American Book Company v. State of Kansas Galen Nichols
| Decision Date | 23 February 1904 |
| Docket Number | No. 126,126 |
| Citation | 48 L.Ed. 613,193 U.S. 49,24 S.Ct. 394 |
| Parties | AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY, Plff. in Err. , v. STATE OF KANSAS ex rel. GALEN NICHOLS, County Attorney of Shawnee County |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Messrs. W. H. Rossington, Charles Blood Smith, and Clifford Histed for plaintiff in error.
Messrs. A. B. Quinton, G. C. Clemens, C. C. Coleman, Otis E. Hungate, and E. S. Quinton for defendant in error.
This is a proceeding in quo warranto, brought in the supreme court of the state of Kansas by the county attorney of Shawnee county of said state, to oust plaintiff in error from doing business in the state, and to declare void certain contracts entered into by the plaintiff in error with the State Text Book Commission.
A preliminary injunction was granted restraining plaintiff in error from entering into any contract with any person of the state, and from furnishing school books to its agents in the state.
Passing finally on the relief prayed for the supreme court, awarding judgment, said:
'The defendant will be ousted of its claimed rights to do business in this state until it complies with the requirements of the law, but the prayer of the petition for the annulment of the contract will be denied.' [65 Kan. 847, 69 Pac. 563.]
Plaintiff in error is a New Jersey corporation engaged in the publishing and selling of school books, and the charge of the defendant in error is that plaintiff in error was doing business in the state without having complied with the laws of the state in regard to foreign corporations.
The laws of the state require a foreign corporation, as a condition of the right to do business in the state, to make an application to the charter board of the state to do such business and to file a certified copy of its charter or articles of incorporation, and to furnish certain information to such board. The statute also required the payment of a charter fee graduated upon the amount of the capital stock of the corporation. Laws 1896, chap. 10; Gen. Stat. 1901.
The court held that plaintiff in error had 'complied, although irregularly, informally, and out of time, with the law, except as to § 2 of chapter 10 of the Laws of 1898,' and the requirements of that section were necessary to give plaintiff in error 'the status of a foreign corporation authorized to do business' in the state.
The defense of plaintiff in error was, and its contention is here, that its business was solely that of interstate commerce, and that the statute of Kansas alleged to have been violated could have no application to such business, and the court had no power to exclude plaintiff in error from transacting interstate commerce in the state. It was and is further contended that plaintiff in error had entered into contracts with certain persons and corporations in the state for the sale and delivery of its publications, which contracts were still in force and effect, and under which plaintiff in error had incurred liability; and if the statutes be construed as applicable to it they would impair the obligations of those contracts and be in violation of § 10 of article 1 of the Constitution...
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