in this country, it is said, mainly the growth of the last seventy-five years. In McKin v. Odom, 3 Bland. Ch. 407-418 (1828), it was said by Ch. Bland, that no instance of such a corporation- in colonial times could be found. — Cook on Stocks and Stockholders, § 1. The increasing ^number of such corporations, and the variety and extent of the business they were created and organized to transact, their presence by agents, either by acquiescence, or by legislative permission, in other States, in the exercise of their general powers, making contracts, acquiring and disposing of property, rendered the rules of the common law, to which we have referred, the source of frequent inconvenience and injustice, compe^l
It was only by comity, that foreign corporations, not engaged in interstate or foreign commerce, or not the agencies of the national government, were permitted to make contracts and carry on business within this State. The State had the power to exclude them absolutely, or to prescribe the terms and conditions upon which, within its jurisdiction, it was permissible for them to make contracts, or exercise their general powers. The first clause of the section of the constitution 'which is under consideration, prescribes inflexibly, as the condition upon which a foreign corporation may do business within this State, that it shall have “at least one known place of business and an authorized agent or agents therein.” The succeeding clause declares that “such corporation,” by which we understand not any and every foreign corporation, but the corporation which has designated for itself “a known place of business and an authorized agent or agents therein,” may be sued in any county where it does business.
When the constitution is read in the light of the preexisting law, we understand what were the defects and mischiefs it is intended to supply and correct; the changes it is intended to make, and the scope and extent of its provisions. By comity, or mere acquiescence, a foreign corporation may not now make contracts from which it can derive rights or benefits, or transact any part of the business for which it was organized. The condition upon
The plea in abatement negatives the fact that the corporation, at the commencement of suit, was doing business in the county of Conecuh, and affirms that it then had in the city of Mobile, a known place of business, and an authorized agent therein. It was not necessary that the plea should negative the fact that the corporation was doing business within the county, when the cause of action arose. That fact is not, within our view, controlling or material; and the court below did not err in overruling the demurrers to the plea.
When the suit was commenced, the company had an agent or employé in the possession and care of the line of railroad it had constructed in the county of Conecuh, and of the machine it had used in the loading of cars with timber. The railroad and the machine were mere adjuncts or appurtenances to the saw mill it had operated in the county of Escambia. The operation of the mill had been suspended, and the railroad and machine were unemployed. The care and protection of unused property, or the payment of taxes which are a charge upon the property, and the payment of which, is essential to the preservation of the title to the owner, c^n not be deemed the exercise of corporate powers or franchises, nor the transaction of the business, or any part thereof, .for which the company was created and organized. These acts did not confer upon the courts of the county jurisdiction to entertain a personal action against the company. That jurisdiction, under the undisputed evidence, pertained only to “the known place of business,” the company had designated. We find no error in the instruction given the jury, and the judgment of the circuit court must be affirmed.