Missouri Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. Art Metal Const. Co.

• Decision Date: 29 May 1917
• Docket Number: 4700.
• Citation: 242 F. 630
• Parties: MISSOURI FIDELITY & CASUALTY CO. et al. v. ART METAL CONST. CO.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

242 F. 630

MISSOURI FIDELITY & CASUALTY CO. et al. v. ART METAL CONST. CO.

No. 4700.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

May 29, 1917

John P McCammon, of St. Louis, Mo., for plaintiffs in error.

Matthew H. Galt and Frank B. Williams, both of Springfield, Mo., for defendant in error.

Before SANBORN and SMITH, Circuit Judges, and AMIDON, District Judge.

AMIDON District Judge.

The Frank W. Hunt Construction Company contracted with Greene county, Mo., to supply and install the furniture for its new courthouse. The Missouri Fidelity & Casualty Company, one of the defendants below, became the surety upon a bond for the faithful performance of this contract. The plaintiff below the Art Metal Construction Company, a corporation organized under the laws of Massachusetts, and having its principal place of business at Jamestown, N.Y., sold the Hunt Construction Company the furniture necessary to fulfill its contract. When the job was completed, the purchase price was still unpaid, and the Construction Company asked for an extension of time, offering to give its promissory note secured by a bond executed by the Missouri Fidelity &amp Casualty Company. The accommodation was granted. The note was payable at Jamestown, N.Y. At the maturity of this note a further extension was allowed upon the request of both the Construction Company and the Fidelity Company, and a new note and bond taken. This second note was not paid at its maturity, and suit was brought upon it by the plaintiff in the state courts against the maker, and judgment obtained. The defendant Casualty Company had requested that the note be put in judgment as a condition of its being required to pay on its bond, and was notified of the suit.

The Hunt Construction Company was at all times dominated and controlled by the Casualty Company. After the job was completed, it gave that company an order on the county for the amount due for the furniture and the contractor's additional profits, and the Casualty Company received payment in full upon that order.

The present suit is brought upon the bond given by the Casualty Company to secure the second renewal note. The answer pleads the statute of Missouri, which forbids under a penalty of $1,000 a foreign corporation to do business in the state until it has filed with the secretary of state its articles of incorporation, and paid certain fees. The answer charges that the plaintiff had for some time prior to entering into the contract with the Hunt Construction Company been engaged in business in the state, maintaining a warehouse for that purpose, and that the sale of the furniture for the courthouse was a part of that business. It urges that under the statute, as interpreted by the highest court of the state, the contract for the furniture was unlawful, and is so connected with the cause of action here sued...