Brown v. Lewis

• Decision Date: 17 December 1907
• Citation: 92 P. 1058,50 Or. 358
• Parties: BROWN v. LEWIS.
• Court: Oregon Supreme Court

92 P. 1058

50 Or. 358

BROWN v. LEWIS.

Supreme Court of Oregon

December 17, 1907

Appeal from Circuit Court, Josephine County; H.K. Hanna, Judge.

Replevin by Robert Brown against George W. Lewis. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Affirmed.

This is an action of replevin against defendant, as sheriff, to recover attached personal property held by him upon a writ issued in the case of Knapp v. Althouse Mining Co., 92 P. 1054. Plaintiff claims title to the property through a sale thereof upon execution issued upon the judgment in the case of Brown v. Althouse Mining Co., rendered in the circuit court of the state of Oregon for Josephine county. Upon the trial, plaintiff offered in evidence the judgment entry in that case, which was admitted, and afterwards the defendant offered in evidence the summons in that action and the sheriff's return of service thereon for the purpose of impeaching the said judgment; the return reciting service upon the defendant company by delivering a copy of the summons and complaint to B.F. Walker, president of the company in Multnomah county, Or. At the close of the trial defendant asked the court to instruct the jury to find for the defendant, for the reason that the judgment, through which the plaintiff claims title, is void for want of jurisdiction in the court to render it. The principal question in the case is whether, by this service of summons in Brown v. Althouse Mining Co., the court obtained jurisdiction of defendant company.

W.C. Hale, for appellant.

H.L Norton, for respondent.

EAKIN J. (after stating the facts as above).

As to the collateral impeachment of judgments rendered by domestic courts of general jurisdiction, personal service upon a foreign corporation, and the amendment of the sheriff's return, reference is made to the opinion in Knapp v Althouse Mining Co. et al., 92 P. 1054, decided at this term upon a similar service of summons. The case of Brown v Althouse Mining Co. was a transitory action against a foreign corporation. The complaint alleges a cause of action for personal service rendered by the plaintiff to the defendant between June 23, 1903, and May 15, 1904, as manager and superintendent of the operation of its mines in Josephine county, Or., under an employment by it at an agreed salary. That action was begun May 13, 1904, in Josephine county. As against a collateral attack, this is a sufficient showing that the defendant, the Althouse Mining Company, was doing business in Oregon when the action was commenced, which will give the courts of this state jurisdiction of the defendant company if served in manner provided by law; and in transitory actions against a nonresident the action may be commenced in any county plaintiff may select, and personal service anywhere within the state will give the court jurisdiction. B. & C. Comp. § 44; Fratt v. Wilson, 30 Or. 542, 47 P. 706, 48 P. 356. Section 55, B. & C. Comp., provides that service upon a private corporation shall be made upon it by delivering the summons and complaint to the president or other head of the corporation, secretary, etc.

The following facts are before us: A private corporation doing business within the state; an action upon a contract for service within the state relating to that business; service of summons made upon its president in another county than the one where the action is pending, and judgment rendered thereon. This is notice that reaches defendant corporation and is sufficient to give the court jurisdiction as against a collateral attack. In St. Clair v. Cox, 106 U.S. 350, 359, 1 Sup.Ct. 354, 362, 27 L.Ed. 222, it is said: "When service is made within the state upon an agent of a foreign corporation, it is essential, in order to support the jurisdiction of the court, to render a personal judgment that it should appear somewhere in the record--either in the application for the writ, or accompanying its service, or in the pleadings or the finding of the court--that the corporation was engaged in business in the state. The transaction of business by the corporation in the state, general or special, appearing, a certificate of service by the proper officer on a person who is its agent there would, in our opinion, be sufficient prima facie evidence that the agent represented the company in the business. It would then be open, when the record is offered as evidence in another state, to show that the agent stood in no representative character to the company." When such service is obtained, it is sufficient to give notice to the defendant, and, if it...