Banker's Life Co. v. Chorn
| Decision Date | 15 May 1916 |
| Docket Number | 18823 |
| Citation | 186 S.W. 681 |
| Parties | BANKER'S LIFE CO. v. CHORN, Ins. Superintendent |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Rehearing Denied June 2, 1916.
Appeal from Circuit Court. Cole County; J. G. Slate, Judge. Action by the Bankers' Life Company against Walter K. Chorn, as Superintendent of Insurance.
Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Reversed and remanded, with directions.
Lehmann & Lehmann, of St. Louis, and I. M. Earle, of Des Moines Iowa, for appellant.
Earl F Nelson, of Milan, for respondent.
BOND, J. WOODSON, C. J., and WALKER and FARIS, JJ., concur. REVELLE, J., not sitting. GRAVES and BLAIR, JJ.; dissent.
I.
Plaintiff, the Bankers' Life Company, a corporation, was created in Iowa in 1879, as an assessment life insurance company under the laws of that state, and continued as such until October 27, 1911, when it amended its charter under section 1798B of the Iowa Statutes, whereby it was transformed without affecting its previous and existing rights or contracts, into a legal reserve or level premium company with all the rights appertaining thereto. It was duly licensed to do business by the Insurance Department of Missouri during the whole period of its incorporation, and conducted an assessment insurance business here until the change in its charter, since which it has only written policies for premium receivable by a "legal reserve or level premium company." Its receipts on level premium insurance in Missouri in 1913, were $ 171,851.92. Its receipts from members in Missouri holding contracts of insurance on the assessment plan, for that year, were $ 345,009.32. The defendant Insurance Commissioner levied a tax of 2 1/2 per cent. on its level premium receipts, to wit. $ 4,2960, which was paid. The defendant, however, levied a similar tax, amounting to $ 8,720.00, upon its assessment receipts for the same period, threatening a revocation of its license unless paid, which has not been paid. The statute of Missouri upon which this exaction was based is, to wit:
It is conceded that the impost of 2 1/2 per cent. on level premium business of said corporation in this state was properly laid by the superintendent of insurance, because the laws of Iowa provide for that rate on such premiums received by foreign insurance companies doing business in that state, and the laws of Missouri make it the duty of the superintendent of insurance in such cases to require from an Iowa corporation doing business in this state full payment of all licenses, fees, taxes, fines and penalties, etc., exacted by that state of Missouri corporations transacting business therein, whether or not such amount shall exceed the demands made by the laws of this state. This rule is expressed, to wit:
The laws of Iowa do not require a foreign life insurance company doing business in that state to pay any tax upon their assessment receipts. Hence a Missouri corporation doing business in the state of Iowa would only have to pay a tax on its level premium receipts, such as Iowa corporation has paid here. The ground of plaintiff's refusal to pay the tax levied against its assessment receipts under policies issued prior to its reincorporation was that it fell within the definition of a company conducting insurance business on the assessment plan (R. S. 1909, § 6950), and that the section of the statutes (R. S. 1909 § 7099, supra) under which the insurance commissioner demanded the payment is one of the general insurance laws of this state, and therefore not applicable to an insurance company in so far as its business is conducted under the assessment plan, by virtue of the specific provisions of section 6959, art. 3, R. S. 1909, which, after prescribing certain duties on the part of such companies, and requiring them to conform to certain enumerative sections of the statutes, concludes, to wit:
"Provided always, that nothing herein contained shall subject any corporation doing business under this article to any other provisions or requirements of the general insurance laws of this state, except as distinctly herein set forth and provided."
To enforce this immunity the Bankers' Life Company brought this action for injunctive relief. Upon the hearing its petition was dismissed; from which judgment it duly appealed to this court.
II. The first question presented by this appeal is whether we shall adhere to the interpretation heretofore given to the above-quoted proviso of section 6959 of the Revision of 1909. The meaning and scope of that proviso was the point in judgment in Northwestern, etc., v. Waddill, Supt., etc., 138 Mo. 628, 40 S.W. 648, where it was ruled that its terms precluded the application to assessment companies of the act now invoked (R. S. 1909, § 7099, then H. S. 1889, § 5958), for the reason that upon the enactment of the section it became a part of the general insurance law, from the operation of all of which (except as distinctly set forth there in) assessment companies were exempt by the same proviso in section 5869 of the Revision of 1889. In support of that conclusion it was also held that companies doing an assessment business were a class reasonably distinguishable from "old-line insurance companies," each of which were governed and regulated by a separate code, and that by providing for the taxation of "premiums" the Legislature did not include, under that head, the "assessments" receivable by companies working on that plan. That ruling has not hitherto been criticized, and is unreversed and has been approved in Westerman v. Sup Lodge, K. of P., 196 Mo. 670 at 726, 94 S.W. 470, 5 L.R.A. N.S. 1114, in standard text-books (Cooley on Taxation, vol. 1 [3d Ed.] p. 310; Judson on Tax. in Mo. 127.), and, sub silentio, by the Legislature in refraining from any enlargement of the terms of the act requiring the payment of 2...
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